Dutch push for assisted suicide
A Dutch campaign in the Netherlands to give elderly people the right to assisted suicide – in a country which has already legalised euthanasia for the terminally ill – has gathered more than 100,000 signatures.
The “Of Free Will” campaign group is pushing for the training of people other than doctors to be able to administer a lethal potion to people over 70 who personally “consider their lives complete” and want to die.
These special assistants would need to be certified and patients would need to be checked to ensure they were not acting on a whim or due to temporary depression. The Dutch doctors’ association has said it is concerned that patients might use an assisted suicide policy as a way of avoiding their own doctors.
The Netherlands agreed to legislate for euthanasia in 2002, and about 2,500 euthanasia cases were reported in the country in 2009 following a gradual increase over the years.
Under Dutch law, there needs to be 40,000 petition signatures for a new proposal to be considered by parliament, and the “Of Free Will” group is hoping that the assistant issue will be debated this year.
