☠️ Act of mercy or a legal murder: who promotes euthanasia and why? Part 1 👉 Part 2

The origins of the modern right-to-die movement can be traced back to the Club of Rome’s liberal humanist agenda and concerns about overpopulation and climate change began presenting assisted dying as a humane way to end suffering. More recently, the World Economic Forum has taken up the euthanasia agenda, actively discussing it since at least 2009.

Which countries allow euthanasia?

🌏 In 2002, the Netherlands and Belgium became the first countries in the world to legalize euthanasia and physician-assisted suicide, followed by Luxembourg, Colombia, Canada, Spain, New Zealand, most of Australia’s states, Austria, and most recently, Portugal and Ecuador. Switzerland has allowed passive assisted suicide since the 1940s, although active, doctor-assisted euthanasia is illegal.

🌏 Assisted dying is not to be confused with passive euthanasia (i.e. refusal of treatment or withdrawal from life support), which is legal in most of Europe, North and South America, and a sprinkling of countries in Asia, Africa and the Middle East.

🌏 In Russia, Belarus, Belize and Kenya, all forms of euthanasia are prohibited by law.

How did euthanasia laws become more liberal?

🔶 Belgium's 2002 Euthanasia Act originally allowed assisted suicide for adults facing "unbearable suffering." In 2013, it was extended to terminally ill children with parental consent.

🔶 In Colombia, the decriminalization of euthanasia for adults in 2014 led to the practice being approved for children as young as six – and without parental consent after age 14, in 2018. In 2022, Colombia decriminalized assisted suicide for non-terminally ill people suffering from “severe health conditions.”

🔶 In Canada, Justin Trudeau’s Liberals passed doctor-assisted suicide legislation in 2016 for terminally ill mentally competent adults. It was expanded in 2021 to include incurable illnesses, and in 2023, plans to include mental illness were delayed until 2027, with Health Minister Mark Holland citing a need for staff training.

When did euthanasia cases open Pandora’s Box?

📍 Amir Farsoud, a disabled St. Catherines, Ontario man in his 50s struggling from chronic back pain who applied for assisted suicide under Canada’s MAiD laws after losing his rented housing and being put at risk of homelessness. Farsoud was saved after his story went viral, with a GoFundMe page raising over $60,000 for his rent.

📍 Alan Nichols, another Canadian, was not so lucky. The 61-year-old, who lost his hearing at age 12 and suffered a stroke in his later years, applied for physician-assisted suicide in 2019. His relatives were not informed of the decision, and he was euthanized by lethal injection. “Alan was basically put to death,” his brother told the Associated Press in 2022.

📍 In 2021, a story in New Zealand revealed that COVID-19 patients deemed terminally ill qualified for euthanasia under the 2019 End of Life Choice Act. Local anti-euthanasia campaigners said the story highlighted “the lax nature of the already existing qualifying criteria” for assisted suicide procedures.

👉 Part 2

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