Assisted dying and the slippery slope argument—no empirical evidence

Assisted dying and the slippery slope argument—no empirical evidence 
JAMA Network Open; Invited Commentary | Ethics, by Luc Deliens, PhD; 4/23/25 
While the social and political debate around assisted dying remains fierce and unremitting, legalization of assisted dying has expanded significantly in Europe, North America, and Australia during the past 20 years. Assisted dying (euthanasia and/or physician-assisted suicide) practices are now legal in more than 30 jurisdictions, increasing the number of people with access to assisted dying to more than 280 million. ... The terms euthanasia and assisted suicide are controversial in most countries, even among proponents of legal regulation. Assisted suicide evokes associations with suicide, and the term euthanasia was used in Nazi Germany to include the murder of people with disabilities. ... A lack of empirical evidence for the slippery slope argument demonstrated by the report of Wels and Hamarat confirms extended evidence from Belgian euthanasia practice published in the New England Journal of Medicine, Lancet, JAMA, and BMJ, among others, by the End-of-Life Care Research Group. These studies have never shown that vulnerable people would have easier access to assisted dying in Belgium.