MPs have been warned not to try and change the UK law on euthanasia after figures from Belgium showed a startling rise in doctor-assisted suicides, particularly among those who did not have a terminal disease.
In the 10 years since Belgium legalised assisted-suicide, the number of people using it to end their lives shot up eight fold. The biggest increases were among people older than 80 who did not have cancer and were not expected to die in the near future.
The data from researchers at the Canadian Medical Association Journal showed that most people who chose to end their lives prematurely were under 80 with cancer.
Alistair Thompson from the campaign group Care Not Killing, which opposes assisted-suicide, said the figures sounded a "warning bell" to legislators in the UK.
"It clearly shows that once you have crossed the rubicon and said doctors and nurses should be able to kill patients, you see an increase among all groups choosing this, not just mentally competent adults," he told Christian Today.
"The UK law exists to protect vulnerable people regardless of age, regardless of mental capacity and it does a very good job."
The total number of doctor-assisted deaths in Belgium over the decade after legalisation was 8,752, with a steady increase each year. In 2003, there were 235 euthanasia cases, representing 0.2 percent of nationwide deaths, and in 2013, there were 1,807 cases, which represented 1.7 percent of deaths.
In 2013, people with cancer made up 69 percent of all cases, and 65 percent were under age 80.
A spokesman for CARE, a Christian policy charity that has campaigned against a change to the UK law, said the figures were "deeply concerning". Director of parliamentary affairs Dr Dan Boucher told Christian Today: "Rather than creating a framework that enables people who don't feel valued - or who feel that the they are a burden - end their lives, society should be supporting the vulnerable, letting them know that their lives count."
Last September MPs comprehensively rejected Labour MP Rob Marris' assisted suicide bill by 330 to 118. In the first vote on the issue in almost 20 years, Christian MP Fiona Bruce said the bill was so lacking in safeguards that "if this weren't so serious it would be laughable".
Fellow Conservative MP and Christian Caroline Spelman added that "the right to die can so easily become the duty to die" and said the law already provided protection for the elderly and disabled.
Christian Today approached Dignity in Dying, an opposing campaign group, for comment.
