A Spanish court says a father can’t prevent his daughter’s suicide; more Europeans are being euthanized; ‘death pods’ could be headed to the U.K.; and more.

I always enjoy Kathryn Lopez’s ongoing Corner feature in which she posts about news stories that “caught my eye.” So I decided to blatantly steal the concept to discuss euthanasia/assisted suicide stories that have recently been in the news.

1.  A Spanish father lost a legal case to prevent his daughter’s euthanasia. The young woman, who has a severe mental illness, tried to commit suicide previously by jumping off a building, leaving her with paraplegia. A court has now decided, in a bitter irony, that due to her disability, doctors can finish what she started. Awful.
2. Euthanasia killings in the Netherlands increased by 10 percent between 2023 and 2024, with nearly 10,000 killed by doctors in one year. Lethal jabs for the mentally ill also increased to 219, and 427 dementia patients. There were also 54 reported cases of simultaneous euthanasia deaths of family members. The report doesn’t say how many of these people were organ-harvested.
3. Nealy 4,000 Belgians were euthanized in 2024. According to the Brussels Times, “The vast majority of patients experienced both physical and psychological suffering (82%). Just under 16% experienced only physical pain and 1.9% only psychological suffering.” Belgium was also a euthanasia tourism destination, with 120 people traveling to Belgium from other countries to be killed.
4. U.K. hospices and palliative care facilities are having their budgets cut, forcing many to “provide fewer and smaller services.” This, just as the Labour government is set to legalize assisted suicide. Talk about herding people toward “choosing” hastened death!
5. Phillip Nitschke — the fanatical suicide proselytizer and inventor of a “suicide pod” that kills with nitrogen — promises to bring his device to the U.K. once assisted suicide is legal. The first death by suicide pod didn’t work out so well in Switzerland.
6.  The Delaware House passed an assisted-suicide legalization bill. The outcome in the senate is going to be close. Last year, the Democratic governor vetoed a legalization bill. But now, there is a new governor.
7. The New Hampshire House voted to table an assisted-suicide legalization bill. That doesn’t kill the bill, but it is ailing and hopefully will not proceed further this session.
8. According to an article in the British Medical Journal, doctors cannot accurately determine who will die in six months. “Prognostic eligibility criteria are limited by the fact that prognosis is inherently uncertain and there are no valid tools, tests, or clinical examinations that can reliably and safely identify that a person is expected to die within six months.” But “six months left to live” is supposed to be an essential protection. Ah, who cares, right?
9. A California bill has been proposed that would allow those with a “grievous and irremediable medical condition” to be assisted in suicide by doctors. A condition would meet that criterion if:
   “(A) The condition is a serious and incurable illness or disease.
   (B) The condition has placed the individual in a state of irreversible decline in capability.
   (C) The condition is causing the individual to endure physical or psychological suffering due to the illness, disease, or state of decline that is intolerable to the individual and cannot be relieved in a manner the individual deems acceptable.
   (D) After taking into account all of the individual’s medical circumstances, it is reasonably foreseeable that the condition will become the individual’s natural cause of death. A specific prognosis as to the length of time the person has left to live shall not be required to meet this criterion.
   (2) For purposes of this part, a “grievous and irremediable medical condition” includes a diagnosis of early to mid-stage dementia while the individual still has the capacity to make medical decisions.”

   If SB 1196 passes, it would allow thousands of more assisted suicides each year.

10. Japanese doctors were imprisoned for committing euthanasia. After doctors euthanized an ALS patient in Japan — where it is a crime — they received real prison time. Apparently, Japan is serious about preventing euthanasia. Good. This is the way to do it.