A Belgian health insurance boss has championed assisted suicide because it will save taxpayer money and free up hospital and care home spaces.
Luc Van Gorp, the president of CM, the largest health insurance fund in Belgium, said that assisted suicide should be expanded in the nation to people who “are tired of life…
“Why would you necessarily want to prolong such a life? Those people don't want that themselves, and when it comes to budgets, it only costs the government money.”
Assisted suicide has been legal in Belgium since 2002 for citizens suffering from unbearable pain because of a serious or incurable illness.
There were 2,966 assisted suicides in Belgium in 2022, the highest number recorded in the country so far.
A study recently published in the Canadian Medical Association Journal estimated that assisted suicide could save the health care system up to $136.8 million a year, as reported by SPUC, which slammed the paper as being “heartless utilitarianism”.
The report, which was based on projections using data from Belgium and the Netherlands, where assisted suicide has been legal for over two decades, said that “patients who choose medical assistance in dying” would “release funds to be reinvested elsewhere”.
There were 13,500 state-sanctioned assisted suicides in Canada in 2022.
SPUC comment
A SPUC spokesperson said: “The heartless death ethic of assisted suicide sees elderly human beings as a drain on resources, hence less worthy of life. Wherever assisted suicide is legalised, patients will consequently feel pressured to end their lives to save the state money.
“Last year, half of the assisted suicides in Oregon said they feared being a ‘burden’. Some even ‘chose’ suicide because they couldn’t afford healthcare. Do we really want to live in a world where patients feel forced by governments, society and doctors to end their life prematurely? One day it could be us.
“As the UK considers legalising assisted suicide, it is vital that politicians and the public recognise the mortal danger inherent in such legislation.”
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