UNITED STATES, August 29, 2003 (SPUC/LifeSiteNews.com) – The British Society for Unborn Children (SPUC) reports today on a CNN story about the growing shortage of US doctors specialising in geriatric care. Like many developed countries, the US has a rapidly ageing population and there are expected to be 19 million Americans aged 85 and older by 2050. However, there are currently only 9,000 doctors specialising in geriatric medicine and fewer than 10% of US medical schools have compulsory training in geriatric medicine. Approximately 36,000 such doctors will be needed by 2030.
This drastic shortage is ominous in that it will increase receptiveness to legal and institutionalized euthanasia by both the elderly and institutions. Still, the U.S. situation is probably not as severe as that which will be experienced in Canada and other western nations which have had birth rates well below that of the still significantly religious U.S.