![](http://i292.photobucket.com/albums/mm9/wagglebee/euthanasia.jpg?t=1221694000%22";)
“This person suffering from hereditary defects
costs the people 60,000 Reichmarks during his lifetime.
People, that is your money. Read ‘New People’.”
Posted on 08/12/2010 4:33:18 PM PDT by wagglebee
NIJ BEETS, Netherlands, August 12, 2010 (LifeSiteNews.com) – A woman has been arrested for killing her four newborn children and packing their remains away in suitcases in the Netherlands - a country where infanticide is legal as long a doctor administers the dose.
According to Radio Netherlands Worldwide, the unnamed 25-year-old woman was a well-known and liked dentist’s assistant in the rural town of Nij Beets, in the Dutch province of Friesland. She managed to keep the infanticides secret for years until her Wednesday arrest, and remains now in police custody.
Police were tipped off by a suspicious neighbor who noted that the woman kept getting visibly pregnant, but never had any children. After authorities found her story of putting up the children for adoption did not pan out, the woman confessed to the murders and showed them where the infants’ corpses lay: packed away in suitcases in her parents’ attic.
The children were reportedly born between 2002 and 2010. Her parents, with whom she has been living, have denied any knowledge of their daughter’s pregnancies.
The Dutch woman’s infanticides, however, are the latest in a string of media reports of at least three women in France, who had also committed multiple infanticides.
Despite local shock and outrage at the infanticides, Dutch case law permits the killing of newborns for “unbearable suffering” by doctors following a checklist called the Groningen Protocol.
“The Groningen Protocol for Euthanasia in Newborns” – its official title – was developed by doctors at the Groningen University Medical Center in 2002 with the cooperation of the Dutch Prosecution Office. Its principal author, Dr. Eduard Verhagen, MD, explained the protocol’s requirements: “The diagnosis and prognosis must be certain; Hopeless and unbearable suffering must be present; The diagnosis, prognosis, and unbearable suffering must be confirmed by at least one independent doctor; Both parents must give informed consent; The procedure must be performed in accordance with the accepted medical standard."
Under these conditions, the Dutch accept “eugenic infanticide” – estimating 15-20 official infant killings per year. The doctor informs a coroner of the infant euthanasia, who then reports the killing to the district attorney. Most of the infants killed have been those diagnosed with spina bifida.
Dutch pediatric neurosurgeon Rob de Jong criticized the Groningen Protocol in the medical journal “Child's Nervous System” arguing that it is difficult to prove that the suffering of an infant is or will remain unbearable. In an article discussing infants with spina bifida, De Jong cited a number of cases of physicians who, in retrospect, have been forced to acknowledge that their initial diagnosis was incorrect. (see coverage)
Bioethicist Wesley J. Smith at his First Things blog wryly opined that perhaps authorities planned to charge the woman “with practicing medicine without a license.”
“So, what’s the difference between the accused woman and doctors who kill babies? An MD license? The use of a lethal injection? Or is it bigotry against babies who will have disabilities or have terminal diseases?” said Smith. “Perhaps the woman’s defense will be she didn’t want them to suffer by being adopted.”
For further reading:
The Groningen Protocol — Euthanasia in Severely Ill Newborns by Dr. Eduard Verhagen, MD
http://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMp058026
See related coverage by LifeSiteNews.com:
SHOCK: Newborns Who Suffer are "Better off Dead" - "World's Most Prestigious" Bioethics Journal
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2008/feb/08022201.html
Paediatric Neurosurgeons Criticize Dutch Practice of Euthanasia on Babies With Spina Bifida
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2008/jan/08011610.html
Italian Minister Accuses Holland of "Nazism" for Euthanasia Laws
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2006/mar/06032003.html
Holland to Allow Baby Euthanasia
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2006/mar/06030601.html
Infant Euthanasia Underreported in Netherlands, Study Finds
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2005/mar/05031102.html
I’ve basically heard these ideas expressed by some libertarians on FR.
Hey, there are some who think child prostitution is just part of free trade and all that
Yes, but didn’t the Nazis also have subprograms within T4 like Wild Euthanasia?
I’m not sure what “subprograms” they had, but they expanded T4 very quickly.
I still like the sci-fi movie plot where young adults of the future travel back in time to dispatch their would-be abortionists in order to survive their future existence.
There was one on here (now banned) who didn’t think that it’s a big deal for doctors to fondle little girls because the girls wouldn’t know it was a problem.
Yeah right. I’ve been here a long time and have never seen any such thing. Great straw man you knocked down in order to defeat those evil libertarians.
Ahh but only if a "doctor" does it.. This is where the abortion train is headed Wag ...
believe they took years, laying the groundwork with propaganda. Once the folk were conditioned, they were able to move very quickly
You must have missed those threads on drug legalizing too, where its okay for kids to buy drugs in a free market. They already “prescribe” pot to kids out west for anything from toe jam those quacks.
I think the original idea can be credited to Australian philosopher and “ethicist” Peter Singer, who teaches at Princeton.
The love of money is the root of all evil.
Notice how money is always one of the trump cards they play for killing people.
“well-known and liked” many times, it sounds like.
Slippery slope rears its head again.
“The love of money is the root of all evil.
Notice how money is always one of the trump cards they play for killing people.”
Your right it all comes down to money. The other day I was reading an article about a poor woman who had a c-section and ended up with a flesh eating bacteria which ravished her body. I won’t go into details, but the amount of care she needed was tramatic, she almost died several times and some of the things they did to keep her alive, I didn’t even know they could do. According to the article the cost of keeping her alive was about 5-million dollars. Part of me said “Wow!” in regards to the cost, seemed inflated to me, yet miracles were performed and then the other part of me said “Wow! I am so glad she’s alive to celebrate her little boy’s 4th or 5th birthday. It’s amazing what can be done. I don’t know who was paying for all this care, but wow.
And you know what?
What they learned from saving her life can save countless others some day.
New and experimental treatment and procedures are initially expensive, but worth the cost in the long run.
I don’t believe for a minute that it’s all about alleviating suffering of the infant (as if he/she were a farm animal). It’s about the convenience of the parents and others who might be put out by the existence of the child.
They don’t object to killing the child. They object that she didn’t go to a professional killer. That’s liberalism, for you.
Having known three individuals with spina bifida when I was growing up, none had unbearable suffering, although one had some significant disability.
Truly horrifying.
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