Denmark committee recommends the legalization of euthanasia.

Alex Schadenberg
Executive Director, 

Euthanasia Prevention Coalition

Even though Denmark's Ethics council, overwhelming rejected the legalization of euthanasia in October 2023, the majority of a Danish committee recently recommended the legalization of euthanasia.

The Local Denmark reported on October 4, 2023 that Denmark's Ethics Council advised the Denmark parliament not to legalise euthanasia. The Local reported that:

An overwhelming majority of the Danish Council on Ethics have advised the country's parliament against voting to legalise euthanasia.

Fully sixteen out seventeen members of the committee concluded in a report that it was "in principle impossible to establish proper regulation of euthanasia", and as a result recommended that the law in Denmark should not be changed to allow people suffering mental or physical distress to receive help to end their own lives.

The ethics council wrote in the full report that:

"The very existence of an offer of euthanasia will decisively change our ideas about old age, the coming of death, quality of life and what it means to take others into account,"

"If euthanasia becomes an option, there is too great a risk that it will become an expectation aimed at special groups in society."

A few days ago, the majority in the "Committee for a more dignified death", submitted its recommendations for what euthanasia could look like in Denmark.

An article by Anders Heissel that was published by DR news reported that:

Seven out of the committee's eight members propose as the first model that "self-selected and self-executed end of life for terminally ill persons" should be introduced.

This means that any person who has a maximum of six months left to live has the right to receive medication prescribed by a doctor with the aim of ending their life themselves.

As the second model, five of the members propose that it should be possible to receive help to end their life from a healthcare professional such as a doctor or a nurse. - This is to respect people's right to self-determination.

Heissel further reported that:

The 'Committee for a more dignified death' was established in September 2023 with 10 members, but two members later left because, according to them, the committee had an "invariable" focus on establishing models for the possible introduction of assisted suicide in Denmark. 

Shortly after the committee was established, a clear recommendation came from the Ethics Council not to introduce active euthanasia, and this was the fourth time in 27 years that four different compositions of the Ethics Council have clearly distanced themselves from introducing active euthanasia. 

Denmark's Prime Minister, Mette Frederiksen, is pushing for the legalization of euthanasia.

Based on the world-wide experience with euthanasia, the Danish Ethics Council was correct in October 2023 that it was impossible to properly regulate euthanasia.

Euthanasia is an act that intentionally causes the death of a person upon request. No one should have the right in law to kill another person.