Elder suicide in Switzerland has quadrupled in 25 years.

Alex Schadenberg
Executive Director, Euthanasia Prevention Coalition

Swissinfo reported on July 10, 2025 that the elder suicide rate has quadrupled over the past 25 years. The data is upsetting but it should not surprise people considering that society has been telling the elderly that they are better off dead.

It is important to note that the Swiss suicide rates for people under the age of 65 have gone down over the past 25 years while the suicide rate for people from 65 to 84 has increased significantly and the suicide rate for people over the age of 85 has quadrupled.

Swissinfo reported:

Senior citizens were 42 times more likely to take their own lives in 2023 than people in other age groups, according to Swiss public broadcaster, RTS.

And the numbers are increasing: in the past 25 years, the proportion of over 85-year-olds in Switzerland who decide to take their life has quadrupled. Among 65- to 84-year-olds, this proportion has doubled.

In contrast, the suicide rate among the younger population has fallen by around 30% in the past two decades.

The increased suicide rate, in Switzerland, appears to be related to the acceptance of assisted suicide. Swissinfo reported on the question of whether suicide is linked to assisted suicide:

There is controversy among experts as to whether assisted suicides and unassisted suicides can be linked at all.

According to Pierre Vandel, head physician at Lausanne University Hospital, “it is possible to opt for assisted suicide without having suicidal thoughts”. However, he explains that some of his colleagues make no distinction in this respect.

Euthanasia organisations take a different view. “Conscious suicides are different from others,” says Jean-Jacques Bise, Co-President of Exit in French-speaking Switzerland.

The figures from RTS suggest that the two types of suicide could be linked. In very old people, the statistical curves of the two types of suicide cross at the beginning of the 2010s, an indication that from then on there was a shift from unaccompanied to accompanied suicides.

The article examined the differences between men and women. The article states:

The figures also show that there are stark differences between men and women. Until the early 2010s, women took their own lives much less frequently than men.

Since then, the number of assisted suicides has also risen sharply among women, and women almost exclusively end their lives in this way of their own accord. In contrast, there is still a comparatively high proportion of unassisted suicides among men.

“Men express their feelings less than women,” explains psychiatrist Pierre Vandel. That is why it is more difficult for them to recognise suicidal thoughts and help them in time. This explains the tendency of men to take their own lives more often without support.

In America, a similar phenomenon has occurred. Like Switzerland the highest suicide rate in America is among the elderly. Similar to Switzerland, the suicide rate among the elderly was much lower in the past. There is significant proof that the suicide rate in Oregon is directly connected to the acceptance of assisted suicide.

There have been several studies that have examined the connection between suicide, euthanasia and assisted suicide. Most studies suggest that suicide rates increases when assisted suicide and euthanasia are normalized.

More articles on this topic:

• Suicide deaths increasing in America. Elderly Americans now have the highest suicide rate (Link).
• US suicide rates are now highest among the elderly (Link).
• Suicide contagion (Link).
• Legalizing assisted dying can actually increase suicides (Link). 
• Suicide rates in jurisdictions that have legalized assisted suicide are not decreasing (Link).
  

Legalizing assisted suicide may increase the rate of other suicides

Elder suicide rates continue to rise in the United States.

Alex Schadenberg
Executive Director, Euthanasia Prevention Coalition

Suicide is always a tragedy.

An argument used to legalize assisted suicide is the idea that assisted suicide will prevent some suicide deaths (deaths of despair) but the data indicates that where euthanasia and assisted suicide are legal suicide rates don't decrease or remain steady but in fact increase.

The assisted suicide lobby have published articles justifying the assisted suicide deaths of elderly people and people with disabilities. Does the promotion of assisted suicide lead to a suicide contagion effect among older Americans?

 

According to the National Institute of Mental Health the American suicide rate in 2021 was 14 deaths per 100,000.

It is concerning that in the past few years, the suicide rates have become highest among older Americans. According to the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention, in 2022, Americans over the age of 85 had the highest suicide rate with 23.02 deaths per 100,000 people which was up from 22.39 in 2021 and those aged 75 to 85 had the second highest suicide rate with 20.26 suicide deaths per 100,000 people which was up from 19.56 in 2021.

More importantly, historically, 2019 was the first year that Americans over the age of 85 had the highest suicide rate. I am convinced that the rapid increase in suicide rates among older Americans is related to the promotion of assisted suicide.

States that are debating assisted suicide need to know that in nearly every jurisdiction, states that have legalized euthanasia or assisted suicide have also experienced higher suicide rates.

The suicide rate in Oregon, where assisted suicide has been legal for more than 20 years, in 2021 was 19.5 suicide deaths per 100,000 people as compared to 14.0 suicide deaths per 100,000 nationally. 

It is important to note that in states that have legalized assisted suicide, such as Oregon that the assisted suicide deaths are not included in the suicide data.

Suicide rates have also increased in the Netherlands where euthanasia has been legal since 2002.

Professor Theo Boer, who is a former euthanasia case reviewer in the Netherlands, published an article titled: Be careful what you wish for when you legalize active killing. Boer explains:

the percentage of euthanasia of the total mortality went from 1.6% in 2007 to 4.2% in 2019, the suicide numbers went also up: from 8.3 suicides per 100,000 inhabitants in 2007 to 10.5 in 2019, a 15% rise. If we would include the deaths through assisted suicide in patients considered to be at risk of committing suicide (psychiatric patients, people with chronic illnesses, dementia patients, elderly and lonely people), the total increase in self chosen deaths over the past decade would be closer to 50% than to 15%. Meanwhile in Germany, very similar to the Netherlands in terms of religion, economy and population, the suicide rates went down by 10%.

The difficulty with suicide data is that there are many factors that affect suicide rates. Nonetheless, several studies have indicated that legalizing assisted suicide is associated with a suicide contagion effect.

Considering the fact that elder Americans now have the highest suicide rates. It is likely that the promotion of assisted suicide for elderly people and people with disabilities has affected the suicide rate among those groups.

What is most concerning is the silence concerning the increase in the elder suicide rate. Suicide is always a tragedy.

More articles on this topic:

• Suicide deaths increasing in America. Elderly Americans now have the highest suicide rate (Link).
• US suicide rates are now highest among the elderly (Link).
• Suicide contagion (Link).
• Legalizing assisted dying can actually increase suicides (Link).

EPC - USA Statement to the New York Legislature in opposition to Assisted Suicicde

RE: Euthanasia Prevention Coalition-USA Statement in STRONG OPPOSITION to A995A Assisted Suicide-also known as “Medical Aid in Dying”

Dear ...

Please let A995A die this session. Assisted suicide proponents are trying to sell you a "pig in a poke". It's not about pain or a quick, peaceful death. It spawns more suicides and provides less healthcare. EPC-USA's physicians and disability advocates express strong opposition to assisted suicide.

