New statistics on the use of physician-assisted suicide in the Netherlands show that hundreds of patients were given lethal drugs without a request from the patients. The figures for 2015—the most recent statistics available—show 431 cases in which the patient’s life was ended without an explicit request.
The figures also show that 1,693 cases of assisted suicide—more than 20% of the total for 2015—were not formally reported.
The figures provide strong support for arguments that the law governing assisted-suicide in the Netherlands is not rigorously enforced.
