Euthanasia is an extremely slippery slope. We all know it, but the fact that it is being widely used on the victims of eating disorders highlights this grim fact yet again.
Cases of euthanasia and assisted suicide for eating disorders such as anorexia nervosa have been documented in multiple countries, a new study has revealed.
Researchers found that between 2012 and 2024, at least 60 patients with eating disorders received medical help to kill themselves in Belgium, the Netherlands, and the United States.
In the British Isles different proposals for introducing assisted suicide laws have been put forward at Westminster, Holyrood, and the Dáil Éireann, as well as in Jersey and on the Isle of Man.
According to the study, in the US patients with eating disorders were prescribed lethal drugs based on the controversial “pseudo-diagnostic” label of “‘terminal anorexia’”.
Compassionate care involves consistent, effective treatment — not facilitating suicide.
In Belgium and the Netherlands, patients with eating disorders were considered eligible for euthanasia or assisted suicide on the grounds that their condition was deemed by medics to be ‘hopeless’ or ‘untreatable’.
Of the nineteen case notes available for analysis, all were women, one third were under 30, and 89 per cent exhibited depressive symptoms.
Authors Chelsea Roff and Dr Catherine Cook-Cottone said: “The idea that patients with eating disorders are untreatable, treatment-resistant, or unable to recover has no place in medicine."
Amen to that!