A groundbreaking study published today in Frontiers in Psychiatry reveals that over sixty individuals with eating disorders have undergone assisted suicide or euthanasia in Belgium, the Netherlands, and the United States. Notably, some of the cases occurred in countries where the practice is legally restricted to terminal conditions, exposing significant oversight gaps and raising urgent ethical questions about current policies.

“This landmark study is a clarion call to place brakes on the practice of physician assisted death for individuals with an eating disorder,” said Dr. Angela Guarda, Director at John Hopkins Hospital and a co-signatory on the statement. “It demonstrates how ideology rather than evidence often guides this practice — despite the life and death stakes involved.”

KEY FINDINGS:

Over 60 patients with eating disorders underwent euthanasia or assisted suicide between 2012 and 2024, including in countries which restrict the practice to terminal conditions.
In the United States, patients with eating disorders were granted access to lethal medications based on the controversial pseudodiagnosis of “terminal anorexia.”
In other countries, physicians stated that eating disorder patients were eligible for assisted suicide because their condition was “hopeless” and “untreatable.”
One-third of the patients were under the age of thirty when they underwent assisted death.

The study comes at a critical time, as eating disorders surge and many patients struggle to access treatment. Residential and inpatient treatment can cost more than $2,000/day, and few private treatment centers accept public insurance. In some cases, these patients must wait over a year to get access to the treatment they need.

The researchers found that in many cases, physicians erroneously claimed the patients had terminal and incurable conditions in order to grant access to lethal medications. “These rationales lack an empirical basis and perpetuate stigma," said study authors Chelsea Roff and Dr. Catherine Cook-Cottone. "The idea that patients with eating disorders are untreatable, treatment-resistant, or unable to recover has no place in medicine."

For more information, the full article can be accessed here. A joint statement from dozens of leading experts and organizations against the practice of assisted suicide has been issued today in response to the study and can be found here.