How assisted suicide increases the tragedy of non-medical suicide

Though assisted suicide supporters contend that permitting terminally ill patients to select when and how to end their lives is compassionate, in places where assisted suicide is legalized, suicide rates for the general population also alarmingly increase. 

Key Takeaways:

• Assisted suicide is frequently portrayed as a caring, compassionate thing to allow for the terminally ill.

• Research reveals that legalizing assisted suicide increases the rate of suicide for the general population as well.

• The legalization of assisted suicide sends the message that suicide is an acceptable answer to suffering.

The Details:

Peer-reviewed research has revealed that legalizing assisted suicide does not decrease suicide rates overall. Rather, it facilitates and regularizes hopelessness, and makes ending one’s life via  suicide more conceivable for everyone. 

In 2015, the Southern Medical Journal featured a publication regarding the correlation between assisted suicide (alluded to in the study as “physician-assisted suicide” or PAS) and non-medical suicide.

In this study, economists David Jones and David Paton assessed data across European and American jurisdictions before and after assisted suicide became legal. The results were significant: countries and U.S. states allowing assisted suicide encountered an average rise in total suicides of about 6–13%, even after considering other social and economic factors. In women, that increase was even higher — about 13–14%. 

READ: GET THE FACTS: Euthanasia, assisted suicide, and palliative care are not the same

“States that legalized PAS were characterized by higher rates of non-assisted suicide, lower rates of religious adherence, and a lower proportion of the population that was black or Hispanic,” the 2015 study stated. 

“Taken together, our results provide strong evidence that the legalization of PAS is associated with increases in the rate of suicide, if assisted suicides are included. We find no evidence that PAS is associated with reductions in the nonassisted suicide rate or with increases in the mean age of death for nonassisted suicide,” the study added. 

“Rather, the introduction of PAS seemingly induces more self-inflicted deaths than it inhibits.” 

Zoom In:

A recent Crux interview summarized a similar trend that in jurisdictions that legalize assisted suicide or euthanasia, the number of total suicides increase instead of drop. 

“Statistics show that states with legalized assisted suicide also see a rise in general suicide,”  Joseph Meaney, ex President and Senior Ethicist of the National Catholic Bioethics Center said. “This is entirely predictable as the governmental and medical authorities in that jurisdiction have accepted that certain individuals should be aided in killing themselves." 

True enough, the Crux discussion showcases that the presence of a “respectable” form of suicide, endorsed by doctors and lawmakers in the form of physician-assisted suicide, seems to undermine and weaken society’s commitment to help people respect and protect their own lives. 

Similarly, Oregon serves as a cautionary tale for those still on the fence about assisted suicide and its ramifications. 

Twenty years after the state first legalized assisted suicide in 1997, Oregon’s non-assisted suicide rate increased drastically — about 40% higher than the national average by 2015. Instead of replacing or “medicalizing” suicide, legalization appeared to transmit the deceptive message that  suicide can be a valid solution to suffering.

As mental health researchers have pointed out, suicide has a contagious quality. When society supports self-destruction under certain “compassionate” circumstances, it subtly encourages people to view suicide as acceptable.

When taking one’s life is commonly regarded as an expression of dignity, freedom, and control for someone with illness, it becomes challenging to claim that those in psychological pain, loneliness, or financial distress should not have the same ability to terminate their own lives.

A society that tries to tell some people that “their deaths have meaning” cannot persuasively say to others that theirs do not. 

Furthermore, studies on media and suicide copycats (known as the Werther effect) back this idea: publicized suicides are typically followed by temporary rises in overall suicidality. In light of this disturbing trend, enshrining assisted suicide into law risks establishing structural conditions for the Werther effect to materialize in the long haul.

When governments permit assisted suicide, they implicitly proclaim that some lives are less worth living than others. It is noteworthy that in regions where assisted suicide is normalized, palliative care often takes a backseat as the quality of life-affirming options decline. 

The Bottom Line:

The legalization of assisted suicide normalizes the idea that dignity depends on independence and freedom from suffering. This concept is fundamentally against a true pro-life understanding of the human being. A person’s dignity does not stem from his or her ability to perform actions, but from simply existing.

Rather than exhorting vulnerable people to die, we should help them, by investing in better mental health outreach,  palliative care, suicide prevention programs, and community resources for the ill, elderly, and disabled. After all, safeguarding life, in all its vulnerability, should remain moral imperative despite the sophisms of the assisted dying lobby.