UN Committee Voices Grave Concern
At Dutch Euthanasia Law

By Jenny Nolan
NRLC Dept. of Medical Ethics

The United Nations Human Rights Committee voiced grave concerns about the practice of euthanasia in the Netherlands and called for its re-examination in a draft report dated July 20. The report warned darkly of growing routinization and insensitivity to euthanasia over the passage of time.

The Netherlands legislature recently enacted a statute codifying and in some respects extending the practice of euthanasia which has long been authorized there as a result of court decisions. Under the law, minors over the age of 12 can be killed at their own request if their parents or guardians consent, a provision which drew unequivocal fire from the UN committee. In light of the continuing development of young people's ability to reason and the irreversibility of death, the committee called for the protection of minors from euthanasia.

The newly passed Dutch law requires a patient who desires euthanasia to make a "voluntary and well-considered request," in a situation of "unbearable suffering" which offers "no prospect of improvement" and "no other reasonable solution."
The UN Human Rights Committee draft suggested that the current system does not "detect and prevent situations where undue pressure could lead to" circumvention of the law's requirements. Indeed, the UN committee "learnt with unease" that there were 2,000 incidents of euthanasia or assisted suicide reported last year.

The large number of deaths led the UN committee to question whether the law was truly reserved for extreme cases in which all other options had been exhausted. In addition, the UN committee noted that Dutch monitoring of euthanasia detects abuses only after the patient has been killed and called for strengthening of mechanisms to catch violations in advance of death.

The Human Rights Committee draft also urged a scrupulous investigation of reports that newborn infants with disabilities have had their lives ended by medical personnel. Not Dead Yet, a United States disability rights group, applauded the UN for the draft report. "The UN Human Rights Commission is finally addressing what has been public knowledge for years," said Stephen Drake. "Euthanasia in Holland is routinised and widely unreported already. Nonterminal disabled adults and infants are euthanized routinely in Holland, often without consent."

Commenting on the draft report, David O'Steen, Ph.D., National Right to Life executive director, said, "It is important that an international committee on human rights has reached consensus in criticizing the Dutch euthanasia program because of its 'abuses.'

"However, pro-lifers know that such legalized killing is inherently wrong and dangerous no matter how it is carried out. We must inherently redouble our efforts to protect America's vulnerable patients from the legalization of euthanasia."