※Translated with Notion AI. (Plus version)
Attitudes towards death vary greatly with culture, religion, and nationality.
Even in countries that practice Christianity, which prohibits suicide, views on euthanasia are not completely unanimous.
Before discussing it in Japan, it’s crucial to understand the discussions and judgments being made in other regions of the world.
When asked, “Which country in the world is most advanced in dealing with euthanasia?” more than half of the Japanese people answer “Switzerland”.
However, the Netherlands, along with Switzerland, is a “euthanasia powerhouse”.
In the Netherlands, over 6,000 people choose euthanasia each year.
Of the 17.02 million population, about 4% of all deaths are people who have chosen euthanasia.
I worked as a medical researcher in the Netherlands for two years and was surprised that physician-assisted euthanasia is socially accepted. However, there was a different concept of euthanasia than what we imagine.
Let’s consider the “Right to Die” from the Dutch perspective.
