"Assuming" Patients Want to Die

By Dave Andrusko

The headline sends chills up and down your spine: "Belgium euthanasia law breached regularly." The article on Fox News is short but the implications are huge: a fifth of the 248 nurses in Belgium hospitals who were interviewed "admitted they had taken part in a euthanasia procedure based on the 'assumption' that the patient wanted to die. Almost half of the nurses confessed to 'terminations without request or consent.'"

The results come from a study that appeared in the Canadian Medical Association Journal.

Euthanasia deaths account for 2% of all deaths in Belgium, where, according to stories, euthanasia was made legal in 2002. Nearly half of those deaths were "directed by nurses who have not received consent from the patient to administer life-ending drugs, the Vancouver Sun reported."

In theory--but obviously not in practice--"patient consent must be given and that doctors must carry out the procedure." In fact, as noted, not only are the rules routinely ignored, "doctors often delegate the administering of fatal drugs to nurses," Fox News reported.

When the full study is available, we will do a follow-up.

Please send your comments to daveandrusko@gmail.com.