Posted on 03/19/2006 9:03:00 PM PST by Murtyo
AMSTERDAM (Reuters) - The Dutch government is furious after an Italian minister this week branded the country's euthanasia laws as akin to the policies of Adolf Hitler and the Nazis, according to Dutch news agency ANP.
Dutch Prime Minister Balkenende is expected to raise the matter with Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi next week at a European summit, ANP said.
"This is scandalous and unacceptable... it is not the way to get along in Europe," Balkenende said on Friday.
Italian Parliamentary Relations Minister Carlo Giovanardi told a radio program on Thursday that Nazi thinking was re-emerging in Europe through Dutch euthanasia laws and a debate on the killing of children with deformities.
He has refused to apologize.
In 2001, the Netherlands became the first country to legalize adult euthanasia. The number of cases is not known as not all doctors report them, but the government estimates there are several thousand each year.
Doctors must obey strict rules -- patients must face a future of unbearable suffering and make a voluntary request to die; doctor and patient must be convinced there is no other solution; a second doctor must be consulted and life ended in a medically appropriate way.
The government recently set up a commission to regulate the practice of ending the lives of "seriously suffering" newborn babies, a move critics say could allow more euthanasia.
Euthanasia of newborns and late abortions remain illegal, but the commission is likely to recommend that doctors who follow certain rules are not charged in concrete cases.
Ministers want the commission to work on the basis of criteria similar to current unofficial rules -- allowing euthanasia or late abortion if the baby had no chance of survival and was suffering unbearably, if the doctor consulted at least one other, the parents agreed and the life was ended in the correct medical way.
Dutch media estimate about the lives of 15 to 20 disabled newborns are terminated each year.
Three years ago Berlusconi was himself in trouble for telling a German politician who was haranguing him during his debut at the European Parliament he should play a Nazi concentration camp guard in a film.
The truth hurts.
"Dutch media estimate about the lives of 15 to 20 disabled newborns are terminated each year." - "TERMINATED" - fired from their jobs??
Language is always the first victim of all these ideologies.
If the shoe fits....
Go ahead Dutchmen -- abort and euthanize yourselves out of existence and let Holland become The Emirate of Hollandia
Stinks like nazism to me.
terminated is actually fairly accurate: it means "ended"
it is nowhere near the euphemism that "executed" is, let alone "aborted"
but, it would be best if everyone would just call a spade a spade and use the simplest analogue in their language to the English word "killed"
"Getting along" in Europe does not have the happiest of histories, especially with respect to the Nazis. Nor is it the most successful of policies with respect to the Moslems either. "Getting along" seems to be vastly overrated.
---The number of cases is not known as not all doctors report them, but the government estimates there are several thousand each year.---
The Nazis at least kept records.
Do you think the Dutch will riot and burn things, now that THEY are insulted by someone telling the truth? That's the way the Euros do it these days, isn't it?
"Getting along" IS vastly over-rated.
If the foo shi'ites..
that-sa spicy meat-balla...
Small humans with small minds trying to play God. It's been going on for centuries. Not all good gifts come perfectly wrapped.
I agree, the truth hurts!
It a shur-is! You doan messa widda bambini or I take-a da winchester with the canna mozz and make spapolament on da ual!
In Nazi Germany, they did it more often but made it sound like someone other than it was, killing. And what about Judge Greer and Michael Schiavo? They tried to make the killing of Terri Schiavo sound humane when it too was a Nazi act.
I have great sympathy for the Dutch because of the Islamofascist violence against them, but they should get a handle on their own acts of commission and omission and stop the killing of babies who are born disabled.
Yea, right. I really believe that the doctors are following all the guide lines. The Dutch call it euthanasia but that is just a watered down word for murder.
It does not matter in the long run in Holland. Once the Muslims take over that country, all of the Dutch will be volunteering to be killed painlessly rather than see what the Religion of Peace has in store for them.
Death and destruction is going to be everywhere, legal or not.
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