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01.12.04, 01:14
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Netherlands Hospital Euthanizes Babies
By TOBY STERLING
AMSTERDAM, Netherlands (AP) - A hospital in the Netherlands - the first nation
to permit euthanasia - recently proposed guidelines for mercy killings of
terminally ill newborns, and then made a startling revelation: It has already
begun carrying out such procedures, which include administering a lethal dose
of sedatives.
The announcement by the Groningen Academic Hospital came amid a growing
discussion in Holland on whether to legalize euthanasia on people incapable of
deciding for themselves whether they want to end their lives - a prospect
viewed with horror by euthanasia opponents and as a natural evolution by
advocates.
In August, the main Dutch doctors' association KNMG urged the Health Ministry
to create an independent board to review euthanasia cases for terminally ill
people ``with no free will,'' including children, the severely mentally
retarded and people left in an irreversible coma after an accident.
The Health Ministry is preparing its response, which could come as soon as
December, a spokesman said.
Three years ago, the Dutch parliament made it legal for doctors to inject a
sedative and a lethal dose of muscle relaxant at the request of adult patients
suffering great pain with no hope of relief.
The Groningen Protocol, as the hospital's guidelines have come to be known,
would create a legal framework for permitting doctors to actively end the life
of newborns deemed to be in similar pain from incurable disease or extreme
deformities.
The guideline says euthanasia is acceptable when the child's medical team and
independent doctors agree the pain cannot be eased and there is no prospect
for improvement, and when parents think it's best.
Examples include extremely premature births, where children suffer brain
damage from bleeding and convulsions; and diseases where a child could only
survive on life support for the rest of its life, such as severe cases of
spina bifida and epidermosis bullosa, a rare blistering illness.
The hospital revealed last month it carried out four such mercy killings in
2003, and reported all cases to government prosecutors. There have been no
legal proceedings against the hospital or the doctors.
Roman Catholic organizations and the Vatican have reacted with outrage to the
announcement, and U.S. euthanasia opponents contend the proposal shows the
Dutch have lost their moral compass.
``The slippery slope in the Netherlands has descended already into a vertical
cliff,'' said Wesley J. Smith, a prominent California-based critic, in an
e-mail to The Associated Press.
Child euthanasia remains illegal everywhere. Experts say doctors outside
Holland do not report cases for fear of prosecution.
``As things are, people are doing this secretly and that's wrong,'' said
Eduard Verhagen, head of Groningen's children's clinic. ``In the Netherlands
we want to expose everything, to let everything be subjected to vetting.''
According to the Justice Ministry, four cases of child euthanasia were
reported to prosecutors in 2003. Two were reported in 2002, seven in 2001 and
five in 2000. All the cases in 2003 were reported by Groningen, but some of
the cases in other years were from other hospitals.
Groningen estimated the protocol would be applicable in about 10 cases per
year in the Netherlands, a country of 16 million people.
Since the introduction of the Dutch law, Belgium has also legalized
euthanasia, while in France, legislation to allow doctor-assisted suicide is
currently under debate. In the United States, the state of Oregon is alone in
allowing physician-assisted suicide, but this is under constant legal challenge.
However, experts acknowledge that doctors euthanize routinely in the United
States and elsewhere, but that the practice is hidden.
``Measures that might marginally extend a child's life by minutes or hours or
days or weeks are stopped. This happens routinely, namely, every day,'' said
Lance Stell, professor of medical ethics at Davidson College in Davidson,
N.C., and staff ethicist at Carolinas Medical Center in Charlotte, N.C.
``Everybody knows that it happens, but there's a lot of hypocrisy. Instead,
people talk about things they're not going to do.''
More than half of all deaths occur under medical supervision, so it's really
about management and method of death, Stell said.
11/30/04 17:54
