Thursday, September 29, 2005
Dutch Expand Euthanasia Guidelines
From the AP. Hat tip: Discarded Lies
We saw this coming with the Groningen Protocols. But it's still shocking how slippery the Dutch slope has become.
The Dutch government intends to expand its current euthanasia policy, setting guidelines for when doctors may end the lives of terminally ill newborns with the parents' consent, The Associated Press has learned.
A letter outlining the new directives was expected to be submitted to parliament for discussion by mid-October, but the new policy will not require a change of law, Dutch Health Ministry spokeswoman Annette Dijkstra said Thursday.
The new guidelines are likely to spark an outcry from the
Vatican, right-to-life proponents and some advocacy groups for the handicapped who abhor the current policy that allows adult euthanasia if the patients request it and if certain conditions are met.
Proponents and opponents agree the change is doubly important because it will provide the model for how the Dutch will treat other cases in which patients are unable to say whether they want to live or die, such as the mentally retarded or elderly people who have become demented
In a sense the Dutch are only justifying what they are already doing. One recent report said that 8% of infant deaths in the Netherlands are euthanasia.
We saw this coming with the Groningen Protocols. But it's still shocking how slippery the Dutch slope has become.
The Dutch government intends to expand its current euthanasia policy, setting guidelines for when doctors may end the lives of terminally ill newborns with the parents' consent, The Associated Press has learned.
A letter outlining the new directives was expected to be submitted to parliament for discussion by mid-October, but the new policy will not require a change of law, Dutch Health Ministry spokeswoman Annette Dijkstra said Thursday.
The new guidelines are likely to spark an outcry from the
Vatican, right-to-life proponents and some advocacy groups for the handicapped who abhor the current policy that allows adult euthanasia if the patients request it and if certain conditions are met.
Proponents and opponents agree the change is doubly important because it will provide the model for how the Dutch will treat other cases in which patients are unable to say whether they want to live or die, such as the mentally retarded or elderly people who have become demented
In a sense the Dutch are only justifying what they are already doing. One recent report said that 8% of infant deaths in the Netherlands are euthanasia.
papijoe 1:16 PM
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