AMSTERDAM, Netherlands, JULY 3, 2004 (Zenit.org).- Fears about illegal abuses by euthanasia practitioners are being borne out.
In their arguments, euthanasia advocates often present heart-wrenching examples of terminally ill people pleading to be allowed to end their suffering. They also promise that if euthanasia were to be legalized that it would be governed by strict guidelines.
So what has happened in the Netherlands, pioneer of legal euthanasia? A June 5 article in the British Medical Journal reported on worries expressed by the Dutch health minister, Clémence Ross, that doctors are not fulfilling their legal obligations to report cases of euthanasia. Her appeal, noted the article, comes after figures for 2003 showed a fall, for the fourth consecutive year, in the number of reported cases of euthanasia, to 1,815.
Changes in the law on euthanasia reporting took effect in 2002, after a study showed that only 54% of the cases in the previous year had been reported. Ross has asked for another study next year on reporting levels.
Another controversy arose in June in the Netherlands when news broke that three people with Huntington's disease and another one with Alzheimer's died through euthanasia. Dutch law prohibits recourse to euthanasia in such cases, restricting its application to situations where patients are suffering from unsupportable physical pain, the Spanish newspaper El País noted June 7.
The law specifies prison terms of up to 12 years, for violations of the law governing euthanasia. But Dutch legal authorities have decided not to prosecute the doctors involved in these cases. According to El País, none of the Huntington's sufferers were in the final stages of their illness, and the Alzheimer's patient was still in the initial phase of the condition.
In Belgium, where information was released in 2003 on the first year of legal euthanasia, doubts were also raised over the number of official suicides. The official number of euthanasia cases was 170. But when the prestigious Belgian medical journal, Artsenkrant, studied weekly reports from hospitals, it concluded that the real number was two to three times higher, the Italian Catholic daily Avvenire reported Sept. 3.
In the United States, similar concerns about the accuracy of numbers have been raised in Oregon, where state law permits assisted suicide. According to a March 11 report by LifeNews.com, official data show that 42 people died by means of assisted suicide in 2003, up from 38 the previous year.
Brian Johnston, author of "Death as a Salesman: What's Wrong With Assisted Suicide," explained to LifeNews that while Oregon law requires assisted suicides to be reported, there are no penalties for failing to do so.
Not terminally ill
Doubts have also been raised over the Swiss assisted-suicide organization Dignitas. This group was founded in Zurich in 1998. For a nominal fee, terminally ill people can become a member and receive assistance in committing suicide. Some of the deaths of its members have raised a red flag. In fact, in June the local press reported that the group has transferred its operations from the canton of Zurich to that of Aargau, following a tightening of regulations by Zurich authorities.
A number of cases involving British citizens have received wide publicity in the United Kingdom. The newspaper Independent on June 23 reported on an inquest into the deaths of a British couple, Robert and Jennifer Stokes, who had turned to Dignitas.
The Bedfordshire coroner found that the couple suffered from chronic diseases and had a history of mental illness -- but they were not terminally ill. All the same, in March they received help in obtaining a lethal dose of drugs from Dignitas. The coroner noted that the couple did not fulfill the requirement of Swiss law that assisted-suicide patients be terminally ill. Nor did they have sound judgment -- another legal requirement.
And in Australia a recent report confirmed that a euthanasia advocate, who eventually committed suicide, was not suffering from cancer, the Brisbane-based Courier-Mail reported June 8. Nancy Crick became a nationally renowned figure and hoped her case would lead to laws permitting assisted suicide. She was advised by the notorious euthanasia advocate Philip Nitschke.
Crick had affirmed she was suffering from cancer. But an exhaustive postmortem report, published two years after her suicide, ruled out any possibility that she had cancer. The police have ruled out charges in the case, even though assisted suicide is illegal in the state of Queensland, where Crick died.
Competent, but not consulted
Problems are not limited to countries where euthanasia is legal. In New Zealand, a hotly debated bill to allow assisted suicide was narrowly defeated in Parliament last year. Yet, a recent report revealed that many doctors are hastening the deaths of terminally ill patients.
A study in the New Zealand Medical Journal showed that 693 general practitioners, who had responded anonymously to a national survey, had participated in a physician-assisted death over a 12-month period, the Otago Daily Times reported June 21. Of these doctors, 39 had performed "some kind of action which would conform to everyday concepts of physician-assisted suicide or euthanasia."
The study added that most of the hastened deaths occurred even though palliative care was available. As well, in 15 of the cases it was nurses who had given the patients life-ending drugs.
Moreover, in 380 cases, the doctors' decision to put an end to patients' lives was taken without discussion with the patient. The main reason cited by the doctors for not consulting was that the patient was too ill. Still, in 88 cases the doctors didn't consult even those patients they judged to be competent.
"Legal or not, physician-assisted death is an international reality and New Zealand is no exception with such actions occurring in an apparently palliative rich environment," noted the study.
In Britain, a doctor who has helped people commit suicide has dared authorities to charge him, the Independent reported June 26. Dr. Michael Irwin, a retired general practitioner, was arrested last year on suspicion of helping a terminally ill friend to kill himself. Irwin told the newspaper he has advised at least five other people regarding traveling to the Dignitas clinic in Switzerland.
Irwin, chairman of the Voluntary Euthanasia Society until last February, admitted he had drawn up a plan to help his friend Patrick Kneen commit suicide. Kneen died before the plan could be carried out. Police questioned Irwin, but decided not to prosecute him.
Even when cases reach the courts, judges are sometimes reluctant to punish. In the Australian state of Tasmania the Supreme Court convicted a man of assisting a suicide, but set him free with a 12-month suspended sentence, the Sydney Morning Herald reported May 27.
John Godfrey helped his mother Elizabeth die, as she was incapable of committing suicide by herself. According to Judge Peter Underwood, the son was "motivated solely by compassion and love."
It is not morally licit to commit suicide, notes the Catechism of the Catholic Church. "We are stewards, not owners, of the life God has entrusted to us," says No. 2280. "It is not ours to dispose of." Words overlooked by too many, too often.
ZE04070301 - 2004-07-03
Permalink: http://www.zenit.org/article-17494?l=english
Legal or Not, Euthanasia Moves Ahead
Worst Fears Justified as Abuses Multiply
© Innovative Media, Inc.
Reprinting ZENIT's articles requires written permission from the editor.
 |
Send this to a friend |  |
Comment on this article |
 |
Printer-friendly format |  |
PDF format |
 |
Home |
