Sorry..it was the first thing that came to mind.
Posted on 11/30/2004 11:17:14 AM PST by Pyro7480
Netherlands Hospital Euthanizes Babies
By TOBY STERLING, Associated Press Writer
AMSTERDAM, Netherlands - Raising the stakes in an excruciating ethical debate, 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 in a handful of cases and reporting them to the government.
The announcement last month 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 to the request, a spokesman said, and it may come as soon as December.
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 spina bifida and epidermosis bullosa, a blistering illness.
The hospital said it carried out four such mercy killings in 2003, and reported all cases to government prosecutors — but there have been no legal proceedings taken against them.
Catholic organizations and the Vatican have reacted with outrage to Groningen's announcement, and U.S. euthanasia opponents contend that 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 of 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 with 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 but that such 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 and staff ethicist at Carolinas Medical Center in the United States. "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.
Sorry..it was the first thing that came to mind.
I have some very sad news for you.
The next step is any old person who can not get out of bed on his/her own ...
Ever hear of barter clubs? People exchange goods with each other of greater or lesser value, like they did before money was invented. Well, guess what, the IRS wants that declared too!
(/sarcasm)
I have some very sad news for you.
You've piqued my interest.
Just an inconvenient mass of cells, in this case doomed anyway....
(Actually, this is hardly new. For years, as part of its one-child policy, China has been euthanizing excess and unauthorized babies born to parents who already have a child. The preferred method there is an injection of alcohol directly into the brain via the "soft spot" at the top of an infantls skull. A cheap and easy method of disposal of an inconvenient mass of cells.)
There just aren't any easy answers. It may be better to let a thousand dying people suffer excruciating pain to the natural end than to risk having the lives of 10 curable people ended unnecessarily.
"There just aren't any easy answers. It may be better to let a thousand dying people suffer excruciating pain to the natural end than to risk having the lives of 10 curable people ended unnecessarily."
Agreed and thanks for your well-written response!
I have personally witnessed four deaths (actually one was a friend who died a day or two after the last time I saw her) where nature took its course. When people are getting ready to die, they don't want to drink any more. You can call it dehydration, but they don't*want*to*drink. The individuals are gradually detaching from the body. Two of the individuals - when I was personally present - had no experience of pain whatsoever and had ceased taking any medication. Another one was more or less comatose due to morphine. And the fourth one was also pain free near the end, without any medication. It's amazing what can happen near death. Nature is really the best mother.
If people want to commit suicide, that's their business. Once it becomes the government's business to "assist", the slippery slope comes into effect, just as this article (and my comments) indicate. No amount of "feelings" and "my friend" anecdotes can change this reality.
I spend a lot of time with terminally ill people, btw.
From what the hospice nurses say, nothing beats morphine. A person can take enough to beat pain but still be conscious and not feel overly drugged. Never having taken opiates myself, I have no personal experience.
"Two of the individuals - when I was personally present - had no experience of pain whatsoever and had ceased taking any medication."
My mother had a similar experience. I call it life-after-death, although that's not PC anymore. An amazing testimony. I'm sure many do suffer tremendously, however. And I'm all for morphine or whatever else.
We must revere life, especially the lives of the most young and helpless. But also the lives of our elders. That is the glue that holds civilization together. FReegards....
Call, fax, email your congressmen.
.
Sometimes countries get what they deserve. Maybe it will take the threat of the Muslims to straighten them out.
No, the only problem with social security is the 45 million aborted citizens that will never have a job or contribute.
It's MURDER!
The Muslims in Holland are witnessing a culture in full descent down the slippery slope of death, with low birthrates, high abortion rates and now a wider practice of euthanasia. For the Dutch to expect them to integrate into that culture is evidence that they are smoking some grade-a stuff.
There is a great conservative Anglican church in Davidson. (Parishioners comprise Davidson Catholics and conservative ex-Episcopalians.) Quite a few of the Davidson college kids are attending, as a group, for full communion every Sunday. :-)
http://www.tcotgs.org/
Alternatively there are plenty of folks heading down to Huntersville, which has a huge Catholic church (St. Marks), 6 miles from the college.
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