What’s Behind the Rise of Euthanasia in the West?

On July 14—Bastille Day—the French national team lost its semi-final match against Spain at the FIFA World Cup. The very next day, France’s National Assembly voted to legalize assisted suicide and euthanasia, providing a humane way out for those who could not stomach the bitter taste of defeat.

Putting aside the dark humor of the timing, France finds itself in good company now that it has legalized medical practices commonly described as “euthanasia” that actively and intentionally terminate human life. These practices are distinct from those in which a medical professional contributes to the end of a patient’s life either passively (for example, by withholding life-sustaining treatments at the patient’s request) or unintentionally (for example, by administering sedatives with the intention of easing pain, even when there is a risk of hastening death as a side effect).

In fact, 13 other countries—including Canada, Colombia, Germany, Spain, the Netherlands, and Australia—have legalized euthanasia in some form, and mostly within the past decade. In the United States, physician-assisted suicide or medical aid in dying is legal in 14 states and the District of Columbia. In addition, the United Kingdom, Ireland, and Portugal have taken significant institutional steps toward this goal, which is part of a larger trend of euthanasia being legalized throughout the West.

As Samuel P. Huntington understood it, this cultural sphere includes the areas of Europe historically influenced by Catholic and Protestant Christianity, as well as the Anglo-Protestant settler colonies in North America and the South Pacific. The only exception is Colombia, which belongs to the closely related Latin American civilization and has a Westernized judicial elite that imposed euthanasia against the wishes of the broader society. Moreover, France’s recent conversion to the cause means that nearly the entire Western world has now legalized euthanasia: the most significant holdouts at present are the U.K., the Nordic countries, and post-Communist states in Central and Eastern Europe.