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European-Style Euthanasia

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Euthanasia and doctor-prescribed death started in the Netherlands and have spread to Belgium, Switzerland, and Luxembourg. Great Britain, Scotland and Spain are under siege to legalize. A National Review article written by Diederik Boomsma of Amsterdam and Jonathan Price of Great Britain gives a chilling account of how the act of killing, and the philosophy behind it, are spreading in Europe.

Earlier this year, a Belgian couple was euthanized — the husband because of terminal illness, the wife because she didn’t want to live without him. The wife obviously did not meet “criteria” under which euthanasia can be performed so doctors decided that her age and ailments constituted “unbearable suffering.” Mental suffering, declining age and being “tired of life” are emerging “reasons” to justify death. “A 2008 study of the Swiss death clinics Exit and Dignitas claimed that many of those who committed suicide there suffered from weariness of life rather than a terminal medical condition,” state Boomsma and Price.

There is pressure to legalize across Europe including Spain, Scotland and England. In Spain and Britain, the movement has been fueled by award-winning films and documentaries where euthanasia is justified and actual deaths aired on television. In Great Britain, prosecutors recently revealed that, under new guidelines, fewer prosecutions of those who assist with death have taken place if the motive “was compassion and not a desire for personal gain.”

“From first being recognized as a regrettable practice that should be allowed only in the most exceptional cases and under strict regulations, euthanasia is increasingly being presented as a full-blown human right,” according to Boomsma and Price.

There is a small ray of hope. Some Dutch doctors now have regrets about how far the death philosophy has gone. “Many Dutch doctors are also changing their approach,” say Boomsma and Price. “Instead of informing patients about euthanasia, they first tell them about other forms of care. Doctors have found that many very ill patients will agree to whatever they suggest — whether death or treatment.” Except for those patients who demand euthanasia as a right. “We never wanted it that way. It’s as if we doctors are being pushed to cross borders.”

Not all in the Netherlands have the same regrets as these doctors. A group of prominent individuals are pushing for legal euthanasia for anyone over the age of 70. They want the right to die to be included in the Dutch Constitution.

And so goes the struggle all over Europe. In the United States, that same struggle will be in full throttle in Vermont and Massachusetts in 2012 where ominous efforts to legalize doctor prescribed death will be undertaken by legislative action and ballot measure, respectively. Will the USA slide with Europe down the slippery slope? Next year will be a critical one in answering that question.

Barbara Lyons

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