“Medical aid in dying" is not healthcare and will exacerbate systemic inequities faced by people with disabilities and people from other marginalized communities. Assisted suicide combined with a broken healthcare and home care system is a deadly mix for people who are economically poor, lonely, vulnerable, elderly, disabled, and historically marginalized in the healthcare system.

The Euthanasia Prevention Coalition USA supports public policy that promotes positive measures to improve the quality of life of people living with a terminal illness and their families; we oppose euthanasia and assisted suicide. We are disability advocates, lawyers, doctors, nurses and politicians.

Any safeguards are part of a deliberate bait-and-switch tactic by assisted suicide advocates to get a bill passed and then come back to amend it by gutting those safeguards.

• Amy Pauline recently stated. At an event promoting A995A and S2445A , “We've been criticized by some organizations that actually want an expansion …. but we've held firm because we want to get this passed first.” (starting at 18:40).(1)
• J.M. Sorrell, Executive Director of Massachusetts Death with Dignity, who was quoted on a similar bill saying, “Once you get something passed, you can always work on amendments later.”(2)

Since 2020, there have been seven amendments to such laws across five states: in Oregon in 2020 and 2023; in Vermont 2022, and 2023; in California in 2022; in Washington in 2023; and in Hawaii in 2023 and an amendment has been introduced in New Jersey. All these changes expand access, for example, waive waiting times, allow nurses to prescribe the lethal medication, or drop residency requirements.(3)

It’s Not about Pain 

Dr. Lonny Shavelson, a California assisted suicide provider says promoting “aid in dying” as avoiding pain is a political sales pitch. See webinar(4) minutes 25:24-27:53. He says people choose assisted suicide because they are low energy or afraid of losing control.

It’s Not about a Peaceful or Quick Death 

Dr. Shavelson says the idea that assisted suicide creates a peaceful beautiful death is another myth. See webinar(5) minutes 37:35-41:00. Some people may suffer prolonged and difficult deaths from the experimental lethal drug cocktails.

Insurance Companies Use Assisted Suicide to Deny Curative Life-Saving Treatment 

Assisted suicide exacerbates the systemic problems patients face when seeking care for terminal illnesses. Dr. Brian Callister(6) of Nevada says he was stunned when insurance would not cover life saving treatment for his patients who were transferring to California and Oregon, but offered to pay for Assisted Suicide instead.

Assisted Suicide Spawns More Suicides and Attempted Suicides. 

Assisted suicide advocacy has already exacerbated the suicide crisis among people with disabilities. Disabled people have a higher rate of suicide than the general population and people are more likely to approve of suicide if the victim is disabled.(7) Worse, in 2023, the American Association of Suicidology (AAS) had to retract its 2017 statement that “Medical Aid in Dying” was not suicide, after it was used to justify expanding assisted suicide and euthanasia to disabled Canadians over the objection of the Canadian Association for Suicide Prevention.(8)

Moreover, a 2019 report found teen suicides in California increased by 34%(9)  since that state legalized Assisted Suicide in 2016. Oregon’s youth suicides increased 79.3% from 2000 to 2018.(10) Research about completed suicides in four states that legalized Assisted Suicide (Oregon, Washington, Vermont and Montana) found it was associated with at least a 6.3% increase in the rate of all suicide deaths.(11)

The Marginalized understand this will be used to provide them with poorer care. Even with insurance, people of color get poorer hospital care and pain relief. According to a New York Times article,(12) people of color disproportionately died of COVID-19. (article)Medical prejudices and neglect result in racial disparities in diagnosis and treatment of diabetes, cancer, and heart trouble. COVID-19 has killed Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) at a much higher rate than Whites.(13)

There Are Very Clear Cases of Abuse 

The Disability Rights Education and Defense Fund (DREDF) has cataloged a long list of abuse cases.(14) Moreover, a doctor suggested assisted suicide to her anorexic patients and helped them carry it out. Compassion and Choices has acknowledged this abuse of the law, yet repeatedly asserts that the law has never been abused.(15)(16)

EPC-USA's physicians remind us that Assisted Suicide laws exacerbate systematic inequalities that disabled people experience in the medical sphere. A "Federal study found that the nation's assisted suicide laws are rife with dangers to people with disabilities".(17)

EPC-USA’s physicians remind us that Physicians, clinicians, insurance companies, and healthcare systems are fallible. Misdiagnoses and unreliable terminal prognoses are documented by the cases of: Jeanette Hall,(18) John Norton,(19) and Rahamim Melamed-Cohen.(20) More and more diagnoses qualify for Assisted Suicide. As mentioned, the latest effort to stretch “terminally ill” treats anorexia as a qualifying terminal disease.

In 2021, the NY based United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Rights of People with Disabilities asserted that all assisted suicide laws violate its Convention On The Rights of People with Disabilities.(21)

As the cheapest state-sponsored “treatment,” assisted suicide diminishes patient choice and takes away patient autonomy. Assisted suicide combined with a broken health care and home care system is a deadly mix for people who are economically poor, lonely, vulnerable, elderly, disabled, and historically marginalized in the US healthcare system.

We urge you to allow A995A to die this session because exacerbating systemic social inequalities so that the proponents can plan their deaths is unwise and unjust.

Sincerely,

Colleen E. Barry, Chairperson
Josephine L.A. Glaser, MD.,FAAFP
Meghan Schrader
Kenneth Stevens, MD
William Toffler, MD
Gordon Friesen
Alex Schadenberg

Euthanasia Prevention Coalition USA, EPC_USA@yahoo.com

End Notes

1. Amy Pauline recently stated. At an event promoting A995A and S2445A , “We've been criticized by some organizations that actually want an expansion …. but we've held firm because we want to get this passed first.” (starting at 18:40) (Link).

2. Comerford to reintroduce medical aid-in-dying bill in wake of court decision (Link).

3. Journal of Medical Ethics. Twenty five years (Link).

4. COMPLETED LIFE APRIL 2021 LUNCH HOUR WITH LONNY SHAVELSON (Link).

5. COMPLETED LIFE APRIL 2021 LUNCH HOUR WITH LONNY SHAVELSON (Link).

6. Insurance companies denied treatment to patients, offered to pay for assisted suicide, doctor claims - Washington Times (Link).

7. Is suicide an option?: The impact of disability on suicide acceptability in the context of depression, suicidality, and demographic factors. (Link).

8. Statement on recent MAiD Developments. (Link) (Link).  

9. New health report for California shows 34% increase in teen suicide (Link).

10. National Vital Statistics Report. Suicide Rates Among... (Link).

11. How Does Legalization of Physician-Assisted Suicide Affect Rates of Suicide? (Link).

12. The Never-Ending Mistreatment of Black Patients (Link).

13. One Man's COVID-19 Death Raises The Worst Fears Of Many People With Disabilities (Link).

14. Some Oregon and Washington State Assisted Suicide Abuses and Complications (Link).

15. Terminal Anorexia Is Dangerous Justification for Aid in Dying (Link).

16. (Link).

