Saturday, January 28, 2006

Euthanasia in the Netherlands

Today I visited an 84 years old woman. She has a metastasized lung cancer and wants to die as soon as possible. Foreigners think euthanasia in the Netherlands is very simple to get, but that's no true!

Euthansia in 2 steps
To get euthanasia you have to say it twice to the same medic. The first time to anounce you want it. The importance of the first step is that the docter knows you want euthanasia. If (for religion reasons) the medic don't want to support you, you have the opportunity to search for an another docter.
The second time you mention euthanasia is to activate the execution of euthanasia.

Execution of euthanasia
To get euthanasia you need to have an opinion of two separated docters. They have to agree on the euthanasia. To start the procedure you'll need to say explicit to your family docter you want 'euthanasia'. You better use the word 'euthanasia' (not a description) and have one or more witnesses to confirm you have said so. To be absolutely sure say it to the docter in front of those witnesses and confirm this in a document with signatures.

Euthanasia in practice
A lot of dutch people don't know the procedure this procedure for getting euthanasia. The result is that euthanasia is too late. The patient dies during the necessary procedures.

Technorati tag:

No comments: