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.
Well, you threw two posts at me and I'm responding even though one was an insult (since the other's insult had a winky smiley.) :-)
...the right to die as defined as a human euthanization...
Well, who defines it that way? Euthanasia is not the same as physician-assisted suicide, nor does it include it. Right-to-die is a much broader term, for a right, not a process.
Early Christians committed suicide like mad, with many seeing it as what we were supposed to do if we loved God and wanted to be with Him. After all, only those in lust with earthly pleasures would want to spend time here when we should be in His presence, right (so the argument went--and see Paul's letter to the Phillippians)? Many committed suicide to prevent sins they were unable to resist. Some felt that Jesus had made choices that He knew would lead to His death, and in trying to "be like Him," they would provoke opportunities for martyrdom--even if it was often more like "death by cop" than any useful benefit to the Church.
The Circumcellions and Donatists were some of the groups big into the suicide thing, jumping off cliffs or taunting/threatening strangers into killing them (Circumcellions) or self-immolating or whatever. (Speaking of the Donatists, Augustine of Hippo called suicide "their daily sport.") It wasn't until centuries after Christ's death and resurrection that Augustine realized the Church membership rolls (and coffers) weren't growing too well with the believers offing themselves, and he wrote against suicide. It was the following century before it became "'gainst da rules" (at the Council of Brega?) "officially".
Note, there is no Biblical proscription of suicide, and it did not prevent canonization as a saint.
So, it seems to me that a "right to die" is not inconsistent with a belief in a Creator, and history backs up that position. Wish I didn't need to run through all that, and it's a bit rusty, but you're the one who kept bringing up history. :-)
Hurling insults and claiming those who disagree with you are stupid or somehow not as aristoi because they happen to know their history seems to reveal an argument which relies far too much on pathos to be above the suspicion of the most casual bystander.
Uh, where did I "hurl insults"? I didn't mean to do that, nor imply others are stupid, and I think you're misreading something. And it's laughable to imply that I would say that ignorance of history is "aristoi"!
Frankly, I'm doing my best to believe you are being straight in your posts and not just satirizing your position. "...far too much on pathos to be above the suspicion of the most casual bystander..."? Hmm... Guess it would be "aristoi" of me to suggest you hang out with awfully dense casual bystanders, eh? ;-)
So, is it the "active termination" part that is the hangup?
You are clearly a compassionate and caring person. Exploiting compassion is the Left's most powerful tool.
I mentioned pain killers and sedatives. I repeat: The only reason to kill a patient is to save money.
Don't fall for it. A few isolated acts of illegality are one thing. But do you really want the elderly to feel guilty for staying alive? That's what will happen. The Left will hover around them like vultures, making them feel guilty for not killing themselves, making them feel like parasites. At the same time, some people will start thinking of their elders as selfish for staying alive.
Here's an example: a boyfriend will sometimes kick his girlfriend in the stomach if she doesn't choose abortion. Some parents will drag her to the abortion clinic. Euthanasia will have even worse results, because the victim will be able to speak, will break down, and say, "Kill me for the sake of the family."
FReegards....
Right.
I'd bet that a lot of the people on the left who have the most scathing criticisms of the Patriot Act have no idea how "intrusive' the IRS can be. Either that, or they never bothered to think about it, or they don't care because it does not affect them.
Oh well. That's a WHOLE other kettle of fish . . .
Have a good one!
Some Wells college girls were cool, but these days a lot of them don't need men in their love lives, if you get my drift..
They'll be a lot of Dutchmen tending fires for eternity.
These days, my understanding is that few college kids date anymore- they're too busy for a relationship. They "hook up" (which I guess us old foogies would call "one night stands")
I graduated from college in '97 and I'm amazed how much college culture has changed since then.
Thanks for the ping, ed, and will do!
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I knew a couple of students in committed relationships (I was one of them - a roommate was another), but the kids who "hooked up" or slept around were looked down on as tramps and trash. At least by the people I was running with. We were fairly busy but not insanely so, except when our thesis was due . . . now THAT was insanity!
"If you are going to kill all these people, at least take the brains out so that the material could be utilized." (Testimony of Dr. Julius Hallervordan, 1947)
"The victims of this Buchenwald typhus test did not suffer in vain and did not die in vain . . . people were saved by these experiments." (Dr. Gebhard Rose, Doctors’ Trial, 1947)
Cordially,
"Ah yes, the 'killing cures societal ills and relieves responsibility' approach. I too am finding your assertive remarks interesting, though somewhat disgusting. You do represent a significant segment of this nation's citizens."
That's an interesting position you've taken, given the fact that I haven't endorsed euthanasia in this thread - I've only asked what the solution is to this situation, since I don't think the solution is to kill babies. However, I'm also not a fan of more gov't nor am I a fan of financially ruining parents lives over the skyrocketing costs of such specialized care.
But hey - continue with your push-button reactions, rather than addressing a solution to the problem. I'm sure that makes you happy.
""If you are going to kill all these people, at least take the brains out so that the material could be utilized." (Testimony of Dr. Julius Hallervordan, 1947)
"The victims of this Buchenwald typhus test did not suffer in vain and did not die in vain . . . people were saved by these experiments." (Dr. Gebhard Rose, Doctors’ Trial, 1947) "
Those are strawmen quotes. Your examples deal with the Holocaust, where actual living people who'd been born were sadly used in experiments. Obviously, I don't endorse this.
Blastocysts != people.
Cordially,
I graduated from college in '97 and I'm amazed how much college culture has changed since then.
Oh please. What college did you graduate from in '97 where the majority of kids were in a serious relationship?
I graduated in '98 and believe me, most kids, especially Freshmen and Sophomores were just "hooking up".
That said, I started dating my (now)spouse as a Sophomore, but I was mostly ostracized by my former crew for being in a serious relationship.
Not what I said. When I was in college, the approach to relationships ran the whole gamut, from one night stands only to serious relationships only.
These days, the trend seems to leand heavily towards the one night stand only end of the spectrum. The explanation that is bandied about is that college kids are too busy these days to deal with a long-term significant other.
Agreed. But that trend started before you graduated - it started in the early nineties...cell phones just made it worse.
Hoewever, I think I might never have left my dorm room if I had a laptop and e-mail, as most kids do now!
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.
In this country, we just instruct L & D nurse to leave the baby to die in the soiled linen room.
That fact just displays the Left's blatant hypocrisy. They claim the "compassion" high ground on every issue, but when they permit such things to happen, they are exposed for what they are.
I wonder how these people live with themselves, and whether the people who "assist" with the "assisted suicide" really know whether they can handle the psychological effects of participation.
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