{"id":654,"date":"2013-10-31T15:15:08","date_gmt":"2013-10-31T21:15:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.podles.org\/dialogue\/?p=654"},"modified":"2013-10-31T15:15:08","modified_gmt":"2013-10-31T21:15:08","slug":"the-slippery-slope-in-a-formerly-catholic-country","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.podles.org\/dialogue\/the-slippery-slope-in-a-formerly-catholic-country-654.htm","title":{"rendered":"The Slippery Slope in a Formerly Catholic Country"},"content":{"rendered":"

Any resemblance to the Nazi program of killing people whose lives were in terrible condition and suffering from illness and dementia is purely accidental.<\/p>\n

From the National Post<\/a>: <\/span><\/p>\n

\n

Should children have the right to ask for their own deaths?<\/span><\/p>\n

In Belgium, where euthanasia is now legal for people over the age of 18, the government is considering extending it to children \u2014 something that no other country has done. The same bill would offer the right to die to adults with early dementia.<\/span><\/p>\n

Advocates argue that euthanasia for children, with the consent of their parents, is necessary to give families an option in a desperately painful situation. But opponents have questioned whether children can reasonably decide to end their own lives.<\/span><\/p>\n

Belgium is already a euthanasia pioneer; it legalized the practice for adults in 2002. In the last decade, the number of reported cases per year has risen from 235 deaths in 2003 to 1,432 in 2012, the last year for which statistics are available. Doctors typically give patients a powerful sedative before injecting another drug to stop their heart.<\/span><\/p>\n

Only a few countries have legalized euthanasia or anything approaching it. In the Netherlands, euthanasia is legal under specific circumstances and for children over the age of 12 with parental consent (there is an understanding that infants, too, can be euthanized, and that doctors will not be prosecuted if they act appropriately). Elsewhere in Europe, euthanasia is only legal in Luxembourg. Assisted suicide, where doctors help a patient to die but do not actively kill them, is allowed in Switzerland.<\/span><\/p>\n

In the U.S., the state of Oregon also grants assisted suicide requests for residents aged 18 or over with a terminal illness.<\/span><\/p>\n

In Belgium, the ruling Socialist party has proposed the bill expanding the right of euthanasia. The Christian Democratic Flemish party vowed to oppose the legislation and to challenge it in the European Court of Human Rights if it passes. A final decision must be approved by Parliament and could take months.<\/span><\/p>\n

The principle of euthanasia for children sounds shocking at first, but it\u2019s motivated by compassion and protection,\u201d said John Harris, a professor of bioethics at the University of Manchester. \u201cIt\u2019s unfair to provide euthanasia differentially to some citizens and not to others [children] if the need is equal.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

(snip)<\/span><\/p>\n

And Dr. Gerlant van Berlaer, a pediatric oncologist at the Universitair Ziekenhuis Brussels hospital, says the changes would legalize what is already happening informally. He said cases of euthanasia in children are rare and estimates about 10 to 100 cases in Belgium every year might qualify.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cChildren have different ways of asking for things but they face the same questions as adults when they\u2019re terminally sick,\u201d van Berlaer said. \u201cSometimes it\u2019s a sister who tells us her brother doesn\u2019t want to go back to the hospital and is asking for a solution,\u201d he said. \u201cToday if these families find themselves (in that situation), we\u2019re not able to help them, except in dark and questionable ways.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

(snip)<\/span><\/p>\n

The change in the law regarding people with dementia is also controversial.<\/span><\/p>\n

People now can make a written declaration they wish to be euthanized if their health deteriorates, but the request is only valid for five years and they must be in an irreversible coma. The new proposal would abolish the time limit and the requirement the patient be in a coma, making it possible for someone who is diagnosed with Alzheimer\u2019s to be put to death years later in the future.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

In the Netherlands, guidelines allow doctors to euthanize dementia patients on this basis if they believe the person is experiencing \u201cunbearable suffering,\u201d but few are done in practice.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\n<\/blockquote>\n

\r\n\t<\/div>\r\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Any resemblance to the Nazi program of killing people whose lives were in terrible condition and suffering from illness and dementia is purely accidental. From the National Post: Should children have the right to ask for their own deaths? In Belgium, where euthanasia is now legal for people over the age of 18, the government […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[1167,778],"class_list":["post-654","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-belgium","tag-euthenasia","has-post-title","has-post-date","has-post-category","has-post-tag","has-post-comment","has-post-author"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.podles.org\/dialogue\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/654","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.podles.org\/dialogue\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.podles.org\/dialogue\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.podles.org\/dialogue\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.podles.org\/dialogue\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=654"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.podles.org\/dialogue\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/654\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.podles.org\/dialogue\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=654"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.podles.org\/dialogue\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=654"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.podles.org\/dialogue\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=654"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}