In the Netherlands, the government plans to open euthanasia to elderly people who feel they have “accomplished their life”.
This is a proposal that risks causing much ink to flow among bioethics specialists. The Netherlands, where euthanasia has been legal for 15 years, are considering authorizing assisted suicide for elderly people who feel they have ‘accomplished’ their life, even if they are not. sick.
“The people who think, after having thought carefully, to have ended their life, must, under strict conditions and according to very precise criteria, be authorized to end their life in a manner which seems to them worthy”, assured the ministers of Health and Justice in a letter to Parliament, cited by AFP.
5516 euthanasia in 2015
Along with Belgium, the Netherlands was in 2002 the first country in the world to legalize euthanasia. To authorize the procedure, at least two doctors must be convinced that there is no other reasonable solution for the patient and that the suffering is “unbearable and without prospect of improvement”. Some mental illnesses can be considered “unbearable suffering”.
Children over 12 can also request euthanasia, which generates intense debate in the country and internationally. In 2015, the Netherlands recorded 5,516 cases of euthanasia, or 3.9% of deaths in the country, against 3,136 cases five years earlier. Of these people, more than 70% suffered from cancer and 2.9% from psychiatric illnesses or dementia.
“Death Wizard”
The future text, which will be drawn up after discussions with experts, will only deal with the elderly, but the government has not mentioned a specific age. The people concerned “no longer see any possibility to give meaning to their life, live badly their loss of independence, have a feeling of loneliness”, assures the government. “But to be able to put in place their end of life, they need help. “
A “death assistant”, a person with a medical education and specific training, will have to authorize the procedure after having ruled out that a treatment can erase this “death wish”.
Worries
For Robert Schurink, president of the Dutch Association for Voluntary End of Life, “this offers a solution”, he told the daily AD: some people “were forced to take drastic measures such as suicide or stop eating. and to drink when they no longer wanted to live ”.
However, several opposition parties criticized the project. The Socialist Party, in particular, believes that a possible text can only lead to “pressure on other elderly people who will feel too much in the community”. Some Dutch people have the same concern about “fragile, lonely, desperate people” when the hashtag #voltooidleven (#vieaccomplie) was leading trends on Twitter in the country.
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