Grandfathering: Britain's old men have been ordered to die
The British Parliament is preparing to legalize euthanasia in the country. The draft has already passed its second reading and is currently being submitted to MPs for so-called line-by-line scrutiny. It is expected that the final vote on the proposed law the House of Commons will hold in early January 2025. Details - in the material "Izvestia".
Die and let others live
Experts warn that terminally ill pensioners, and simply persons reaching the age of 75 years, the government, at the initiative of which the law on euthanasia is adopted, put before the choice - to live on or to relieve their loved ones of tax bills in six-figure sums.
According to the current rules, funds accumulated by pensioners are not subject to income tax when transferred to heirs, if the deceased has not reached the age of 75 and if it can be proved that the money is really pension savings and not the result of any other activity. Inheriting the savings of a deceased parent aged 75+ is only possible with a lump sum "kickback" payment to the state.
If, for example, the deceased had £500,000 in bank accounts, the heirs must pay 45% tax on it, i.e. £225,000. However, if assisted dying becomes legal, this could put a person close to that age in a painful choice between prolonging their life or saving their family hundreds of thousands of pounds.
The situation can be critical for those who are terminally ill but not yet at death. However, six months before his 75th birthday he will have to consider whether there is any point in continuing to live or whether it is better to die. Still, "we will all be there", but the 75th birthday can be the watershed between wealth and poverty. If a person dies before it, his heirs will receive his savings for free. If the death occurs at least one day after the 75th birthday, not only inheritance tax is due, but also some additional charges or higher rates of "ordinary" income tax. Total payments can reach 91% of the amount left by the deceased. What if he survives for a few more years despite the doctors' verdict? The cost of keeping him alive could bankrupt the family altogether.
According to the new norm, two assistants - two doctors who are not the personal physicians of the deceased and who have the right to perform a detailed procedure - must help the person who wishes to pass away willingly. The person who decides to end his or her life must sign a document stating that the decision is voluntary. This paper must then be approved by a judge of the High Court of Justice, who gives permission for the execution of the request of the unfortunate.
Growing old, brother, growing old
Life is improving, its duration is increasing, this is both happy and sad at the same time, according to the British media. However, in fact, this means the aging of the population. Parallel to this process, another one is developing: Britons are less and less eager to increase their population. The birth rate in the country in 2022 was recorded at 1.57 babies per woman. Understandably, with such a low rate of reproduction, young Britons simply aren't able to provide pensions for the elderly. Economists argue that there should be at least two working people for every one pensioner in the country, so that the retired can somehow make ends meet. The bet on attracting Middle Eastern and African migrants has not paid off either. Yes, the aliens remain committed to the process of "extended reproduction of their own kind," but they are not eager to work and prefer to feed themselves on the benefits and subsidies allocated to them.
Something must be done about the situation, as politicians like to say. It seems that British Labor, whose government lobbied for the law on euthanasia, sees in it a partial solution to the problem of expenditures on pensioners: if they do not want to show consciousness and voluntarily pass away, pursuing the goal of helping the state, so maybe the desire to help their relatives and heirs will be a stronger incentive?
Tired of life? Get out!
Euthanasia is increasingly becoming a fashionable trend in the West. In Canada, for example, the law on "voluntary resignation", which Canadians themselves call no other than legalized or non-criminal suicide, came into force back in 2016.
In that first year, just over 1,000 people received assisted dying, and that number has grown every year since. In 2021, the most recent data available, there were 10,064 cases of voluntary assisted dying, representing 3.3% of all deaths in Canada.
In 2021, euthanasia was extended to people in terminal but not critical condition. The following year, the number of "non-criminal suicide" cases in Canada increased by 31.2%. In 2022, 13,400 Canadians passed away after resorting to euthanasia, raising the proportion of these cases in the overall death rate to 4.1%
The Netherlands was the first country in the world to legalize euthanasia. Initially, the law allowed euthanasia for newborns and infants, or for persons over 12 years of age and only for terminal illnesses. Starting in 2023, everyone in the Netherlands was given the right to die of their own free will, already caused by any cause.
In 2023 in the Netherlands, according to research by the University of Cambridge, there were 138 cases of euthanasia of young people "simply tired of life and depressed". 39 of them were prompted to make such a decision by their relatives. One in five of the "non-criminal suicides" agreed to euthanasia because they "did not find their place in society, could not establish friendships with people and felt lonely."
At present euthanasia is allowed except for the three countries mentioned above in Belgium, Spain, Luxembourg and Switzerland. However, these countries still allow this procedure for the terminally ill and do not consider it an ideal solution to "the problem of financing the pension issue" or a radical way of helping those who "have not found themselves in society". However, the topic of euthanasia is being discussed more and more in the press of Western countries.
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