Posted on 11/30/2004 2:39:32 PM PST by LaPieta
Netherlands Hospital Euthanizes Babies
1 hour, 12 minutes ago Top Stories - AP
AMSTERDAM, Netherlands - 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.
Post natal abortions...the libs will tell us there is nothing to get upset about. One wonders just how long it will be until you can commit a post natal abortion on a full grown liberal douche.
This is Nazi Germany all over again. How soon people forget people like Dr (and we use that term very loosely) Mengele.
The slippery slope - slip slidin' away.
It won't be long before pro-choice advocates here in the US are trying to get this passed here. And I had a bunch of feminists pro-choicers call ME "intolerant". I don't understand how killing a baby just to keep your life simple is tolerant and my wanting to protect them from being slaughtered is "intolerant". I wish I could get my hands around every one of these murderers.
Peter Singer advocated this years ago, as well as offing old useless people such as those with Alzheimers. How happy he must be that his wishes are coming to fruition.
Horrid... absolutely despicable.
What the hell is the difference, logically?
Wouldn't it be merciful and loving to euthanize your quadriplegic 10 year old who will never have a quality life? You'd actually be doing him a favor.
Isn't progressivism just dandy?
poing
As soon as they figure out a way to make lots of money on the 'parts'.
Ref post #9....Yes, I agree with you.
It's the end of the world as we know it, and I feel fine...
I'm embarrassed to be of Dutch Heritage.
Members of the UN consider this euthanasia and what we are doing in Iraq as 'crimes against humanity'.
Looks like a series case of HUA syndrome.
Terminally Ill Babies Euthanized
Experts Say Mercy Killings Elsewhere Go Unreported Out of Fear
By TOBY STERLING, AP
AMSTERDAM, Netherlands (Nov. 30) - 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.
AP-NY-11-30-04 20:41 EST
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