Doctors can now euthanize patients with severe dementia in the Netherlands without fear of prosecution even if the patient no longer expresses a wish to die, following a ruling by the country’s supreme court.
The decision followed a landmark case in which a doctor was acquitted of wrongdoing for euthanizing a 74-year-old woman with severe Alzheimer’s who had requested the procedure before her condition became worse.
The unnamed woman had to be restrained by her family, despite being given a sedative in her coffee before the procedure.
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The Guardian report: Prosecutors accused the doctor of going through with the euthanasia without properly consulting her client, saying the 74-year-old woman might have changed her mind about dying.
Lower Dutch courts acquitted the doctor of wrongdoing and prosecutors dropped the charges. The case was referred to the supreme court for a legal clarification “in the interest of the law”.
The Hague-based court ruled: “A physician may carry out a written request beforehand for euthanasia in people with advanced dementia.”
But it would have to be under the strict rules for euthanasia, including that the patient must have “unbearable and endless suffering” and that at least two doctors must have agreed to carry out the procedure.
The patient must also have requested euthanasia before they could “no longer express their will as a result of advanced dementia”.
Tuesday’s verdict underscored similar judgments in the lower courts, which also agreed that the 64-year-old doctor followed the correct procedures prescribed by the government.
The case was seen as an important test of the law in the Netherlands, which legalised euthanasia in 2002, followed shortly afterwards by neighbouring Belgium.
Baxter Dmitry
Email: baxter@thepeoplesvoice.tv
Who is man to determine when someones life ends like that. Thus saith the LORD, Because the Syrians have said, The LORD is God of the hills, but he is not God of the valleys, therefore will I deliver all this great multitude into thine hand, and ye shall know that I am the LORD.
doctors should not be doing such things anyway. even if asked by the patient.
Theyve been murdering patients here for as long as I’ve been alive ,at least They give them a whack of methadone at 3 am Everyone knows .No one is above the law Hahaha They are ,when they’re all in it together
Better than living as a vegetable for years on end…