[DRB]

http://edition.cnn.com/2004/HEALTH/12/01/netherlands.mercykill/index.html

Dutch health officials are considering guidelines doctors could follow for euthanizing terminally ill people "with no free will," including children, the severely mentally retarded and patients in irreversible comas

Eric Van Yijlick, project manager for SCEN (Support and Consultation on Euthanasia in the Netherlands), said the Groningen cases involving newborns should be referred to as "life ending without request" rather than euthanasia, because that term indicates the dying party has requested the procedure.

Wow. Life ending without request? Wouldn't that be murder?

I've always been ambivalent about folks making their own choice about dying or not BUT for someone else to make the decision for you. Talk about an exceptionally slippery slope.

Another Linky

The Remmelink Report-- On September 10, 1991, the results of the first, official government study of the practice of Dutch euthanasia were released. The two volume report (6)--popularly referred to as the Remmelink Report (after Professor J. Remmelink, M.J., attorney general of the High Council of the Netherlands, who headed the study committee)--documents the prevalence of involuntary euthanasia in Holland, as well as the fact that, to a large degree, doctors have taken over end-of-life decision making regarding euthanasia. The data indicate that, despite long-standing, court-approved euthanasia guidelines developed to protect patients, abuse has become an accepted norm.

From that report:
1,040 people (an average of 3 per day) died from involuntary euthanasia, meaning that doctors actively killed these patients without the patients' knowledge or consent.

14% of these patients were fully competent.

72% had never given any indication that they would want their lives terminated.

In 8% of the cases, doctors performed involuntary euthanasia despite the fact that they believed alternative options were still possible.

 

[dan-o]

Having just watched my cousin (34yo) suddenly fall into a coma from an undetected brain tumor, undergo 3 surguries leaving him completely paralysed and a mental vegetable with a 0% chance of recovery this makes total sense to me. Due to no living will being in place all his fiance and family could to is watch him twitch for 6 weeks before he finally died. This seems like a far more humane option to me.

 

[llkoolkeg]

Every time I think I've made up my mind on this issue, I hear a good argument to the contrary.

 

[N8 v2.0]

A living will is something everyone should have...

 

[BurlyShirley]

The fewer dutch the better, I always say.

 

[TheInedibleHulk]

HAHAHA, burly manages to make me laugh in the euthanasia thread, impressive.

 

[Jesus]

I thought I smelled cabbage...

 

[Silver]

I have to get my stuff into a document sometime soon. My wife knows what I want, and I prefer a potentially horrible situation for her not be made any worse by arguments over what I would have preferred...

 

[valve bouncer]

Every time I think I've made up my mind on this issue, I hear a good argument to the contrary.

Agreed, it's a real curly one.