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Euthanasia on the rise in Holland: now being applied to patients with dementia
LifeSiteNews ^ | 6/27/11 | Jeanne Smits

Posted on 06/27/2011 4:19:29 PM PDT by wagglebee

June 27, 2011 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Euthanasia is on the rise in the Netherlands, and it is taking an even uglier turn than many would have expected.

Cases of euthanasia have risen from 2,500 in 2009 to 2,700 in 2010; but even more shocking, last year 21 persons suffering from the early stages of dementia, but who were otherwise in good health, were euthanized. All of these 21 “mercy killings” were subsequently approved by the official euthanasia follow-up commission.

This 2010 annual report on euthanasia has yet to be published, but key figures were released by the official news channel, NOS, last Saturday.

The program on NOS told the story of 63-year-old Guusje de Koning, one of the “beneficiaries” of euthanasia last year. In a video shot by de Koning’s husband four days before the 63-year-old woman’s death, and aired on the television station, she explains her choice to be killed to her two children.

De Koning, a sympathetic, healthy and humorous woman with a loving husband and grown-up children, explains that she didn’t want to go on living after she was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease. She says she had witnessed her own father’s slow decline and death due to the illness.

“I don’t want that,” explaine de Koning to her children. “I don’t want to suffer.”

De Koning was “euthanized” in July last year. Her image is now being used to support the notion that killing of people in the first phase of dementia is a good way to avoid both suffering and the excessive cost of healthcare for elderly Netherlanders.

Euthanasia in the Netherlands is only legal when the patient is sound of mind and capable of consistently expressing the death wish. Once dementia has set in, it’s too late: even a living will made prior to the decline cannot be taken into account. The “solution” that is being proposed, therefore, is to step out of life before the disease runs its course.

For months now public meetings have been held in provincial community centers and hotels to encourage the elderly to learn about their “right” to die, even if they are in good health, but afraid of what diagnosed dementia may do to them in the near future.

However, although 95 % of the Dutch favor legal euthanasia, according to opinion polls, currently only 33 % of physicians are at this point in time prepared to euthanize a patient with incipient dementia.


TOPICS: Culture/Society; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: dementia; euthanasia; holland; moralabsolutes; netherlands; prolife
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For months now public meetings have been held in provincial community centers and hotels to encourage the elderly to learn about their “right” to die, even if they are in good health, but afraid of what diagnosed dementia may do to them in the near future.

This is revolting.

1 posted on 06/27/2011 4:19:33 PM PDT by wagglebee
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To: cgk; Coleus; cpforlife.org; narses; Salvation; 8mmMauser
Pro-Life Ping
2 posted on 06/27/2011 4:20:33 PM PDT by wagglebee ("A political party cannot be all things to all people." -- Ronald Reagan, 3/1/75)
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To: BykrBayb; floriduh voter; Lesforlife; Sun
Ping
3 posted on 06/27/2011 4:21:11 PM PDT by wagglebee ("A political party cannot be all things to all people." -- Ronald Reagan, 3/1/75)
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To: 185JHP; 230FMJ; AKA Elena; Albion Wilde; Aleighanne; Alexander Rubin; Amos the Prophet; ...
Moral Absolutes Ping!

Freepmail wagglebee to subscribe or unsubscribe from the moral absolutes ping list.

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4 posted on 06/27/2011 4:21:39 PM PDT by wagglebee ("A political party cannot be all things to all people." -- Ronald Reagan, 3/1/75)
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To: wagglebee

> Euthanasia on the rise in Holland: now being applied to patients with dementia

What can be more demented than a frothing, foaming, drooling, fanatical, genocidal Moslem?

Is this how they are going to solve their “multi-cultural” problem?


5 posted on 06/27/2011 4:24:00 PM PDT by Westbrook (Having children does not divide your love, it multiplies it.)
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To: wagglebee
"applied to patients with dementia"

The democrats may want to rethink their push for this in the US. The whole lot would be candidates given their behavior and rantings.

6 posted on 06/27/2011 4:24:11 PM PDT by Proud_USA_Republican ("The problem with socialism is that you eventually run out of other people's money.")
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To: wagglebee
"applied to patients with dementia"

The democrats may want to rethink their push for this in the US. The whole lot would be candidates given their behavior and rantings.

