Euthanasia deaths in Holland soared by 13 percent last year since the Dutch government began allowing death mobiles to kill patients in the comfort of their own homes.
One in thirty deaths in Holland is now by mercy killing, marking the sixth consecutive year that deaths by euthanasia have increased in the Netherlands, the Daily Mail reported.
Last year, the Dutch launched the world’s first mobile death squads to be dispatched in cases when family doctors refused to administer lethal drugs, the report said.
Activists in Britain said Monday that the increase proves euthanasia is a “slippery slope.”
“It is what we expected and I do hope that people will pay more attention now to the warnings that have been made about introducing euthanasia to this country,” said Elspeth Chowdharay-Best, the honorary secretary of Alert. “The Dutch experience shows that euthanasia becomes routine. It traps more and more people into thinking they ought to leave this world prematurely.”
Holland became the first country in the world since Nazi Germany to legalize the practice. Most cases involve cancer patients but increasingly that have included dementia sufferers and psychiatric patients, the Daily Mail reported.
SEE ALSO: Dutch consider euthanasia for children to relieve ‘suffering for the parents’
Euthanasia came to Belgium in 2003. In 2011, the country saw a 25 percent increase in the number of euthanasia deaths.
• Jessica Chasmar can be reached at jchasmar@washingtontimes.com.
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