Professor Theo Boer:

It is funny the Senator asked that because I have just returned from a congress with 250 psychiatrists on precisely this subject. We have conducted two studies on the relationship between the number of violent suicides and euthanasia numbers. One study compared the Netherlands since we have allowed euthanasia for the category of patients who are in danger of committing suicide for reasons of psychiatry, dementia and long-term chronic illnesses with other countries which do not have euthanasia. Since we allowed euthanasia for this specific group, the number of violent suicides has actually risen against expectations by about 35% whereas in neighbouring Germany, which does not yet have euthanasia, the number of suicides in the same period went down by 10%. That is to say, there is no reason to assume that allowing euthanasia will bring down the numbers of suicides.

The other article we have just submitted compared the high-incidence regions of euthanasia within the Netherlands with the high-incidence regions of suicide. We saw a co-variation which means that in places where there is more euthanasia, there is also a slightly higher suicide rate. That is not to say there is no relief in offering euthanasia to suicidal patients – clearly there is – but it cannot be proven that if one provides euthanasia, it will bring the suicide numbers down.