Letter: The safeguards around euthanasia don't work and its scope will expand over time

A letter from Dr Esmond Birnie:

If you want a picture of a dark future if the third reading of yesterday’s euthanasia vote goes through look to the (Canadian) data.

placeholder image — Labour MP Kim Leadbeater with supporters celebrates the result of the first vote on the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill, outside Westminster on Friday. But in Canada euthanasia is now 4% of deaths. Picture: Stefan Rousseau/PA Wire

Canada has had Medical Assistance in Dying (chilling euphemism MAID) for some time. The Canadian experience proves that the ‘safeguards’ don't work in practice and that the scope of euthanasia tends to expand over time.

The most recent available data for Canada indicate that euthanasia now accounts for more than 4% of all deaths in that country, growing at a fearful 30% per annum.

Dr Esmond Birnie, Economist, Belfast