Stats show steady support

Re: “Why euthanasia pioneers are changing their minds,” Licia Corbella, Opinion, July 19.

Licia Corbella’s column contains an important perspective from Theo Boer on euthanasia in the Netherlands, but his claims are not supported by published data.

Boer says euthanasia is “on the way to becoming a default mode of dying for cancer patients.” In fact, only 7.6 per cent of Dutch cancer patients ended their lives in 2010, compared with 7.4 per cent in 2001.

In comparison, the use of intensified alleviation of symptoms (palliative care) has grown from 33.4 per cent to 47.7 per cent over the same period. Palliative care has become the default, not euthanasia.

Boer claims that euthanasia is increasing among the elderly and patients with psychiatric illness or dementia. In fact, only 1.4 per cent of deaths among Dutch people over age 80 were the result of assisted death in 2010, which was unchanged from 2001.

And among patients who didn’t have cancer or cardiovascular disease, assisted death was stable over the same time period (1.2 per cent in 2001, versus 1.1 per cent in 2010).

One man has changed his opinion on assisted death, but most have not. In Oregon, 13 per cent of physicians became more supportive of assisted dying legislation after it was passed in that state, compared with only seven per cent who became more opposed.

James Downar, MD, Toronto James Downar is a palliative care physician and an assistant professor, divisions of critical care and palliative

care, at the University of Toronto.