Proponents Now Want "Suicide Pill"
Dutch Euthanasia Law Goes into Effect

By Liz Townsend

As of April 1, it is now officially legal in the Netherlands for physicians to kill their patients beginning at age 12. And if proponents have their way, the slide down the slippery slope will become even faster and even more widespread.

The Dutch law, passed by the country's lower house of parliament in November 2000 and Senate in April 2001, allows a patient facing "unremitting and unbearable suffering" -- even if not a terminal illness -- to ask a physician for "the termination of life in a medically appropriate fashion." Moreover, euthanizing patients having psychological problems is now considered acceptable.

The physician is supposed to ensure that the patient's request is voluntary, conclude that no "reasonable alternative solution" can be found, and consult with another doctor who has examined the patient, according to Reuters. But as Herbert Handlin, executive director of the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention has written, "The Netherlands has moved from assisted suicide to euthanasia, from euthanasia for the terminally ill to euthanasia for the chronically ill, from euthanasia for physical illness to euthanasia for psychological distress, and from voluntary euthanasia to involuntary euthanasia (called 'termination of the patient without explicit request')."

Reuters reported that last July a UN Human Rights Committee of independent experts found serious problems with the law, concluding it "could lead to routine and insensitive mercy killing." The UN committee was also not persuaded that the Dutch system would be able to detect, let alone prevent cases, where patients come under pressure.

According to Reuters, the committee also "expressed concern children aged 12 to 16 were eligible for euthanasia with parental backing and that checks were conducted only after patients died."

Dr. Bert P. Dorenbos, president of the Dutch pro-life group Cry for Life, said in a statement, "It is very clear that the discussion about euthanasia is not about unbearable suffering and no prospect for the patient life, but about the legal right for everybody to be killed at his request, at the time of his choice, executed by a doctor." Dr. Dorenbos added, "It is the denial of the right of protection of life. When life is no longer protected by objective rules, everyone's life is in danger."

While the legislation makes the Netherlands the first country to enshrine euthanasia in statutory law, doctors have been practicing it for years with the official sanction of authorities. Since 1973, Dutch courts have either acquitted or given a slap on the wrist to doctors charged with euthanizing their patients. The government issued guidelines in 1997 that referred euthanasia cases to review boards rather than prosecutors, according to Reuters.

Most physicians have been using lethal injections in euthanasia deaths. Now euthanasia proponents want to take the death industry to the next level.

According to the Associated Press, Dutch Health Minister Els Borst, who guided the bill through parliament last year, "says the next government should consider the introduction of a suicide pill for patients who are healthy but simply ready to die." In fact, a name has been invented for it, the AP reported, " the Drion pill, after the retiring Supreme Court justice who first advocated its use 11 years ago."

Soon after the law was passed, Borst implied that a pill would be an appropriate way to die.

"I am not against it, as long as it can be carefully enough regulated so that it only concerns very old people who have had enough of living," Borst told the daily newspaper NRC Handelsblad.

She told the newspaper about two 95-year-old people she had known. "They were bored stiff but, alas, not bored to death -- because that was indeed what they wanted most of all," Borst said.

Speaking about one of them who had no family, Borst told NRC Handelsblad, "If she had said 'I've got a pill here and I'm going to take it,' I would certainly have been at peace with that."

Anti-euthanasia leaders in the Netherlands immediately expressed concern about the views of the country's highest government health authority. "It's only a couple of days since the euthanasia law was voted in, and already the minister wants to go a step further," Jaap de Hoop Scheffer, the Christian Democrat parliamentary party leader, told the Dutch news agency ANP.

Borst's suggestion seems to be gaining momentum among pro- euthanasia groups. Dorenbos said that the Dutch Free Euthanasia Union publicly announced that it wanted to start a debate about developing the death pill. In Australia, the Voluntary Euthanasia Society of Victoria voted February 24 to support euthanasia activist Dr. Philip Nitschke's plan to develop what he calls a "peaceful pill" to be used in euthanasia.

Nitschke, who had previously announced a plan to launch a ship that would perform euthanasia in international waters, wants to develop a "recipe for a do-it-yourself deadly pill or potion using a combination of legally available drugs," The Australian reported.

Nitschke's group EXIT Australia has been funding research into the pill for the past year, according to The Australian.

Such news makes it clear that the legalization of euthanasia in the Netherlands is only the latest step in the worldwide spread of the culture of death. "With the international euthanasia promotion fueled by the Dutch government more and more countries are in danger," Dorenbos said. "The world is warned. This Dutch euthanasia virus will spread throughout the world."