Posted on 11/19/2004 10:30:49 AM PST by Mo1
Netherlands Hospital Euthanizes Babies
AMSTERDAM, Netherlands (AP) - A hospital in the Netherlands - the first nation to permit euthanasia - recently proposed guidelines for mercy killings of terminally ill newborns, and then made a startling revelation: It has already begun carrying out such procedures, which include administering a lethal dose of sedatives.
The announcement by the Groningen Academic Hospital came amid a growing discussion in Holland on whether to legalize euthanasia on people incapable of deciding for themselves whether they want to end their lives - a prospect viewed with horror by euthanasia opponents and as a natural evolution by advocates.
In August, the main Dutch doctors' association KNMG urged the Health Ministry to create an independent board to review euthanasia cases for terminally ill people "with no free will," including children, the severely mentally retarded and people left in an irreversible coma after an accident.
The Health Ministry is preparing its response, which could come as soon as December, a spokesman said.
Three years ago, the Dutch parliament made it legal for doctors to inject a sedative and a lethal dose of muscle relaxant at the request of adult patients suffering great pain with no hope of relief.
The Groningen Protocol, as the hospital's guidelines have come to be known, would create a legal framework for permitting doctors to actively end the life of newborns deemed to be in similar pain from incurable disease or extreme deformities.
The guideline says euthanasia is acceptable when the child's medical team and independent doctors agree the pain cannot be eased and there is no prospect for improvement, and when parents think it's best.
Examples include extremely premature births, where children suffer brain damage from bleeding and convulsions; and diseases where a child could only survive on life support for the rest of its life, such as severe cases of spina bifida and epidermosis bullosa, a rare blistering illness.
The hospital revealed last month it carried out four such mercy killings in 2003, and reported all cases to government prosecutors. There have been no legal proceedings against the hospital or the doctors.
Roman Catholic organizations and the Vatican have reacted with outrage to the announcement, and U.S. euthanasia opponents contend the proposal shows the Dutch have lost their moral compass.
"The slippery slope in the Netherlands has descended already into a vertical cliff," said Wesley J. Smith, a prominent California-based critic, in an e-mail to The Associated Press.
Child euthanasia remains illegal everywhere. Experts say doctors outside Holland do not report cases for fear of prosecution.
"As things are, people are doing this secretly and that's wrong," said Eduard Verhagen, head of Groningen's children's clinic. "In the Netherlands we want to expose everything, to let everything be subjected to vetting."
According to the Justice Ministry, four cases of child euthanasia were reported to prosecutors in 2003. Two were reported in 2002, seven in 2001 and five in 2000. All the cases in 2003 were reported by Groningen, but some of the cases in other years were from other hospitals.
Groningen estimated the protocol would be applicable in about 10 cases per year in the Netherlands, a country of 16 million people.
Since the introduction of the Dutch law, Belgium has also legalized euthanasia, while in France, legislation to allow doctor-assisted suicide is currently under debate. In the United States, the state of Oregon is alone in allowing physician-assisted suicide, but this is under constant legal challenge.
However, experts acknowledge that doctors euthanize routinely in the United States and elsewhere, but that the practice is hidden.
"Measures that might marginally extend a child's life by minutes or hours or days or weeks are stopped. This happens routinely, namely, every day," said Lance Stell, professor of medical ethics at Davidson College in Davidson, N.C., and staff ethicist at Carolinas Medical Center in Charlotte, N.C. "Everybody knows that it happens, but there's a lot of hypocrisy. Instead, people talk about things they're not going to do."
More than half of all deaths occur under medical supervision, so it's really about management and method of death, Stell said.
DAN RATHER TALKS TO GHOST!!
Rather: I Talk to Ed Murrow's Ghost... From HOLLYWOOD REPORTER Tuesday, Dan Rather at CBS: 'Ed Murrow's ghost is here. I've seen him and talked to him on the third floor of this building many times late at night. And I can tell you that he's watching over us'...
****
And then there was this: "Ed Murrow's ghost is here. I've seen him and talked to him on the third floor of this building many times late at night. And I can tell you that he's watching over us."
If Rather has been spending too much time of late yakking with the ghost of Murrow and too little confirming the veracity of his sources, maybe we need to cut the dude a little slack. He's earned the right to be eccentric by continuing the quest to be a real journalist when he didn't have to.
http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/thr/columns/the_pulse_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1000727825
Dan - shake yourself, my man.
Nothing really new here.
When most babies were born at home, it was common for Doctors to let imperfect babies die, or to help them to die.
So9
When most babies were born at home, it was common for Doctors to let imperfect babies die, or to help them to die.
I know some don't see it as being selfish...each life is special to the Lord... nothing is an accident and much can be learn by both parent and child, even if it seems it is a lost cause....there are things beyond us and if we do our part to the best we can....in the scheme of things...of trails and tribulations it is part of our growth as person, it too has a purpose to prepared us, for the real realm....eternity!
Freewill is an awsome responsibility!
.....Westy....
I'll rent.......
Drive home with a smile on your face after listening to a good speech.
Bring your binoculars though and dress warm.
Are you thinking of moving to Mexico?
Hey..........you're the resident cheerer upper. No mas. No mas.
You must be lurking on DU too much.......:-)
I've thought about it...Mainly when it's grey, cloudy, cold or rainy outside....lol....Can't do it now though...To old and not in good enough shape health wise now...
.....Westy.....
Roger that......like this next month will be....
Swervie, you already know that my hubby is a physician, but Resty, I don't think you know. He has told me tales of what has happened at times when he was in medical school and doing ob/gyn rotations. When a baby was born that had profound disabilities, usually genetic, they were not treated if there was no hope of the child living any period of time. That is, if the deformities were so severe, that the only way for the baby to live would be through extraordinary means like life support, and if the prognosis were grim, as in no hope for survival, then no treatment would be undertaken. The baby would be allowed to die naturally. He never said that any of them were helped to die, but neither were any heroics undertaken when there was no hope for the baby to survive. I don't find that to be an immoral act.
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Can I steal your tagline for a while.....
:-)
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.....Westy......
I'm sure I'll enjoy the speech .. but I doubt I'll enjoy the whinning from the kiddies having to sit in the cold most of the day .. besides it's a 4/5 hour drive for me and I'll never make it there in time if I left in the morning
it just ain't gonna happen
You'll make a bundle......
I was not referring to terminal cases I was thinking on the terms of being deformed or downs syndrom etc
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