Feature: New research shows euthanasia targets women

Sydney
11 November 2001

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Feature: New research shows euthanasia targets women

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Feature: New research shows euthanasia targets women

‘Mercy killing’ is portrayed by euthanasia advocates as one person’s desperate bid to end a loved one’s suffering.

But new research has found two-thirds of those whose lives are ended that way are women, and the researcher says that raises a troubling question: Are women’s lives worth less than men’s when it comes to longterm care?

“In the US, euthanasia tends to be presented as an issue of self-determination, autonomy, choice,” says Silvia Sara Canetto, lead author of the study and an associate professor of psychology at Colorado State University.

“But when you actually look at what happens, you have a person who is very ill, dependent on others for care, vulnerable and exhausted. If you perceive yourself as a burden, or others perceive you as being a burden, you could be seen as a good candidate for death.”

Ms Canetto believes mercy killing and the further legalisation of assisted suicide are dangerous, particularly to older women.

“Many women do not have the resources, the sense of entitlement or the power and freedom to make the choice they desire, especially when they are sick and disabled,” she said. “And the freedom to be dead is a very peculiar freedom.”

Faye Grish, president of the Hemlock Society, which advocates legalising assisted suicide, disagrees.

For her study, which appears in the most recent issue of Omega: Journal of Death and Dying, Ms Canetto reviewed records of 112 mercy killings from 1960 to 1993 kept by the Hemlock Society, which defines mercy killing as “the killing of a terminally or incurably ill person to put him or her out of perceived misery” without necessarily knowing “the intent of the suffering person”.

The researcher found that most mercy killings involved both sexes – a woman and a man – as opposed to two men or two women. Typically, a child killed a parent or one spouse killed the other.

However, in 70 per cent of cases, the man did the mercy killing, she said.

“Men are more likely to kill themselves through suicide, kill others through homicide and more likely to do what they consider mercy killing,” Ms Canetto said.

About 92 per cent of those who died were ill; and, of those who were ill, about 35 per cent were reportedly terminal, 15 per cent were not, and the nature of the illness was unknown for the rest.

In 85 per cent of the cases, no one knows whether the person asked to be killed. However, even a request to die doesn’t necessarily justify taking a life, Ms Canetto argued. People may say they want to die because they are depressed and exhausted from an illness and are seeking comfort.

“When someone says, ‘I can’t stand it. I want to die,’ there are many different levels to that,” she said. “What they may want is reassurance. They might be saying: ‘Even though I can no longer walk, even though I am incontinent, I am still of value to you’.”

Research has shown physical suffering is not the primary predictor of suicidal thoughts, she said. Psychological factors weigh more heavily.

Nancy Valko, a leading prolife nurse, says research would be more alarming if it included euthanasia advocate Jack Kevorkian’s figures.

“The women greatly outnumber the men,” she said.

From The ProLife Infonet – a daily compilation of prolife news and information. Infonet is sponsored by Women and Children First (http://www.womenandchildrenfirst.org).