17. The impact of disability on suicide acceptability (Link).

18. Jeannette Hall on dying well (Link).

19. Affidavit of John Norton (Link).

20. Twelve years after contracting Lou Gehrigs disease, Dr. Rahamim Melamed-Cohen (Link).

21. Disability is not a reason to sanction medically assisted dying – UN experts (Link).

Marianjoy Rehabilitation Hospital position on assisted suicide

The following position statement was published by the Marianjoy community in Wheaton, Illinois. (Link to the position statement).

The Marianjoy community has been committed to advocacy for people with disabilities since its founding. It is from this lens that we are requesting that Northwestern Medicine take an official stance against physician assisted suicide/medical aid in dying before the Illinois state legislature reviews proposed legislation in late September or early October 2023. The reasons for this request are summarized in an attached document prepared by the National Council on Disabilities (NCD) in 2019.

The NCD, founded in 1984, is comprised of presidentially and congressionally appointed Council Members who are the federal voice for the over 61 million Americans with disabilities across the country. NCD has long opposed assisted suicide laws. In 1997, after a thorough review of the forms of discrimination against people with disabilities experienced in American society, the NCD issued a document entitled Assisted Suicide: A Disability Perspective, opposing legalization of assisted suicide, concluding that the evidence indicated that the interests of the few people who would benefit from assisted suicide were “heavily outweighed by the probability that any law, procedures, and standards that can be imposed to regulate physician-assisted suicide will be misapplied to unnecessarily end the lives of people with disabilities”. In 2019 an updated full report was prepared which confirmed the prior study’s conclusions.

On the basis of all of this evidence, Instead of legalizing assisted suicide, the Marianjoy community joins the NCD in calling for a comprehensive, fully-funded, system of assistive living services for people with disabilities.

A copy of the full 2019 report is attached, but in summary, the NCD’s recent research reveals extensive significant and dangerous policy and procedural flaws in existing and proposed laws which have become ever-more apparent over the almost 30 years since Oregon legalized assisted suicide in 1994.

Dr. Lisa Lezzoni, with Harvard Medical School and her colleagues, published a study in Health Affairs in February 2021, which found that over 82% physicians nationwide view people with significant disabilities as having a low quality of life. An October 2022 follow-up study conducted by Dr. Lezzoni and her colleagues, also published in Health Affairs documented conversations with physicians under the cloak of anonymity wherein they revealed their preference not to treat people with disabilities; admitting sending them to cattle processing plants, supermarkets, zoos and grain elevator facilities to get weighed; and telling people with disabilities that their practices are closed and not accepting new patients, when in fact they are open and accepting new patients, but not those with disabilities.

Diane Coleman, president and founder of Not Dead Yet, a grassroots disability organization opposed to legalizing assisted suicide, noted that the public image of severe disability as a fate worse than death . . . become[s] grounds for carving out a deadly exception to longstanding laws and public policies about suicide [prevention] services.

Legalizing assisted suicide means that some people who say they want to die will receive suicide intervention, while others will receive suicide assistance. The difference between these two groups of people will be their health or disability status, leading to a two-tiered system that results in death to the socially devalued group.

In addition, studies show an increased rate of general suicide in states where assisted suicide is legal. In Oregon, government reports show a statistical correlation between assisted suicide under the Oregon law and an increase in other suicides. Before Oregon legalized assisted suicide, its suicide rate was similar to the national average. Yet by 2010, Oregon’s suicide rate was 41 percent above the national average, and 16 in states overall, assisted suicide laws are associated, on average, with a 6 percent increase in a state’s total suicide rate.

The NCD also examined information from 20 years of annual reports from Oregon’s experience with their law and found many disturbing trends. Of note, the top five reasons doctors give for their patients’ assisted suicide requests are not pain or fear of future pain—that alone is noteworthy—but psychological issues that are all-too-familiar to the disability community: “loss of autonomy” (95.5 percent), “less able to engage in activities” (94.6 percent), “loss of dignity” (87.4 percent), “losing control of bodily functions” (56.5 percent), and “burden on others” (51.9 percent).

These “reasons” are not directly gathered from the individuals themselves, but are gathered from proxies (their doctors) after assisted suicides have already occurred, which means there is no way of validating the reports, which could be a source of error. The mere fact that the reporting forms include these particular check boxes as options to express one’s reasons means that they were viewed as acceptable from the beginning of the laws’ implementation, and yet they are all uninformed expressions of common disability-related experiences. By rendering them acceptable explanations for requesting assistance in one’s suicide, these laws are communicating dangerous, discrimination-filled messages to people with disabilities and the public that common disability experiences, like requiring assistance with personal care activities, are understandable and acceptable grounds for ending one’s life. There is a clear double standard in suicide prevention efforts where people with disabilities are not referred for mental health treatment when seeking assisted suicide, while people without disabilities receive such referrals.

Article: Study finds assisted suicide laws ripe with dangers to people with disabilities (Link).

The recent NCD report further points out: Assisted suicide laws contain provisions intended to safeguard patients from problems or abuse. However, research for this report showed that these provisions are ineffective, and often fail to protect patients in a variety of ways, including:

• Insurers have denied expensive, life-sustaining medical treatment but offered to subsidize lethal drugs, potentially leading patients toward hastening their own deaths.
• Misdiagnoses of terminal disease can cause frightened patients to hasten their deaths.
• People with the disability of depression are subject to harm where assisted suicide is legal.
• Demoralization in people with disabilities is often based on internalized oppression, such as being conditioned to regard help as undignified and burdensome, or to regard disability as an inherent impediment to quality of life. Demoralization can also result from the lack of options that people depend on. These problems can lead patients toward hastening their deaths—and doctors who conflate disability with terminal illness or poor quality of life are ready to help them. Moreover, most health professionals lack training and experience in working with people with disabilities, so they don’t know how to recognize and intervene in this type of demoralization.
• Financial and emotional pressures can distort patient choice.
• Assisted suicide laws apply the lowest culpability standard possible to doctors, medical staff, and all other involved parties, that of a good-faith belief that the law is being followed, which creates the potential for abuse.
• There is a substantial lack of data about assisted suicide, due not to lack of research, but to unnecessarily strict privacy and confidentiality provisions in assisted suicide laws.
• Where assisted suicide is legal, states have no means of investigating mistakes and abuse, nor even a complaint mechanism for the public to report suspected problems.
• Assisted suicide laws require no evidence of consent when the lethal drugs are administered.
• Trends show that the minimal amount of data collection that was mandated by earlier state laws is decreasing over time as some newer states adopt less restrictive assisted suicide laws.

Although the slippery slope has been described as a fallacious argument, the history of such laws here in the United States and around the world actually prove that it is true.

