Posted on 01/13/2005 7:06:20 AM PST by Houmatt
The Royal Dutch Medical Association has concluded, after a three-year investigation, that Dutch doctors ought to be able to kill patients who are not ill but who are judged to be "suffering through living."
The decision contradicts the Dutch Supreme Court that ruled in 2002 that patients may only request euthanasia if they have a "classifiable physical or mental condition," and not if they are merely "tired of life." The law however, does not require a medical condition, but only that a patient must be "suffering hopelessly and unbearably." Pro-life activists have warned that such ambiguous language is an open door for new interpretations that would make the law a license to kill.
The new report says many Dutch doctors believe some cases of "suffering through living" could be judged "unbearable and hopeless."
Jos Dijkhuis, the emeritus professor of clinical psychology who led the study said, "In more than half of cases we considered, doctors were not confronted with a classifiable disease. In practice the medical domain of doctors is far broader … We see a doctor's task is to reduce suffering, therefore we can't exclude these cases in advance. We must now look further to see if we can draw a line and if so where."
Mira de Vries, of the Association for Medical and Therapeutic Self-Determination, a pro-suicide group, pointed out that the law exists only to protect doctors from prosecution for homicide. She commented on the British Medical Journal's forum page, "By claiming that the medical domain of doctors is far broader, and includes the reduction of suffering unrelated to classifiable and measurable somatic illness, physicians are proposing to redefine medicine, and vastly expand its already inflated territory."
Henk Jochemsen, director of the anti-euthanasia Lindeboom Institute for Medical Ethics, said the report gave the message that, "we as a society should say to people who feel their life has lost meaning: right you had better go away."
"The Royal Dutch Medical Association has concluded, after a three-year investigation, that Dutch doctors ought to be able to kill patients who are not ill but who are judged to be "suffering through living." "
If they take this over to DU they will make millions!!!
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" to be able to kill patients who are not ill but who are judged to be "suffering through living "
That's what I call a true progress !
Slippery Slope Alert!
If people avoid hospitals and die earlier at home, think of all the money the government will save!
It is the one who pays the bills whose interest is served, no matter what the commodity or what the transaction. If you are paying for your own medical care, the medical system will try to keep you alive and maintain your quality of life. If the government is paying for your medical care, the medical system will try to reduce government expenditures, and keeping you alive and maintaining a high quality of life is irrelevant.
It's a perverse incentive. Thus the tag-line...
I guess the sturdy and hard-hearted Dutch never learned the lesson from the murder of Anne Frank.
lets see Dutch doctors try it on other Dutch doctors.
Can you say slippery slope?
Indeed it is. Shades of genetic "purity." Seems that we've heard this before somewhere.
I went to a Jesuit university (Xavier University '69) and I remember discussing in Philosophy class the musings of St. Thomas Aquinas and in the general discussion the question of abortion and euthanasia was discussed with a view that this whole idea is simply theoretical since it would never actually come to pass.
What is it with the Dutch society ??
All the Dutch I met were reasonable no-nonsense people...
Coming here soon. Note the Terri Schiavo case. Thank God for Jeb Bush.
For a culture that loves death, there is no future.
Is this this the bottom of the slippery slope? Or is there one more little mogul to get over: involuntary euthenasia? Everyone ELSE is sick of you living so Ciao?
It's like an SNL script of some sort.
What's next.
"Dutch doctors to be allowed to kill Indians with Fondue Pots."
"Dutch doctors to be allowed to kill anyone whose last name ends in z - Poles hardest hit."
"Dutch doctors to be allowed to kill women who wax their upper lips - medical commission says 'It was only a matter of time anyway.'"
"Dutch doctors allowed to kill on all days ending in y."
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