7 posted on 06/27/2011 4:24:21 PM PDT by Proud_USA_Republican ("The problem with socialism is that you eventually run out of other people's money.")
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To: wagglebee

How long before “Dementia” is defined as failure to support a socialist government?


8 posted on 06/27/2011 4:25:44 PM PDT by Panzerlied ("We shall never surrender!")
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To: wagglebee

People should not try to play God. I think He might frown on that.........


9 posted on 06/27/2011 4:26:45 PM PDT by basil (It's time to rid the country of "gun free zones" aka "Killing Fields")
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To: wagglebee

When I was a kid I wondered how Hitler could come to power and do all the things he did. As if, how could people be so stupid/evil? Here it is happening again, this time with a vengeance.


10 posted on 06/27/2011 4:27:10 PM PDT by stevio (God, guns, guts.)
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To: wagglebee

If it wasn’t for Global Warming I would set my parents, who are suffering from dementia, afloat on an iceberg. I found fighting for the last remaining bergs with polar bears too stressful.


11 posted on 06/27/2011 4:30:21 PM PDT by Sawdring
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To: basil

Palin was right about Death Panels. They are coming to America. First to Old Europe, then the New World.


12 posted on 06/27/2011 4:36:46 PM PDT by heye2monn
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To: wagglebee

13 posted on 06/27/2011 4:40:14 PM PDT by Zuben Elgenubi
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To: wagglebee
The Dutch have recorded a rising number of "involuntary euthanasias," unmentioned here. They learned it from their German cousins back in the forties.
14 posted on 06/27/2011 4:42:36 PM PDT by hinckley buzzard
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To: wagglebee

95% of Dutch people are in favor of legal euthanasia? That’s really hard to believe.

The Nazis didn’t have to win WW2. Their philosophy is alive and well.


15 posted on 06/27/2011 4:44:09 PM PDT by little jeremiah (Courage is not simply one of the virtues, but the form of every virtue at the testing point. CSLewis)
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To: AdmSmith; AnonymousConservative; Berosus; bigheadfred; Bockscar; ColdOne; Convert from ECUSA; ...

Gosh, no one saw that coming. /s

Thanks waggs.


16 posted on 06/27/2011 4:45:50 PM PDT by SunkenCiv (It's the Obamacare, stupid! -- Thanks Cincinna for this link -- http://www.friendsofitamar.org)
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To: Proud_USA_Republican

Jerry Brown, Diane Feinstein, Frank Lautenberg and Harry Reid can all join the suicide program, hell, I will pay for their purple drank!


17 posted on 06/27/2011 4:45:50 PM PDT by wac3rd (Somewhere in Hell, Ted Kennedy snickers....)
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To: hinckley buzzard
"The Dutch have recorded a rising number of "involuntary euthanasias," unmentioned here."

Some links would be useful...

18 posted on 06/27/2011 4:49:52 PM PDT by thouworm (.)
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To: wagglebee

Years ago, my mother-in-law was diagnosed with terminal cancer. She was given less than 4 months to live. It just happened that the doctor was wrong. She lived an additional 15 years and died from something entirely different.

I’m sure this *never* happens in the Netherlands, but if it did, imagine how many people might have agreed to have been killed when they would have had a decade or more of life to spend with their family and friends.


19 posted on 06/27/2011 4:55:35 PM PDT by FourPeas ("Maladjusted and wigging out is no way to go through life, son." -hg)
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To: FourPeas
My Brother in Law, a Canadian (yes - he relinquished his US citizenship at least 30 years ago) is a professor of Philosophy. His thesis happened to be on Euthanasia - has been in the Netherlands on sabbatical several times.

He is his parents' shining light -the Golden Boy whose words are gospel. A copy of said thesis is displayed proudly on the coffee table.

Only who do you think holds the medical POA for these two old lefties? My black sheep conservative husband! Like most libs, they talk a good talk until it affects them directly.

20 posted on 06/27/2011 5:11:46 PM PDT by Mygirlsmom (I'm not so concerned he was born in a 3rd world toilet as I am him trying to turn America into one.)
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