Conclusion

Instead of legalizing assisted suicide, the Marianjoy community joins the National Council on Disabilities in calling for a comprehensive, fully-funded, system of assistive living services for people with disabilities, that medical providers inform patients seeking assisted suicide of these supports; and that medical providers receive training in disability competency and disability-risk factors for suicide

Northwestern Medicine Marianjoy Rehabilitation Hospital - Wheaton Illinois.
Ethics Committee

Suicide deaths increasing in America. Elderly Americans have the highest suicide rate.

Alex Schadenberg
Executive Director, Euthanasia Prevention Coalition.

The number of suicide deaths in America has been steadily increasing, with some exceptions over the past few years. It is particularly concerning that since 2019, elder Americans have the highest suicide rate.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention indicates that in 2021 there were 48,183 people who died by suicide representing 14.1 suicide deaths per 100,000. In 2020 there were 45,979 in 2020 representing 13.5 suicide deaths per 100,000 people. The US suicide rate was 10.7 per 100,000 people in 2001.

An argument used to legalize assisted suicide is the idea that assisted suicide will prevent some suicide deaths (deaths of despair) but the data indicates that where euthanasia and assisted suicide are legal suicide rates don't decrease or remain steady but in fact increase.

The assisted suicide lobby have published articles justifying the assisted suicide deaths of elderly people and people with disabilities. Does the promotion of assisted suicide lead to a suicide contagion effect among older Americans?

It is concerning that in the past few years, the suicide rates have become highest among older Americans. In 2021, Americans over the age of 85 had the highest suicide rate with 20.86 deaths per 100,000 people and those aged 75 to 85 had the second highest suicide rate with 18.43 suicide deaths per 100,000 people. I am convinced that the rapid increase in the suicide rates among older Americans is related to the promotion of assisted suicide.

The suicide rate in Oregon, where assisted suicide has been legal for more than 20 years, is higher than the national average at 19.5 suicide deaths per 100,000 people in 2021. 

It is important to note that in states that have legalized assisted suicide, such as Oregon that the assisted suicide deaths are not included in the suicide data.

Suicide rates have also increased in the Netherlands where euthanasia has been legal since 2002.

Professor Theo Boer, who is a former euthanasia case reviewer in the Netherlands published an article titled: Be careful what you wish for when you legalize active killing. Boer explains:

the percentage of euthanasia of the total mortality went from 1.6% in 2007 to 4.2% in 2019, the suicide numbers went also up: from 8.3 suicides per 100,000 inhabitants in 2007 to 10.5 in 2019, a 15% rise. If we would include the deaths through assisted suicide in patients considered to be at risk of committing suicide (psychiatric patients, people with chronic illnesses, dementia patients, elderly and lonely people), the total increase in self chosen deaths over the past decade would be closer to 50% than to 15%. Meanwhile in Germany, very similar to the Netherlands in terms of religion, economy and population, the suicide rates went down by 10%.

The difficulty with suicide data is that there are many factors that affect the suicide rate. Nonetheless, there have been several studies that have indicated that legalizing assisted suicide leads to a suicide contagion effect.

Considering the fact that elder Americans now have the highest suicide rates. It is likely that the promotion of assisted suicide for elderly people and people with disabilities has affected the suicide rate among those demographics.

What is most concerning is the silence concerning the increase in the elder suicide rate. Suicide is always a tragedy.

US Suicide rates are now highest among the elderly.

Alex Schadenberg
Executive Director, Euthanasia Prevention Coalition

Suicide is always a tragedy but a little known fact is that the highest US suicide rate is among the elderly. But this was not always the case.

When examining the suicide data published by the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention (AFSP) the highest suicide rate in America was historically among the 45 to 54 age group, but since 2019 the 85 years and older age group has the highest suicide rate and in 2020 the 75 - 84 age group had the second highest suicide rate.

The US suicide rate was increasing on a yearly basis but it has gone down since 2018. For instance, in 2011 the US suicide rate was 12.32 per 100,000 people. The suicide rate increased every year until 2018 when the rate was 14.23 per 100,000. The US suicide rate in 2020 declined to 13.48 per 100,000 people.

Why is this important?

As much as teen suicide is a national concern, there seems to be silence concerning the fact that the highest suicide rate in the US is among the elderly. Is there a form of reverse discrimination concerning suicide? Are not all suicides a tragedy?

The assisted suicide lobby continually publishes articles justifying the assisted suicide deaths of elderly people and people with disabilities. Does the promotion of assisted suicide lead to a suicide contagion effect among older Americans?

This is not an easy question to answer but there are some clues to the answer.

The suicide rate in Oregon, where assisted suicide has been legal for more than 20 years, is higher than the national average at 18.3 suicide deaths per 100,000 people. The suicide rate among seniors 85 and older in Oregon is significantly higher than other age groups at 42.6 per 100,000 people in 2019.

Similar to Oregon, the Washington state data, where assisted suicide has been legal since 1999, also shows a much higher suicide rate among seniors 85 and older.

It is important to note that the suicide data in Oregon and Washington state do not include assisted suicide deaths.

A recent study by bioethicist David Jones compared the suicide rates of European nations that have legalized euthanasia or assisted suicide to European nations that have not legalized assisted death. The study found that - suicide rates rise after euthanasia or assisted suicide is legalized.

I contend that legalizing assisted suicide leads to a suicide contagion effect. Jones found that in every country that had legalized euthanasia or assisted suicide, that relative to European nations that had not legalized euthanasia or assisted suicide that the suicide rates were higher.

Professor Theo Boer, who is a former euthanasia case reviewer in the Netherlands published an article titled: Be careful what you wish for when you legalize active killing. In that article Boer explains:

the percentage of euthanasia of the total mortality went from 1.6% in 2007 to 4.2% in 2019, the suicide numbers went also up: from 8.3 suicides per 100,000 inhabitants in 2007 to 10.5 in 2019, a 15% rise. If we would include the deaths through assisted suicide in patients considered to be at risk of committing suicide (psychiatric patients, people with chronic illnesses, dementia patients, elderly and lonely people), the total increase in self chosen deaths over the past decade would be closer to 50% than to 15%. Meanwhile in Germany, very similar to the Netherlands in terms of religion, economy and population, the suicide rates went down by 10%.

The difficulty with suicide data is that there are many factors that affect the suicide rate. Nonetheless, there have been several studies that have indicated that legalizing assisted suicide leads to a suicide contagion effect.

What is most concerning is the silence concerning the increase in the elder suicide rate at a time when, nationally, the suicide rate has dropped in the US.

EPC-USA letter to Massachusetts legislators

June 8, 2022

President of the Senate Karen E. Spilka, Karen.Spilka@masenate.gov
Speaker of the House Ronald Mariano, Ronald.Mariano@mahouse.gov

RE: S.1384 and H. 2381 An Act Relative to End of Life Options, creating an exception to involuntary manslaughter for physician assisted suicide

Dear President and Speaker:

The Euthanasia Prevention Coalition USA supports positive measures to improve the quality of life of people and their families; we oppose euthanasia and assisted suicide. We are aging and disability advocates, lawyers, doctors, nurses and politicians.

