Dutch nursing home death - more excuses, more killing

The Trouw editor concluded that the problem was really that the coffee-carried dose was too low. Why? Because the woman resisted when later the doctor moved to apply the lethal dose via syringe. The NLTimes described it this way:

'But when the infusion was inserted she "pulled back", and while the doctor injected the euthanasia agent, she moved as if to get up. The doctor decided to continue while family members held the patient down. The woman died shortly afterwards.'

According to the UK Mirror, this story came to light via a report prepared by a Dutch Coroner for review by the Dutch Euthanasia Regional Review Committee. The Mirror says that the woman had said clearly several times "I don't want to die" in the days before her death.

The Euthanasia Review Committee is charged with reviewing the file and making a recommendation that would need to be endorsed by a second review committee.

The Mirror concludes:

The committee concluded though the doctor had acted in good faith, she should have stopped when the patient resisted.

Committee spokesman Jacob Kohnstamm added he was in favour of the case going to court: “Not to punish the doctor, but to get judicial clarity over what powers a doctor has when it comes to the euthanasia of patients suffering from severe dementia.”

The committee’s recommendations are now reportedly being considered by prosecutors and health officials.

So, what happens after a euthanasia or assisted suicide death occurs and the doctor is found not to have fulfilled one or more of the criteria set down in the law? There should be a charge of homicide. Euthanasia or assisted suicide laws create an exception to the laws prohibiting homicide if certain criteria are observed. They were not observed in these cases; therefore the exception should not be applied. In Holland it would seem that 'good faith' is enough to be let off with a little less than a slap on the wrist. But deciding what is and is not an act in 'good faith' is a tricky business. A wrongful death - even in 'good faith' is still a homicide and not simply a misdemeanour.

It maybe that this situation is being used deliberately to further the current debate on euthanasia and dementia and euthanasia and 'tired of life'. It may be that the doctor was lax in her application to the paperwork; a simple mistake. But it just may be about a death outside of the confines set by the parliament - deliberately or otherwise - a homicide.

Whatever the outcome, what is abundantly clear is that once we create legal excuses for killing there will be more excuses and more killing.