Servants of Thanatos

Death in the West is a business, and the business is going well

Euthanasia — voluntary departure from life of a person suffering from an incurable disease assisted by medical specialists — is growing in popularity in the ‘golden billion’ countries. While some time ago it was a drastic measure that a patient unable to fight a losing battle could resort to, today death has become a business that is promoted not only by private structures, but also by the state itself. 

Dead zone

The euthanasia market is now one of the promising and fast-growing industries. This is facilitated by the lively support from the authorities of the countries that have decided to legalise the so-called ‘mercy killing’, and widespread propaganda among target groups of the population of various ways to leave this world under the supervision of specialists.
Why are Thanatos assistants lobbying tirelessly? There are two fundamental reasons for this — the provision of euthanasia services has become a profitable business, which, in addition, helps, along with other measures, to control the population and hence, optimise public budget spending.
In the field of promoting voluntary departure from life, Canada is ahead of the curve today. They do things on the big figure there — the benefits have been calculated, the necessary infrastructure has been created, the legislative framework is being improved, expanding the list of those who can turn to doctors for assistance in shuffling off this mortal coil.
Thus, Canadian economists estimated back in 2017 that doctor-assisted deaths helped the country save $136.8 million in the healthcare sector over a year, and by 2024 this figure has more than doubled to reach about $300 million. At the same time, according to the Dying With Dignity Canada (DWD Canada) lobby group, which is the foremost assisted suicide and euthanasia advocacy organisation in the country, the market for life-ending services will become even more promising and will grow significantly in the coming years.
It is so much easier to kill than to fight for a person’s life, support and be present with them throughout their final journey.
In 2022, 13,241 people in Canada received medically assisted deaths. Compared to 2021, this figure jumped by 31 percent. The authorities are already registering complaints from patients with serious illnesses about pressure from doctors who incline them to voluntarily receive death. 
The second component of the euthanasia programme in Canada is government support for voluntary medically-assisted death called Medical Assistance in Dying (MAID). Legally capable adult citizens suffering from an incurable disease can use this service. The list of grounds that can serve as a reason for approving an application for euthanasia is quite large and is constantly expanding.
Thus, an attending physician approved the application for euthanasia of a low-income disabled man, Amir Farsoud, who faced eviction from social housing and, therefore, between living on the street and death, chose the latter. Lester Landry, a 65-year-old wheelchair user, who was deprived of pension benefits, a service apartment and a dog by the authorities, found himself in a similar situation — the unfortunate man who had to stay in a van for $120 a month sent a request for euthanasia. Kayla Pollock, a 37-year-old mother, who was paralysed after being vaccinated against COVID-19, was recommended to use the Medical Assistance in Dying service due to lack of progress in the treatment of spinal cord injury.   
Christine Gauthier, a retired army veteran and a former member of the Canadian Paralympic Team, received a kind offer from the authorities to euthanise her in response to her request to install a wheelchair ramp in her home.

Ticket to the next world

Nevertheless, Ottawa still lags behind some ‘civilised’ countries in terms of providing assistance to teenagers who have decided to die. Thus, euthanasia in the Netherlands is already legal for children aged over 12, albeit the consent of guardians or parents is still required in cases a teenager has not reached the age of 16. 
Belgians have gone even further in this regard — since 2014, age restrictions have been lifted there. Thus, among children who have gone to the next world in Belgium are, as an example, nine- and eleven-year-old infants suffering from a brain tumour and cystic fibrosis.
Switzerland went another way. The legislation there is structured so that direct active euthanasia is prohibited, while passive and assisted suicide, as long as it is not driven by selfish motives, is allowed. This conflict of law has been in force since 1937. In fact, the country has the most liberal euthanasia rules in the world — neither gender nor age of a life-ending person is limited. All that is needed to secure the necessary drug is reasonably explain a wish to die and have the physical ability to take a lethal dose on one’s own.

It is Switzerland that has developed euthanasia tourism — ‘one-way trips’. The mountainous country offers several assisted dying groups that can arrange death tours for a reasonable fee, Dignitas being the flagship. This organisation has been operating since 1998 and by 2020 facilitated the death of 3,248 people, a significant part of whom were foreigners. 

Business and not only

There are three main beneficiaries of euthanasia — the state, which saves funds allocated for healthcare; direct service providers; as well as the notorious Big Pharma, which supplies drugs for killing. Thus, in 2009, the price of 100 capsules of Seconal (one of the drugs used for euthanasia) was less than $200, but the price of the drug steadily rose over the last years. Today, the same amount of the barbiturate can only be obtained for more than $3,000. In total, according to the latest known data, Seconal or its analogues were sold for the amount of over $65 million in the USA, Canada, the Netherlands and Belgium in 2021. 
However, another motive is easy to discern in the actions of the authorities of such countries as Canada, Belgium, the Netherlands, and others engaged in calculating the profits received from killing their own, albeit terminally ill, citizens — the desire to control the population in order to optimise costs. 

Ashes of Hadamar

Turning euthanasia into a population control tool and a type of business takes humanity back to the days of the Third Reich and its infamous T4 Euthanasia Programme. Its implementation from September 1st, 1939 to August 24th, 1941 resulted in the murder of 70,273 people.
The Führer’s rise to power was the reason for the launch of a mass campaign to forcefully sterilise those whom the Nazi ideologues listed as ‘unworthy of life’. At the same time, a more radical idea was born, which Hitler learned from prominent supporters of eugenics. The initiative consisted in purification of the German nation from ‘defective and inferior’ persons, in the opinion of under-educated fascists.

The Nazis brought a solid pseudoscientific and socio-ideological base to suit their fabrications, which eventually led to the wholesale extermination of psychiatric patients and children with physical and mental disabilities. The executors who worked in the centres of ‘merciful death’ in Hadamar, Grafeneck, Sonnenstein and other locations also had an economic interest — doctors received considerable sums of money for each death sentence, while the staff who did the dirty work could take away some belongings after the unfortunate had been euthanised.

Many methods were worked out as part of the T4 Euthanasia Programme, which were later used in the mass extermination of people in concentration camps — suffocation by carbon monoxide, extraction of gold teeth from people’s remains, burning bodies in crematoriums.
The modern West is rapidly moving backwards in its mental development. The expansion of euthanasia programmes transforms it from a method of ending a person’s suffering into a powerful tool for managing society in the hands of the state in alliance with pharmaceutical giants. Skilful propaganda instils an idea in a person that the wish to die is the norm, while specialised institutions kindly offer their ‘mercy killing’ services. Indeed, death has become a business in the West, and this business is going well.

By Anton Popov