Please let S.1384 and H.2381 die this session (192nd General Court), while legislators are deeply divided amid heightened concerns about inequities for people of color and those living with disability. Proponents are trying to sell you a pig in a poke. It’s not about polls, pain or a quick, peaceful death. Instead, it spawns more suicides and provides less healthcare.

It’s Not about Polls

Proponents are touting a recent poll that pegs public support at 77%. As seasoned legislators, you know support drops off as people learn more which is exactly what happened with the 2012 ballot measure. Back then, support was pegged at 60%+, but fell off leading to the measure’s failure. Polling support may be wide but it isn’t deep.

It’s Not about Pain

I’m often asked if I want people to die in pain. You probably have been asked that
question, too. The answer is this is not about letting people die in pain. People don’t use these laws to escape pain.

Dr. Lonny Shavelson, a California doctor who helps people die says promoting “aid in dying” as avoiding pain is a political sales pitch. See webinar minutes 25:24-27:53. He says people choose assisted suicide because they are low energy or afraid of losing control.

It’s Not about a Peaceful or Quick Death

Dr. Shavelson says the idea that assisted suicide creates a peaceful beautiful death is another myth. See webinar minutes 37:35-41:00.

Dying this way can be very unpleasant and even painful. People are given “aid in dying” concoctions that burn their throats and extend the dying period. When drugs that had been used in the past became expensive, death doctors experimented on people with other drug cocktails, some of which burned people’s throats causing them to scream in pain and extended the dying process by more than 3 hours and as much as 31 hours. The FDA does not regulate these drugs because they are compounded. Currently severe burning is expected in 10% of cases with drug cocktails now being prescribed by physicians.

Assisted Suicide Spawns More Suicides and Attempted Suicides.

If you enact this law, more people will die by suicide, more will attempt suicide and more will visit Emergency Departments as a result. This is the collateral damage caused by these laws. They send a message that suicide is an acceptable way to solve problems. Publicity about suicide also leads to more suicides; this is called suicide contagion.

Legalization of Assisted Suicide especially impacts youths. A 2019 report found teen suicides in California increased by 34% since that state legalized Assisted Suicide in 2016. Oregon’s youth suicides increased 79.3% from 2000 to 2018. Research about completed suicides in four states that legalized Assisted Suicide (Oregon, Washington, Vermont and Montana) found it was associated with at least a 6.3% increase in the rate of all suicide deaths.

According to the 2020 Massachusetts Public Health Data Brief, 615 people died by suicide in 2020. There were 591 monthly Emergency Department visits for attempted suicide (7,092 per year) and 4,882 visits per month for suicidal ideation (58,584 per year) during 2019 to early 2020.

A 6.3% increase following enactment would result in more deaths and need for medical care.

• Fatal Suicides 39 more people would die by suicide 
• ED visits, Attempted Suicides 447 more ED visits, following suicide attempts 
• ED visits, Suicidal Ideation 3,690 more ED visits for suicidal ideation
  

Insurance Companies Use Assisted Suicide to Deny Curative Life-Saving Treatment

Insurers stop covering certain treatments due to the availability of Assisted Suicide. Dr. Brian Callister of Nevada says he was stunned when insurance would not cover life saving treatment for his patients who were transferring to California and Oregon, but the company offered to pay for Assisted Suicide instead. These were people who could be cured with the denied treatment rather than being rendered terminal. In effect, Assisted Suicide is being used to shunt people off the curative, restorative medicine track, especially if they cannot afford to pay for treatments out
of pocket.

People of color understand this will be used to provide them poorer care. 

Even with insurance, people of color get poorer hospital care and pain relief according to a New York Times article. They are still disproportionately dying of COVID-19. So, it is unsurprising that Black and Latinx people oppose Assisted Suicide by 2-1 margins ‒ “… the voting results from Ballot Question 2 in 2012 show Assisted Suicide pits wealthier, whiter districts against those with poorer people and people of color according to Second Thoughts – Massachusetts.

In closing, I urge you to let this bill die.

Sincerely,
Sara Buscher, Chair
Euthanasia Prevention Coalition USA

Suicide contagion

This article was published by First Things on May 19, 2022.

Wesley Smith examines three studies examining the possible co-relation between legalizing assisted suicide and rising suicide rates.

Wesley J Smith

By Wesley Smith

I have often argued that, as a matter of logic and intuition, the widespread legalization of assisted suicide will increase both the rate of assisted suicides and the rate of unassisted suicides. After all, many people conflate what is “legal” with what is “right.” Once a state gives its imprimatur to assisted suicide as a way of alleviating suffering and providing “medical aid in dying,” as it is euphemistically called, an ever-increasing number of people will resort to that means of ending their lives. And indeed, some recent studies suggest that in places where assisted suicide is legal, both assisted suicides and unassisted suicides increase.

Advocates of assisted suicide disagree, of course. One argument—which the media often parrots—holds that people with suicidal ideation not caused by terminal illness are unlikely to be influenced by legalization of assisted suicide because “medical aid in dying” is a treatment and not “suicide.” This argument has never rung true for me. That is simply not how the human mind works, particularly when we are in extremis. It has always seemed to me that suicidal people are likely to think that society’s approval of suicides for the terminally ill also applies to them, even if the cause of their existential crisis and misery falls outside the current parameters of legalization.

Even though overall suicide rates have risen considerably throughout the West in recent years, few studies have been conducted to determine whether the legalization of assisted suicide has had any effect on this concerning trend. That is slowly beginning to change. In 2015, a study published in the Southern Medical Law Journal applied CDC suicide data from states where assisted suicide was legal (Oregon, Washington, Vermont, and Montana, where legality remains a matter of dispute). The authors reported that “PAS [physician-assisted suicide] is associated with an 8.9% increase in total suicide rates” (including assisted suicides), and when “state-specific time trends” are included, “the estimated increase is 6.3%.” The authors concluded: “The introduction of PAS seemingly induces more self-inflicted deaths than it inhibits.”

This report, as is usual in professional discourse, was praised and criticized in a responsive paper published in 2017 in Journal of Ethics in Mental Health (JEMH). While the critics recognized some strengths in the earlier study, they noted that suicide rates in Washington and Montana had been increasing before legalization, that the work exhibited “methodological weaknesses” (such as not taking trends in nations such as the Netherlands and Belgium into account), and that “association does not prove causation.” Still, even these critics did not contend that legalizing assisted suicide had no effect on overall suicide rates. Rather, they argued that much more research needed to be conducted “before definitive claims about the effects of legalization of medical assistance in dying on non-assisted suicide can be made.”

Earlier this year, the original authors responded to this criticism in the JEMH. This time, they compared suicide rates in European countries that had legalized euthanasia with demographically similar countries that had not. Again, the authors found a “concerning pattern” where EAS (euthanasia/assisted suicide) is legal. They found, much to my expectation, that in the four jurisdictions they studied in which euthanasia and assisted suicide (EAS) are legal, “there have been very steep rises in suicide.” Moreover, “In none of the four jurisdictions did non-assisted suicide rates decrease after introduction of EAS.” In the Netherlands—which has recorded the highest number of deaths by EAS, “the rates of non-assisted suicide” increased since legalization. Even in Belgium, where “non-assisted suicide decreased in absolute terms, they increased relative to its most similar non EAS neighbor: France.”

