Assisted dying and Covid-19

This chapter looked at changes in issues connected with assisted dying. Where it is legal, the numbers of assisted deaths look to be down by 30 to 40% from April to June 2020 compared with the year 2019. There is no evidence that demand has fallen and, if anything, anecdotal evidence suggests that it has risen. Like other medical services, assisted dying, where it did happen, relied upon telemedicine and other methods employed by other medical services. More importantly, the COVID crisis has thrown into question many issues about whether the value of human lives can be compared or measured. COVID shines a spotlight on how we treat the elderly and vulnerable (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved)