Mobile Euthanasia Units Launched In Netherlands

An end-of-life clinic in the Netherlands has launched the nation's first mobile euthanasia units designed to carry out the death wishes of patients whose doctors refuse to perform the procedure, the Agence France-Presse reports.

In 2002 the Netherlands became the first country in the world to legalize euthanasia when it passed the Termination of Life on Request and Assisted Suicide Act.

"From Thursday, [the life-end clinic] Levenseindekliniek will have mobile teams where people who think they comply with the criteria for euthanasia can register," Walburg de Jong, a spokesman for the group Right-To-Die Netherlands (NVVE), told the AFP. "If they comply, the teams will carry out the euthanasia at patients' homes should their normal doctors refuse to help them."

Proponents of the new program say it will help carry out the increasing number of requests for euthanasia and help address the needs of people who may be overlooked by strict regulations, according to the Daily Mail.

The number of euthanasia cases in the Netherlands rose 19 percent in 2010 with a total of 3,136 cases, the Guardian reports. Right-To-Die Netherlands, which receives around 1,000 requests per year, said it has already been contacted by 70 patients interested in the new mobile euthanasia units.

But critics of the mobile units say the service may result in deaths of patients who could be treated if they continued going to doctors.

"In the worst cases, people could die who perhaps could have received some other help," a spokesman for the Federation of Dutch Physicians told the Daily Mail.

Eric van Wijlick of the Royal Dutch Society of Doctors told Sky News that requests for euthanasia must be handled by doctors who have developed a long-term relationship with the patient and have a full understanding of their case.

According to van Wijlick:

"We are not against euthanasia if there is no other alternative. But euthanasia is a complicated process. It comes from the long-time treatment of a patient based on a relationship of trust. A holistic view of the patient's treatment needs to be taken, including whether another alternative to euthanasia exists.We have serious doubts whether this can be done by a doctor who is only focused on performing euthanasia."

Correction: This article previously suggested that the mobile units would be used by patients who are mentally ill or suffer from severe dementia, which could not be confirmed with multiple sources, and that reference has been removed.

Comments

[Yurop]

04:39 PM on 07/03/2012

"But critics of the mobile units say the service may result in deaths of patients who could be treated if they continued going to doctors."

Needless to say that those who can get treated do not qualify for euthanasia at all.

Insn't reality is more like this?:

Some old incontinent guy, 96 years old, that has seen everyone he loved die all around him yeras ago, that is almost blind, that cannot see the pictures of his loved ones anymore, that can barely walk (just sits in chair waiting to finally die), has more medication than insurance even covers for, can barely hear anymore, can barely speak anymore etc. mumbles barely understandably to a doctor:

"don't think I can get much out of life anymore. I would welcome it if my time could come now."

And the doctor then anwers: "Naaaaaaaah. You wait. And you sit in that chair. Until you die."

It is about the principle.

And the principle is simple: Only you yourself own your own life and only you yourself determine when it ends. Your life is not owned by the state, nor by religion, nor by medical profession. Your life, your property, your decision.

Think the Dutch are doing the right thing. Think it is a good feeling to know your life is your own.

[Starvin-Marvin]

08:15 AM on 03/04/2012

This goes maybe a bit far, but in general the Dutch are rationally thinking about subjects like this. One thing for instance that I approve is that there are retirement homes where people can wear a colored wristband which says "I don't want to be reanimated when I suffer a heart attack" or something like that.

[Richcrafter]

11:30 AM on 03/03/2012

Sign me up! Get here NOW!

[dondon119]

02:48 AM on 03/03/2012

quote from the Encyclopedia Britannica:[T4 Program, also called T4 Euthanasia Program, Nazi German effort—framed as a euthanasia program—to kill incurably ill, physically or mentally disabled, emotionally distraught, and elderly people. Adolf Hitler initiated this program in 1939, and, while it was officially discontinued in 1941, killings continued covertly until the military defeat of Nazi Germany in 1945.
In October 1939, Adolf Hitler empowered his personal physician and the chief of the Chancellery of the Führer to kill people considered unsuited to live. He backdated his order to September 1, 1939, the day World War II began, to give it the appearance of a wartime measure. In this directive, Dr. Karl Brandt and Chancellery chief Philipp Bouhler were “charged with responsibility for expanding the authority of physicians…so that patients considered incurable, according to the best available human judgment of their state of health, can be granted a mercy killing.”]

[Liban CZ]

07:18 AM on 03/03/2012

YEAR 2012, now.

[dondon119]

09:31 AM on 03/03/2012

But the idea is old.
Let me quote:
[It is therefore quite disingenuous to argue that the official surveys have revealed no significant increase in non-voluntary euthanasia as a result of legalisation. The law, indeed the whole legal climate, had changed seven years before the first official survey was published in 1991. As early as 1990 over 1,000 Dutch citizens per year were having their lives ended by doctors without their consent. Non-voluntary euthanasia was rampant in 1990 and is equally rampant now. Dutch doctors who practise euthanasia are not on the slippery slope. From the very beginning, they have been at the bottom. These concerns were further heightened in 2005 when Dutch doctors instituted the Groningen protocol, enabling the killing of severely disabled children.](Dr Saunders)

[What the Hell]

02:41 PM on 03/03/2012

We have the death penalty, are you against that. It can lead to the same thing.

[dondon119]

03:42 PM on 03/03/2012

Death penalty ???
Charles Milles Manson should hang.
But killed are sick and old people.
Why the sick ideology is still returning ?
Because the sponsor is the same...
Who financed Kaiser Wilhelm Institute in 1929 ? :)

[jory420]

12:26 AM on 03/03/2012

We need the same concept in the US. Europe is way more progressive then we are. If someone is sick, and dying they should have the right to end their own life, with a Doctor's help. Why be a burden on society, and your family. Especially in this country when more then half the population doesn't have health insurance. Thank's to an employer based healthcars system.

[Liban CZ]

07:40 PM on 03/02/2012

KEVIRKIAN MOBILE UNIT .

[patman77]

07:04 PM on 03/02/2012

legalize the big fix here.

[patman77]

07:02 PM on 03/02/2012

the poor terminaland pain suffering folks in my area of ne. ga. have to suffer or bite a bullet. the dutch treat their people much better.

[horseguards]

02:02 PM on 03/02/2012

Well done the Dutch. Now let's get in the UK.

[shellytayl]

01:54 PM on 03/02/2012

I think this is a wonderful thing for those that want and need it's services. Patients and doctors don't always agree on when it's time to call it quits. Many patients don't want to continue living a life in pain; immobility or just hopelessness. Doctors usually want to continue treatment on a patient that is already quite elderly or on patients that will never have quality of life. It's false hope and of course can be very expensive.

[Kate Ragas]

12:18 PM on 03/02/2012

I think it's a great idea and I can only hope euthanasia will be an option for me if I ever find myself in such a state of suffering.

[Jelle NL]

11:48 AM on 03/02/2012

The alpha and omega of all euthanasia in the Netherlands is: Free Choice.

[Marc NL]

11:54 AM on 03/02/2012

Well said Jelle.

[Marc NL]

11:32 AM on 03/02/2012

I am Dutch and people do not fear their doctor in Holland. I am afraid that most people that learn about euthanasia in the Netherlands make hugely exaggerated conclusions. They compare what they read with their own fear and culture.

You have to understand the compassionate Dutch culture in order to understand this.

The goal is never to kill people or do way with people (The suggestion of this is offensive) but the goal is ALWAYS to help the people that are in pain. This law was designed with the people that suffer in mind. Not the other way around.

NOBODY gets euthanized against their own will or families wishes!

[Eileen Virnig]

09:57 AM on 03/02/2012

my mother died slowly over 10 months of an autoimmune disease that slowly ate away her muscles. If I EVER have to be put in adult diapers...take me out...please. PLEASE, do not leave me to lie in bed, in pain for months of mental torture, while burdening those who must care for me.
If I have dementia so badly that I have no idea what's going on anymore...take the resources that would sustain me, and give them to homeless children, education, anyone who can still contribute to society...as for me...send me out in the beauty of the Wilderness, and let the elements take me.

[FreidaPeeples]

08:55 AM on 03/02/2012

We have no problem putting our pets "out of their misery", but spare a human being the suffering during the dying process... oh no... let them suffer.