A third study was just released also showing an increase in suicide rates associated with assisted suicide legalization, with a particularly adverse effect on women. Two professors, writing for the Centre for Economics Policy Research (CEPR), tested the hypothesis that legalizing assisted suicide would actually reduce suicide rates, and countered with their own hypothesis that doing so would “not only reduce practical barriers to committing suicide but may also lower societal taboos against suicide,” leading to “an increase of suicide rates overall.”

After reviewing data taken from U.S. states that legalized assisted suicide as of 2019, and referencing the studies described above, the authors concluded:

There is very strong evidence that the legalisation of assisted suicide is associated with a significant increase in total suicides. Further, the increase is observed most strongly for the over-64s and for women. To give an idea of the size of the effect, the event study estimates suggest assisted suicide laws increase total suicide rates by about 18% overall. For women, the estimated increase is 40%.

And what about the unassisted suicides in that increase in total suicides?

There is weaker evidence that assisted suicide is also associated with an increase in unassisted suicides. The effect is smaller (about a 6% increase overall, 13% increase for women). It is still statistically significant in the main estimates but not in all of the robustness checks, meaning we have less confidence in that result. However, we find no evidence that assisted suicide laws are associated with a reduction in either total or unassisted suicide rates.

What are we to make of all of this? There is evidence that suggests suicide begets suicide, and that legal assisted suicide has an effect on suicide rates overall. Obviously, we need to undertake more empirical studies and pointed analyses, but if we care as a society about preventing suicides generally—regardless of our beliefs about assisted suicide for the seriously ill—surely the question of assisted suicide contagion should become a pressing concern in fashioning public policy. Before any more states legalize doctor-assisted death, policymakers and the public should focus much more closely on this little-considered aspect of the debate. Human lives literally are at stake.

Wesley J. Smith is host of the podcast Humanize and chairman of the Discovery Institute’s Center on Human Exceptionalism.

More articles on this topic:

• Suicide rates in jurisdictions that have legalized assisted death are not decreasing (Link).
• Be careful what you wish for when you legalize active killing (Link).
• Legalizing assisted dying can actually increase suicides (Link).

EPC-USA responds to Massachusetts assisted suicide bill - The cost of suicide/assisted suicide.

May 29, 2022

Senator Cindy Friedman, Co-Chair
Representative John J. Lawn, Jr., Co-Chair
Joint Committee on Health Care Financing
24 Beacon Street, Room 313
Boston, MA 02133

RE: S.1384 An Act Relative to End of Life Options, creating an exception to involuntary manslaughter for physician assisted suicide

Dear Chairpersons Friedman and Lawn:

The Euthanasia Prevention Coalition USA opposes euthanasia and assisted suicide, supporting positive measures instead to improve the quality of life of people and their families. We are aging and disability advocates, lawyers, doctors, nurses and politicians.

We are asking you to let S.1384 (also H.2381) die in your committee. Enactment will likely increase your Medicaid budget by an estimated $14 million, with another $12.2 million for the uninsured (using publicly available data) as this letter explains.

Assisted Suicide Laws lead to More Suicides

Overall, Massachusetts has avoided the upward trend in suicide seen in other states, but that could change if S.1384 is enacted due to publicity, increased knowledge of methods, and normalization. Publicity or knowledge about suicide leads to more suicides, attempts and ideation. In 2017 when Netflix released 13 Reasons Why, the story of a 17 year old girl’s suicide and its aftermath, teen female suicides went up by 21.7% (95% CI, 7.3%-36.2). For every person who dies by suicide, another 30 attempt suicide. Legalizing Assisted Suicide sends a message that it is a normal way to solve problems which leads to more suicides, attempts and ideation.

Research about fatal suicides in Oregon, Washington, Vermont and Montana, the first four states to do so, found legalizing Assisted Suicide was associated with at least a 6.3% increase in the annual suicide rate. The study reported:

PAS [Physician Assisted Suicide] is associated with an 8.9% increase in total suicide rates (including assisted suicides), an effect that is strongly statistically significant (95% confidence interval [CI] 6.6%--11.2%). Once we control for a range of demographic and socioeconomic factors, PAS is estimated to increase rates by 11.79% (95% CI 9.3%--14.1%). When we include state-specific time trends, the estimated increase is 6.3% (95% CI 2.7%--9.9%).

Massachusetts Experience

According to the latest Massachusetts Public Health Data Brief, 615 people died by suicide in 2020, down from 642 in 2019. There were 591 monthly Emergency Department visits for attempted suicide (7,092 per year) and 4,882 visits per month for suicidal ideation (58,584 per year) during 2019 to early 2020.

As detailed below, a 6.3% increase would result in the following annual medical costs.

Fatal Suicides                 $3.47 million
Attempted Suicides     $29.84 million
Suicidal Ideation          $15.94 million
Total Added Costs        $49.25 million

The Medicaid share of these costs would be 28.4% or $14 million. When it comes to medical costs for suicide, 28.4% are paid by Medicaid and 24.8% are incurred by the uninsured. The uninsured costs of $12.2 would mostly be absorbed by hospitals.

Medical Cost Calculations

Total 2019 medical costs for fatal and attempted suicides in Massachusetts are estimated to be $33.3 million ($3.47 million for fatal suicides and $29.84 million for attempted suicides). Medical costs for fatal suicides are collected and reported by the CDC WISQARS Cost of Injury system. During 2019, WISQARS shows fatal Massachusetts suicides had medical costs of $3.47 million. The medical costs for attempted suicides ran about 8.6 times that for fatal suicides in the latest national study of 2013 data. So, the estimated cost of attempted suicides for Massachusetts would run about 8.6 times the $3.47 million estimated above for fatal suicides or $ 29.84 million.

The medical costs for suicidal ideation are also significant. According to a study of 2013 data by the federal Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, 72% of those visiting an Emergency Department for suicidal ideation are hospitalized or institutionalized. On average, the length of stay was 5.6 days for a cost of $6,000. Recall, Massachusetts had 58,584 suicidal ideation visits in 2019. A 6.3% increase would be 3,690 visits with 72% incurring inpatient costs or 2,657 at $6,000 each for $15.94 million per year. (Note this ignores the Emergency Department costs for the other 28% of ideation visits.)

Cost Shifting to Medicaid due to Availability of Assisted Suicide

An additional cost to Medicaid could come from people whose insurance stops covering treatments due to the availability of Assisted Suicide. Dr. Brian Callister of Nevada says he was stunned when insurance would not cover life saving treatment for his patients who were transferring to states where Assisted Suicide is legal. Some of those people could turn to Medicaid to get their treatments paid for.

