(LifeSiteNews) — A record 4 percent of all deaths in Belgium were by assisted suicide in 2025, a sharp increase from the previous year.
In 2025, 4,486 people died via assisted suicide, representing 4 percent of the population of Belgium and a 12.4 percent increase from the previous year. Almost a quarter of these people were not expected to die in the short term from natural causes.
Right to Life UK summarized the government data, which shows 2025 was the year with the most euthanasia deaths since the practice was legalized in 2003. In the first year after it was made legal, 235 deaths by assisted suicide were recorded. Those numbers have steadily increased over the years, reaching almost 4,500 in 2025.
Around 24.9 percent who died by assisted suicide were not expected to die by natural causes in the short term, i.e., in the coming months. These individuals suffered from depression, PTSD, blindness, and other ailments, but were not terminally ill. There were 151 assisted suicide deaths among those with “cognitive disorders” or “psychiatric disorders” as their underlying condition in 2025, representing a 36 percent increase from the previous year. Over 92 percent of those people with cognitive or psychiatric disorders were not expected to die in the coming months, i.e., they were not terminally ill. Every year since 2018 over 90 percent of people with these disorders who were killed by assisted suicide were not terminally ill.
Since legalization in 2003, over 42,000 people in Belgium have died by assisted suicide.
The Belgian law does not require those seeking “assisted dying” to be near the end of their lives. Since 2014, age restrictions have been removed, allowing minors “with capacity of discernment” to legally end their lives as well. One minor died in this way in 2025.
Catherine Robinson, spokesperson for Right to Life UK, commented on the figures:
It is heartbreaking to hear of the increasing number of people who are ending their lives in Belgium as a result of assisted suicide or euthanasia.
It is particularly distressing to hear that so many of these people did not have deaths that were to be reasonably expected to occur in the short term, and that a number of these individuals ended their lives due to cognitive disorders or psychiatric conditions.
People with physical or psychological suffering deserve to receive the care and support necessary to reduce their suffering while allowing them to continue living. The state should not be enabling their suicide.
