Number of Netherlands Euthanasia Cases Increases, Not All Deaths Included

Renowned Oncologist Changes Position on Euthanasia After Contracting Cancer...

NUMBER OF NETHERLANDS EUTHANASIA CASES INCREASES, AND ALL DEATHS ARE NOT INCLUDED. The official number of euthanasia cases in the Netherlands is on the rise, but not all cases of killing patients are included.

The official report mentions only three cases involving physicians who didn't follow the proper protocols when killing the patient. The ANP news service indicated the number of euthanasia cases rose to 2,120 last year from 1,923 in 2006.

In three instances, the regional committees responsible for ensuring the criteria for legal euthanasia are followed indicated doctors had not adhered to the law. The report indicated the committees forwarded information about the cases to the justice department and health inspectors.

Though the numbers show more patients losing their lives, noted American bioethics author and attorney Wesley Smith says the voluntary euthanasia figures don't include all cases of euthanasia or assisted suicide.

He said these "legalized murders do not include the about 900 'termination without request or consent' non-voluntary euthanasia deaths that Dutch studies have reported doctors commit each year." [1May08, LifeNews.com, Amsterdam, Netherlands]

RENOWNED ONCOLOGIST CHANGES POSITION ON EUTHANASIA AFTER CONTRACTING CANCER. The Spanish magazine Huellas has published an interview with Sylvie Menard, one of the most renowned oncologists in Europe who for many years was a supporter of euthanasia but several months ago changed her views after she was diagnosed with bone cancer.

Menard told the magazine that she always believed that each person should decide his own fate, but ‘when I became ill, I changed my position radically.”

“When you get sick, death ceases to be something virtual and becomes something that is with you every day,” she said.  “So you say to yourself: ‘I am going to do everything possible to live as long as possible.”

Menard, who is married and has one son, acknowledged, “Today anything that means a new chance at life is valuable to me.”

Despite her illness, she continues as head of the Experimental Oncology Department at the Institute of Cancer in Milan. She said that those who promote euthanasia do so for two reasons: they don’t want to suffer and they don’t want to lose self-sufficiency, thus becoming a burden for others.

She agreed that people who are ill “do not want to experience pain” and that “they have a right to alleviate it”. She also emphasized that “pain therapy has advanced considerably in recent years.”

“Even if you do not have complete use of your faculties and you cannot get up because you are confined to bed, but you still have the affection of your family members, in my opinion, even in those conditions, it’s worth it to keep living,” she said. [[11 April 08, Madrid, Sylvie Menard, CNA, http://www.catholicnewsagency.com/new.php?n=12314]; Cheryl Eckstein
Compassionate Healthcare Network (CHN)
www.chninternational.com/default.html; 28Apr08, N Valko RN]