The Telegraph recently reported the horrifying news that a doctor in Holland had been cleared of charges after she drugged an elderly woman suffering from dementia, had her family hold her down, and killed her. The laws in Holland are such that what occurred falls under the rubric of “euthanasia.” The grim practice is on the rise in Europe and elsewhere. According to a 2015 report in the Financial Times, about 3 percent of all Dutch deaths are now the result of euthanasia. Even more horrifying is that you no longer have to be terminally ill to be euthanized in many places. Mental illness is an increasingly common justification. In the Netherlands, a young woman in her twenties was allowed to euthanize herself based on suffering post-traumatic stress disorder from sexual abuse.

There are no doubt deep cultural explanations for the rise of euthanasia, but enthusiasm for legalization is owed in part to the imperatives of the welfare state. Canada’s National Post last week reported on a new study that concluded euthanasia could save Canada’s overburdened national health care system up to $139 million a year. “The authors go to pains to state they aren’t suggesting people be voluntarily euthanized to save money,” notes the National Post. But if they didn’t want people to make a connection to cost-savings, there would be no reason to do the study.