Netherlands Euthanizes Babies
Posted by Moonage on 30 Nov 2004 | Tagged as: Ethics, Government, International Politics
Netherlands Hospital Euthanizes Babies
AMSTERDAM, Netherlands - Raising the stakes in an excruciating ethical debate, 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 in a handful of cases and reporting them to the government…..
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 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 spina bifida and epidermosis bullosa, a blistering illness.
The hospital said it carried out four such mercy killings in 2003, and reported all cases to government prosecutors but there have been no legal proceedings taken against them.
I was really getting into the subject matter of this topic, but I was distracted when it got to the end:
However, experts acknowledge that doctors euthanize routinely in the United States but that such 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 and staff ethicist at Carolinas Medical Center in the United States. "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.
First of all, there is a difference between not prolonging a death, and intentionally ending a life. That point is very clear in the minds of all except TOBY STERLING, who wrote this article. Euthanasia, according to dictionary.com, is:
The act or practice of ending the life of an individual suffering from a terminal illness or an incurable condition, as by lethal injection or the suspension of extraordinary medical treatment.
Now that we have that point clear, do we truly know that the Dutch have actually been euthanizing people, or have they been allowing them to die naturally?
The hospital said it carried out four such mercy killings in 2003, and reported all cases to government prosecutors but there have been no legal proceedings taken against them.
OK, they are clearly stating they intentionally ended four lives in 2003. They did this and reported on the reporting mechanism in place. Their report on the reporting mechanics is linked under "the hospital". What they don’t do, and don’t seeem too terribly concerned with, is telling anyone why they did what they did. I mean, if a baby is left abandoned at a hospital, or a single mother dies during birth, all the doctor has to do is say the baby is severely handicapped, euthanize it, report it, and it’s done. No more babies born into poverty.
IMO, the lapses of concern in The Netherlands over ending lives is too much evidence that the issue of euthanasia has not been properly addressed there. Until someone comes up with a systematic approach that assures ethical treatment of euthanasia candidates, it can’t be morally justified. And, being as The Netherlands is having these issues after legalizing euthanasia, it is no where ready to be implemented in the US.
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