Belgium and Euthanasia
Researchers have concluded that more than 10 percent of deaths in Belgium are as a result of euthanasia, despite the fact that euthanasia remains illegal. Teams from Ghent University and Free University Brussels sent questionnaires to the doctors who had certified a random sample of 1,925 death certificates over a four-month period. Based on their findings, they estimated that 1. percent of all deaths in Belgium could be directly attributed to euthanasia or physician-assisted suicide, 3.2 percent were as a result of lethal injections without the patient's explicit request, and 5.8 percent were the result of a doctor withholding treatment with the intention of ending the patient's life. [BBC News online, 24 November]
http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/health/newsid_1037000/1037381.stm

Over 2,200 Dutch Euthanasia Cases Reported in 1999

Amsterdam, Netherlands -- Dutch doctors helped more than 2,200 patients die in 1999, euthanasia organisations said last Tuesday. The so-called regional euthanasia review committees said in an annual report that they had received 2,216 notifications of euthanasia and assisted suicide from doctors for the last calendar year.

By law, Dutch doctors must inform the review committees -- which consist of legal and medical experts -- when they are involved in "mercy killings." The committees then check that the doctors have acted in accordance with strict criteria.

A bill currently before the Dutch parliament will, if passed, make the Netherlands the first country to legalize "mercy killings."

The Dutch have tolerated "mercy killings" for years, but as doctors could theoretically be prosecuted for murder under the penal code, the bill aims to clear up a legal grey area.

More than 90 percent of those dying through euthanasia and assisted suicide -- where the physician supplies the drugs but does not administer them -- suffered from cancer, the committees' annual report said.

Latest data from the Dutch Voluntary Euthanasia Society showed 3,600 deaths in 1995 from euthanasia or assisted suicide. The society believes its figures are the most accurate available since they include deaths not reported to the coroner, which account for around 59 percent of cases.

Source: Reuters, May 10, 2000 from the Pro-Life Infonet. The Pro-Life Infonet is a daily compilation of pro-life news and information. To subscribe, send the message "subscribe" to: infonet-request@prolifeinfo.org. Infonet is sponsored by Women and Children First (http://www.prolifeinfo.org/wcf). For more pro-life info visit http://www.prolifeinfo.org and for questions or additional information email ertelt@prolifeinfo.org

British Doctors Let Elderly Patients Die Unnecessarily

London, England -- Doctors in some British hospitals have allowed elderly patients to die unnecessarily in order to make beds available for new patients, a newspaper said on Sunday.

``I have witnessed doctors who want to keep beds clear by withdrawing treatment or actively assisting in death to the point where it becomes involuntary euthanasia,'' a junior doctor told the Sunday London Times.

Some elderly patients were allowed to die merely on the basis of their age, while others were given high doses of diamorphine, a heroin-based drug, to accelerate their death, Rita Pal, 28, told the newspaper. Pal said she was leaving the profession because of such practices, and said she intended to present the General Medical Council with a dossier listing several incidents of abuse and neglect of elderly patients.

At the end of March, leading British doctors described the lack of funding for long-term care of the elderly as a national disgrace and said it was causing untold hardships and anxiety.

In a letter to The British Medical Journal, the presidents of the Royal College of Physicians in Edinburgh, Glasgow and London and the chief of the British Geriatric Society called for a public debate on the issue of funding for the state-run National Health Service (NHS).

In his latest budget, Chancellor of the Exchequer Gordon Brown promised spending on health would increase by 6.1 percent above inflation each year until 2004 in an effort to raise spending on the health service to around the European average.

The health service's funding problems have led to long hospital waiting lists, bed shortages and poor cancer survival rates, shortcomings which were publicised late last year when hospitals struggled to cope with a major flu outbreak.

Pro-Life Infonet 3/28/00 #2133

The Pro-Life Infonet is a daily compilation of pro-life news and information. To subscribe, send the message "subscribe" to: infonet-request@prolifeinfo.org. Infonet is sponsored by Women and Children First (http://www.prolifeinfo.org/wcf). For more pro-life info visit http://www.prolifeinfo.org and for questions or additional information email ertelt@prolifeinfo.org

And this is where it is taking us. A shocking number of people are receiving unrequested euthanasia in the Netherlands.   A further downward slide is shown below, in an October, 1999, issue of the Infonet.  It is horrifying that one would consider killing a child against his parents' wishes. 

Dutch Doctors Oppose Euthanasia for Twelve-Year-Olds

AMSTERDAM, -- The Dutch Royal College of Physicians (KNMG) said on Friday it was unhappy with draft legislation allowing doctors to perform euthanasia on children as young as 12 against their parents' will.

KNMG, which is broadly pro-euthanasia, does not object to extending the right to die on request to children as young as 12 if their parents give consent -- a clause in the bill which has drawn fierce criticism in some circles.

But a related clause giving doctors the right to end the lives of children on request without parental permission in exceptional circumstances was simply unnecessary, it said.

``Between the ages of 12 and 16, euthanasia is possible when the child asks for it and his parents agree. Parents not agreeing happens so rarely it is unnecessary to have this clause,'' said Jacqueline Cuperus, a KNMG spokeswoman.

Assisted suicide has long been condoned in the Netherlands, but the draft law aims to clarify a legally grey area where doctors may technically be prosecuted for murder. It proposes immunity from criminal prosecution for doctors if they follow strict guidelines when performing euthanasia.

The Voluntary Euthanasia Society (DVES) said it did not think KNMG's reservations would hinder the bill's progress through parliament and stressed it would still prefer the bill to contain the clause.

``Good laws contain solutions for all possible conflicts -- even if they never happen. There's no point burying your head in the sand,'' said DVES spokeswoman Martine Cornelisse.

Pro-life organizations in the Netherlands have been working feverishly to stop any expansion of current laws which look the other way on these startling practices.

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The Pro-Life Infonet is a daily compilation of pro-life news and information. To subscribe, send the message "subscribe" to: infonet-request@prolifeinfo.org. Infonet is sponsored by Women and Children First (http://www.prolifeinfo.org/wcf). For more pro-life info visit http://www.prolifeinfo.org and for questions or additional information email ertelt@prolifeinfo.org