Euthanasia and assisted suicide rapidly increasing in Switzerland and Colombia

Assisted suicide and euthanasia are spreading rapidly around the world, and where these have already been legalized, regulations are being relaxed. This has predictably led to vast increases in the number of people who are dying under the label of “medically-assisted dying.”

Switzerland

Exit Deutsche Schweiz is an assisted suicide society which recently issued a press release boasting about an increase in the number of people who have died in the last year. “In 2022, 1125 members decided to die self-determined and accompanied by EXIT Deutsche Schweiz,” the press release said. “This means that 15 percent more members used the support of a suicide companion than in 2021 (973) and 23 percent more than in 2020 (913).”

Additionally, there was an increase in the number of consultations for assisted suicide than in years past, as well as an increase in the number of members.

Switzerland has some of the world’s most permissive assisted suicide laws, where people can be euthanized despite being perfectly healthy.

Colombia

The status of assisted suicide in Colombia is much less clear than in other countries. It is largely unregulated, and the Colombian Supreme Court declared euthanasia constitutional in 1997. In 2022, the court officially approved euthanasia, whereas it previously had just been decriminalized.

DescLab, a Colombian assisted suicide advocacy group, reported on statistics over the past seven years. In 2015, there were only four deaths from euthanasia. By 2021, there were 95; by October of 2022, there were 99. DescLab noted that the number of people interested in dying has grown rapidly, with an average of 31 requests per month.

“In other words, the practice of euthanasia has multiplied by 24 in 8 years, a not insignificant figure that shows that as time goes by, the issue is positioned in the media and in public opinion and people have family conversations on the subject, more people are interested in making autonomous decisions about the end of their lives,” they wrote, adding, “Debate about a medically assisted death law continues despite the fact that – from 1998 to 2022 – 16 different legislative initiatives have been tabled in the Congress of the Republic and none of them has succeeded. To date, regulatory gaps continue to be filled by other public actors and the need for legislative efforts is less and less relevant in view of the effective enjoyment of the right to a dignified death of people in Colombia.”

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