Politics
Tuesday January 11, 2005
See today's LifeSiteNews stories
Dutch Euthanasia Doctors May Now Kill Perfectly Healthy Adults
UTRECHT, January 11, 2005 (LifeSiteNews.com) - The Royal Dutch Medical Association has concluded, after a three-year investigation, that Dutch doctors ought to be able to kill patients who are not ill but who are judged to be "suffering through living."
The decision contradicts the Dutch Supreme Court that ruled in 2002 that patients may only request euthanasia if they have a "classifiable physical or mental condition," and not if they are merely "tired of life." The law however, does not require a medical condition, but only that a patient must be "suffering hopelessly and unbearably." Pro-life activists have warned that such ambiguous language is an open door for new interpretations that would make the law a license to kill.
The new report says many Dutch doctors believe some cases of "suffering through living" could be judged "unbearable and hopeless."
Jos Dijkhuis, the emeritus professor of clinical psychology who led the study said, "In more than half of cases we considered, doctors were not confronted with a classifiable disease. In practice the medical domain of doctors is far broader … We see a doctor's task is to reduce suffering, therefore we can't exclude these cases in advance. We must now look further to see if we can draw a line and if so where."
Mira de Vries, of the Association for Medical and Therapeutic Self-Determination, a pro-suicide group, pointed out that the law exists only to protect doctors from prosecution for homicide. She commented on the British Medical Journal's forum page, "By claiming that the medical domain of doctors is far broader, and includes the reduction of suffering unrelated to classifiable and measurable somatic illness, physicians are proposing to redefine medicine, and vastly expand its already inflated territory."
Henk Jochemsen, director of the anti-euthanasia Lindeboom Institute for Medical Ethics, said the report gave the message that, "we as a society should say to people who feel their life has lost meaning: right you had better go away."
British Medical Journal coverage:
http://bmj.bmjjournals.com/cgi/content/full/330/7482/61
To read a copy of the Dutch Medical Association report: (in Dutch)
http://knmg.artsennet.nl/content/resources/AMGATE_6059_100_T...
hw
Back to TopSHARE THIS STORY: E-mail Print Newsvine Digg Reddit Del.icio.us Facebook
Latest Headlines
- Canadian Pro-Life Leader Gives Last Minute Information to Federal Election Voters
- Addressing the American and Canadian Voters from Abroad
- After Two Weeks of 40 Days for Life - 114 Babies Saved from Abortion
- Boycott Successful: McDonald's Abandons Homosexual Activism
- Obama Not Natural Born Citizen? Ineligible to Run For President?
- Toronto Archbishop Decries Morgentaler Order of Canada - Sets Sunday as Day of Prayer Against Abortion
- Massachusetts Bishops Vacillate on Defense of Marriage Petition Campaign
- Shock: Connecticut Supreme Court Strikes Down State Ban on Same-sex "Marriage"
- Massachusetts Bishops Vacillate on Defense of Marriage Petition Campaign
- Victoria, Australia Decriminalises Abortion: Criminalises Doctors' Consciences
- Pro-life Efforts Redouble as U.K. Embryo Bill Goes Back to House of Commons
- Mark Steyn "Not Guilty" of "Islamophobia": Human Rights Commission
- Gibbons Charged With Disobeying a Court Order
- Host Desecration Videos Back on YouTube
- Brampton Catholic High School To Host Pro-abort Liberal Leader Stephane Dion
- Exclusive Interview with "Fireproof" Co-Star Erin Bethea
- Oregon Court Orders Frozen Embryos Destroyed, Considered "Property Rights" Issue
- Canadian Archdiocese Advertising Fundraiser for Anti-Catholic Abortion/Condom Promoter
- Barbara Kay - Poland's "preemie miracle" is an embarrassing postscript to Henry Morgentaler's Order of Canada
- US Election News Highlights - October 11, 2008
- LifeSiteNews.com NewsBytes for October 11, 2008
Most Read this Week
- Canadian Artist and Catholic Novelist Michael O'Brien on Modesty in the Culture of Shamelessness
- Amazing Stories Come out of 2008 Life Chain
- Massachusetts Bishops Vacillate on Defense of Marriage Petition Campaign
- Video Catches Planned Parenthood Covering Up Statutory Rape
- Heartland Christian Church Demands Peaceful Pro-Life LifeChain Participants Leave
- Franciscan University Board Member Backs Obama, School Distances Itself
- Mandatory Homosexual Indoctrination in Grade School Survives after Supreme Court Turns Down Case
- The Palin-Biden Debate and Where Things Stand Now
- The Silver Lining of an Obama Victory
- Harper Would Have to Personally Kill an Unborn Baby to Avoid the Hidden Agenda Charge
MORE NEWS: 
LifeSiteNews.com Home Page Last 10 Days Archives Special Reports
Copyright © LifeSiteNews.com. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-No Derivatives License. You may republish this article or portions of it without request provided the content is not altered and it is clearly attributed to "LifeSiteNews.com". Any website publishing of complete or large portions of original LifeSiteNews articles MUST additionally include a live link to www.LifeSiteNews.com. The link is not required for excerpts. Republishing of articles on LifeSiteNews.com from other sources as noted is subject to the conditions of those sources.