LTP News Sharing:
Part 9 in the 11-Part Series “Is Any Life Unworthy of Living?“
Mark P. Mostert, Ph.D.
As noted in Part 8, sentiment in the U.S. supporting assisted suicide and euthanasia grew exponentially after 2000. After the states of Oregon (1994) and Washington (2008) legalized assisted suicide, others quickly followed: Vermont (2013), California and Colorado (2016), Washington, D.C. (2017), Hawaii (2018), New Jersey (2019), Maine (2020), New Mexico (2021), Delaware (2025), Illinois (2026) and New York (2026).
For the foreseeable future, things are likely to get worse as the pro-death agenda marches on. There are active plans to introduce assisted suicide legislation in several other U.S. states, including Missouri, Wisconsin, Georgia, Massachusetts and Pennsylvania.
Euthanasia is still illegal in the U.S., but as we shall see, moral and ethical lines are often vague, and the potential for abuse is significant.
Pro-death ideology is also alive and well worldwide. Countries allowing both assisted suicide and euthanasia include Belgium, Luxembourg, Spain, Portugal and Canada. Other countries such as Switzerland, Germany, Austria and Australia have legalized assisted suicide only.
In most countries where assisted suicide and euthanasia are both legal, the narrative is the same: Activists strategize to influence public opinion for the societal acceptance of assisted suicide and euthanasia. Those advocating for medical killing emphasize that end-of-life suffering should not be tolerated because people are in severe pain, have a poor quality of life and have an inherent autonomous right to choose assisted suicide or euthanasia. Pro-death activists then bring pressure to bear on both the legal system and the wider society to address the issue. Often, a terminally ill patient publicly campaigns for their own death by assisted suicide or euthanasia, becoming a poster child for the cause. In doing so, this controversial issue becomes more widely known and public tolerance of the pro-death position often increases. Further, is some instances, a medical professional may engage in assisted suicide or euthanasia and literally challenge the legal system to punish them, as was the case with Dr. Jack Kevorkian in the U.S. and Dr. Truus Bosma in the Netherlands. This creates a highly visible showcase in which pro-death activists sway public opinion even further. Eventually, the legal system begins to respond, at first incrementally, and then, in many places, assisted suicide and/or euthanasia become legalized with the promise that they will only be dispensed according to a very strict set of rules and conditions.
It gets worse. Where these procedures are legal, medical personnel are trained to offer assisted suicide and euthanasia rather than other life-affirming and comfort care. Killing has become a legitimate “medical treatment.” Often, under an “ethical” approach to medical treatment, the traditional “do no harm” commitment is replaced: Killing by assisted suicide and euthanasia becomes desirable, practical and seemingly ethically sound.
Remember that the pro-death crowd seeks almost unlimited medical killing, not just a very few patients with highly unusual medical situations. Killing becomes the answer to many medical conditions. The more, the better. The ghoulish secret is to start small, make killing legitimate and then go big.
The slippery slope is real, and as we will see in Part 10 of this series, the world is well on its way to completely accepting medical killing as a desirable, necessary and useful medical treatment.
Legalization under “very strict rules” is the thin end of a deadly wedge. The idea is simple: Start small with very strict rules and policies, then go big by expanding the rules that in the end do not resemble the original intent of the original law.
Unsurprisingly, legalized assisted suicide and euthanasia create two classes of citizens: Those who should live, and those who should die.
If you are healthy and strong, you can live.
If you have medical issues and disabilities, an increasing number of medical professionals will encourage you to die.
Mark P. Mostert, Ph.D., is senior researcher for Able Americans, a project of the National Center for Public Policy Research. This is part 9 of the 11-part series “Is Any Life Unworthy of Living?” Those wanting to be notified of future installments in the series should subscribe to the Able Americans email list.
Author: The National Center
