Press Release: Leading Experts and Organizations Release Joint Statement Against Assisted Suicide in Eating Disorders
Over 100 leading experts and organizations have released a joint statement calling on governments to take immediate action to halt the practice of assisted suicide for individuals with eating disorders. The call to action comes in response to a recent study revealing at least sixty patients with eating disorders have been euthanized or assisted in suicide in Belgium, the Netherlands, and the United States.
“We urge governments to take immediate action to address the unethical practice of assisted suicide for individuals with eating disorders” reads the statement, which was co-signed by a coalition of leading eating disorder and disability rights organizations. “This practice undermines decades of research on effective treatments and endangers the lives of vulnerable individuals.”
The study raises significant public safety concerns, finding a third of the cases involved young people in their teens and twenties, some of whom had not received comprehensive treatment before being euthanized. It highlights a critical need for increased access to eating disorder care, which remains inaccessible to many patients due to cost, lack of insurance, and extended wait times.
“As this important research shows, some people with eating disorders are being offered active termination of their lives with the help of doctors in several countries," said Dr. Mark Komrad, a psychiatrist on the teaching faculty at Johns Hopkins Hospital. "These are not ‘medical procedures.’ To offer them for eating disorders is not relieving the patient’s suffering, but is actually furthering and colluding with the disease itself.”
Many disability rights groups have also expressed support for the statement. "Leaders in the eating disorder community are right to call for treatment and support while rejecting assisted suicide," said Diane Coleman, president and CEO of Not Dead Yet, a national disability rights organization. "The fact that eating disorders have qualified people for assisted suicide in the U.S. and elsewhere is proof that the practice cannot be controlled."
“Our hope is that policymakers will recognize the urgency of this issue and take the necessary steps to ensure people with eating disorders have access to treatment,” added Chelsea Roff, lead author on the new study and Director of Eat Breathe Thrive, the nonprofit which organized the statement. “The notion that some patients have incurable or terminal eating disorders is inaccurate and dangerous. This reasoning is being used to sidestep the safeguards meant to ensure vulnerable groups are protected.”
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Bianca Ngala
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