In the Netherlands euthanasia for those who "lived enough" might be permitted
In 2002, Netherlands became the first country that legalized euthanasia, however, at that moment it happened only for the patients who endured unbearable pain and did not have a hope to get cured.
As Reuter reports, in the common letter addressed to the parliament, the ministers of justice and health care industry are writing that, even though the details of a new legislative act need corrections, people who ‘came to the thoughtful conclusion that their life has run its course, should have a possibility, while compiling with the strict and accurate criteria to end this life in a dignified way’.
This proposal is highly likely to cause a new tidal wave from the side of critics who claim that the practice of euthanasia in Holland took a scale coming out of the initially framed limits, and that definition ‘unbearable sufferings’ began to be interpreted extremely wide including not only death sicknesses but also a range of psychiatric deviation, Alzheimer’s disease and other illnesses.
The policy towards euthanasia has a great support in Netherlandish society, and the number of patients leaving this life with the help of doctors is dramatically increasing year by year. As well, the circle of medical workers who are ready to assist in this process is also growing.
In 2015, in Netherlands 5516 cases of euthanasia have been notices what makes 3.9 per cent of all the mortal cases in the country. The euthanasia can be accepted for children starting with 12-year-old age, and also, if all the necessary conditions are followed, for babies who have not reached two years old.
The minister of health care Edit Schippers claimed that desire to leave life according to the own choice is, mostly, typical for aged people, that’s why a new system will be limited for this category. Nevertheless, she did not define aging limit from which the forthcoming legislative act is about to act.
It is expected that legislative act will have been prepared in the complete form at the second half of 2017.