In closing, I urge you to consider the financial impact on your state’s budget and hospitals; and then, let this bill die in your committee.

Sincerely,

Sara Buscher, Chair
Euthanasia Prevention Coalition USA

EPC - USA Testimony opposing Connecticut Assisted Suicide Bill.

February 21, 2022

Mary Daugherty Abrams and Jonathan Steinberg, Co-Chairs and Members Connecticut Public Health Committee

Link to the letter (Link).

RE: Testimony Opposing S.B. 88, An Act Concerning Aid in Dying for Terminally Ill Patients

Dear Co-Chairs and Members:

The Euthanasia Prevention Coalition USA opposes euthanasia and assisted suicide, instead supporting positive measures to improve peoples’ quality of life which also helps their families. We are aging and disability advocates, lawyers, doctors, nurses and politicians.

We are asking you to let SB 88 die in your committee. You will hear several of the more obvious concerns about Assisted Suicide from other opponents. I will focus on these issues about Assisted Suicide that you may not otherwise hear.

• The Bill allows Assisted Suicide with elastic and meaningless “safeguards.”
• Assisted Suicide is not about pain or receiving a peaceful death; both are myths.
• Assisted Suicide spawns more suicides and attempted suicides.
• Insurance companies use Assisted Suicide to deny coverage for curative life-saving treatments, offering to pay for Assisted Suicide instead. This raises equity concerns.

The Bill allows Assisted Suicide with elastic and meaningless “safeguards.”

Connecticut criminalizes aiding a person to commit suicide, which is classified as 2nd degree manslaughter. CGS § 53a-56. S.B.88 at Sec. 12(d) removes criminal prosecution under CGS § 53a-56 for anyone self administering a lethal prescription under the “aid in dying” law. Thus, it is clear the bill is allowing assisting a person to commit suicide whatever pretty euphemism is created by marketing consultants to make it sound better.

Dr. Diane E. Meier, best known as the founder of Mt. Sinai’s Center to Advance Palliative Care, and a one-time proponent of Assisted Suicide years ago, recently said safeguards go up in smoke once the law allows it:

All the heartfelt adherence to restrictions that are announced when you first get the public [or Legislature] to vote in favor of this go up in smoke once the practice is validated. …It’s a dangerous path to go down with the claim that it is all about respect for autonomy, when the real drivers are getting rid of a painful and expensive burden on society.

S.B. 88 allows the prescription of a lethal dose to people who are terminally ill, with a 6 month prognosis, and who can self-administer by ingesting. No safeguards or witnesses are required at the time of ingestion regardless of the person’s mental state or ability to self-administer. I will briefly touch on this.

People qualify as terminally ill despite being able to live for years with treatment. Some of the diagnoses that qualify are infectious disease, gastrointestinal disease, diabetes, arthritis, sclerosis, stenosis, and musculoskeletal system disorders. The latest effort to stretch “terminally ill” treats anorexia as a qualifying terminal disease.

Here’s how one doctor describes self-administration in his practice:

He would load the medication into a plastic syringe and then hand the plunger to the patient, who would press down on it to “self-administer” and “ingest” the drugs. Sometimes, if a patient was weak, Shavelson would hold the plunger himself and place the patient’s hand on top of his. “If I feel you pushing on my hand,” he would say, “we will push together.”

It’s Not about Pain or a Peaceful Death; Both are Myths

Dr. Lonny Shavelson’s practice is limited to providing only Assisted Suicide. He now consults and educates other physicians who are willing to kill. He says:

promoting “aid in dying” as avoiding pain is a political sales pitch. See webinar minutes 25:24-27:53.

In his experience, people choose Assisted Suicide because they are low energy or afraid of losing control. He says Oregon’s data is consistent with his experience. The Oregon data show most people choose Assisted Suicide because of a decreasing ability to participate in enjoyable activities (94%), loss of autonomy (93%) and loss of dignity (72%), not fear of pain and suffering.

Dr. Shavelson says another myth is that Assisted Suicide creates a peaceful beautiful death. Actually, it does not change what happens during dying. It simply makes it faster. People gasp for air, change colors, sweat, twitch, have seizures and sometimes vomit. See webinar minutes 37:35-41:00.

For many years, fatal quantities of barbiturates were prescribed to carry out Assisted Suicide. These drugs cause the lungs to fill with fluids like drowning. When these drugs became expensive, Assisted Suicide doctors experimented on people with other drug cocktails, some of which burned people’s throats causing them to scream in pain and extended the dying process by more than 3 hours and as much as 31 hours.

Assisted Suicide Spawns More Suicides and Attempted Suicides.

If you enact S.B. 88, more people will die by suicide and more will attempt suicide. This is the collateral damage caused by suicide contagion when Assisted Suicide is legalized. If you do so, you send a message that suicide is an acceptable solution to problems. Publicity about suicide leads to more suicides; this is called suicide contagion. Legalizing Assisted Suicide is linked to suicide contagion.

Legalization of Assisted Suicide especially impacts youths. A 2019 report found teen suicides in California increased by 34% since that state legalized Assisted Suicide in 2016. Oregon’s youth suicides increased 79.3% from 2000 to 2018. Research about completed suicides in four states that legalized Assisted Suicide (Oregon, Washington, Vermont and Montana) found it was associated with at least a 6.3% increase in the rate of all suicide deaths. For every person who dies by suicide, another 30 attempt suicide.

So let’s apply this to Connecticut which now has a low suicide rate compared to other states. In 2020, 359 people died by suicide in Connecticut. A 6.3% increase will add 22 suicides if S.B. 88 is enacted. For each one of these 22 suicides, another 30 or 660 people will attempt suicide; some of them will become permanently disabled.

Insurance Companies Use Assisted Suicide to Deny Curative Life-Saving Treatment

Insurers stop covering certain treatments due to the availability of Assisted Suicide. Dr. Brian Callister of Nevada says he was stunned when insurance would not cover life saving treatment for his patients who were transferring to California and Oregon, but offered to pay for Assisted Suicide instead. These were people who could be cured with the denied treatment rather than being rendered terminal. In effect, Assisted Suicide is being used to shunt people off the curative, restorative medicine track, especially if they cannot afford to pay for treatments out of pocket, just like Dr. Diane Meier said.

There also equity concerns. People of color get this. Even with insurance, people of color get poorer hospital care and pain relief according to a New York Times article. They are disproportionately dying of COVID-19. So, it is unsurprising that Black and Latin0 people oppose Assisted Suicide by 2-1 margins‒ “… the voting results from [Massachusetts] Ballot Question 2 in 2012 show Assisted Suicide pits wealthier, whiter districts against those with poorer people and people of color according to Second Thoughts – Massachusetts. The same is likely true in Connecticut.

In closing, I urge you to consider the heartache for families whose members are impacted by suicide contagion and the loss of insurance coverage for curable treatments that would follow enactment of S.B. 88 which also contributes to inequity for people of color. If you weigh that against the so-called benefits of Assisted Suicide which are myths, you will let S.B. 88 die in your committee.

Sincerely,

Sara Buscher, Chair
Euthanasia Prevention Coalition USA

EPC - USA letter opposing Massachusetts assisted suicide bills.

Joanne M. Comerford, Chair and Members Joint Committee on Public Health

RE: H2381/S1384, O'Day and Mahoney/Comerford, an Act relative to end of life options; legalizing Assisted Suicide

Dear Chairperson and Members:

The Euthanasia Prevention Coalition USA opposes euthanasia and assisted suicide, instead supporting positive measures to improve peoples’ quality of life which also helps their families. We are aging and disability advocates, lawyers, doctors, nurses and politicians.

We are asking you to let H2381/S1384 die in your committee. You will hear several of the more obvious concerns about Assisted Suicide from other opponents. I will focus on these issues about Assisted Suicide that you may not otherwise hear.

• Assisted Suicide is not about pain or a peaceful death; both are myths.
• Assisted Suicide caters to the privileged.
• Insurance companies use Assisted Suicide to deny coverage for curative life-saving treatments, offering to pay for Assisted Suicide instead.
• People of color opposed Assisted Suicide by 2-1 margins on your 2012 ballot measure.
  

It’s Not about Pain or a Peaceful Death; Both are Myths.

Dr. Lonny Shavelson who exclusively practices in providing California’s Medical Aid in Dying (a name used for Assisted Suicide) says promoting it as avoiding pain is a political sales pitch. See webinar minutes 25:24 - 27:53. In his experience, people choose Assisted Suicide because they are low energy or afraid of losing control. He says Oregon’s data is consistent with his experience. The Oregon data show most people choose Assisted Suicide because of a decreasing ability to participate in enjoyable activities (94%), loss of autonomy (93%) and loss of dignity (72%), not fear of pain and suffering.

Dr. Shavelson says another myth is that Assisted Suicide creates a peaceful beautiful death. Actually, it does not change what happens during dying. It simply makes it faster. People gasp for air, change colors, sweat, twitch, have seizures and sometimes vomit which is why he puts them into a coma first. See webinar minutes 37:35 - 41:00. Most people who die under these laws do not have a medical person present, (two-thirds in Oregon). Either way, the family will experience this.

For many years, fatal quantities of barbiturates were prescribed to carry out Assisted Suicide. These drugs cause the lungs to fill with fluids like drowning. When these drugs became expensive, Assisted Suicide doctors experimented on people with other drug cocktails, some of which burned people’s throats causing them to scream in pain and extended the dying process by more than 3 hours and as much as 31 hours.

Assisted Suicide Caters to the Privileged

Assisted Suicide laws like the End of Life Options Act are used primarily by privileged white people. Oregon’s last report says 96.5% of those using the Oregon law in the past twenty-three years were white. Massachusetts is already in the top ten states with increasing youth suicides, positioning your state for more if you enact the End of Life Options Act. Your Office of the Child Advocate found concerning suicide trends among younger Black children, LGBTQ, Native American and Hispanic youth in Massachusetts.

More youth will commit or attempt suicide, especially youth of color, if you pass the End of Life Options Act. In so doing, you send the message that suicide is an acceptable solution to problems. Publicity about suicide leads to more suicides; this is called suicide contagion. Legalizing Assisted Suicide is linked to suicide contagion. Suicide contagion especially impacts youth of color. All of this is more fully explained below.

Publicity about the details of how to commit suicide or that normalizes suicide makes suicide contagious. In 2017 when Netflix released 13 Reasons Why, the story of a 17 year old girl’s suicide and its aftermath, teen female suicides went up by 21.7% (95% CI, 7.3%-36.2). For every person who dies by suicide, another 30 attempt suicide. This particularly impacts teens and adolescents. Because youth are far more likely to attempt than commit suicide, the medical costs for this group can be significant, especially for those who become disabled. Those less financially well off are impacted: 28.4% of medical costs for suicide and attempts are paid by Medicaid; another 24.8% are incurred by the uninsured.

Legalization of Assisted Suicide contributes to suicide contagion, again especially impacting youths. A 2019 report found teen suicides in California increased by 34% since that state legalized Assisted Suicide in 2016. Oregon’s youth suicides increased 79.3% from 2000 to 2018. Research about completed suicides in four states that legalized Assisted Suicide (Oregon, Washington, Vermont and Montana) found it was associated with at least a 6.3% increase in the rate of all suicide deaths. The study reported:

“PAS [Physician Assisted Suicide] is associated with an 8.9% increase in total suicide rates (including assisted suicides), an effect that is strongly statistically significant (95% confidence interval [CI] 6.6%-1.2%). Once we control for a range of demographic and socioeconomic factors, PAS is estimated to increase rates by 11.79% (95% CI 9.3%-14.1%). When we include state-specific time trends, the estimated increase is 6.3% (95% CI 2.7%-9.9%).”

Black and Hispanic youth are particularly impacted. The Congressional Black Caucus calls suicides by Black youth a crisis. Nationally, Black youth under age 13 are twice as likely to die by suicide than their white peers. From 1991-2017, attempted suicides by Black adolescents (boys and girls) rose 73%, while injuries from those attempts rose 122% for the boys. From 2000 to 2015, the suicide rate among Hispanic females rose by 50% overall while increasing nearly 100% among young Hispanic women. Adolescent Hispanic girls attempt suicide at much higher rates than Black or non-Hispanic white girls.

Insurance Companies Use Assisted Suicide to Deny Curative Life-Saving Treatment Insurers stop covering certain treatments due to the availability of Assisted Suicide. Dr. Brian Callister of Nevada says he was stunned when insurance would not cover life saving treatment for his patients who were transferring to California and Oregon, but offered to pay for Assisted Suicide instead. These were people who could be cured with the denied treatment rather than being rendered terminal. In effect, Assisted Suicide is being used to shunt people off the curative, restorative medicine track, especially if they cannot afford to pay for treatments out of pocket.

People of color get this. Even with insurance, people of color get poorer hospital care and pain relief according to a New York Times article. They are disproportionately dying of COVID-19. So, it is unsurprising that Black and Latinx people oppose Assisted Suicide by 2-1 margins‒ “… the voting results from [Massachusetts] Ballot Question 2 in 2012 show Assisted Suicide pits wealthier, whiter districts against those with poorer people and people of color according to Second Thoughts – Massachusetts. 

In closing, I urge you to consider the heartache for families who lose their youth to suicide and the loss of insurance coverage for curable treatments that would follow enactment of these bills, both of which contribute to inequity for people of color. If you weigh that against the so-called benefits of Assisted Suicide which Dr. Shavelson says are myths, you will let the End of Life Options Act die in your committee. 

Sincerely,

Sara Buscher, Chair
Euthanasia Prevention Coalition USA
EPC_USA@yahoo.com