Theo Boer changed his mind about euthanasia and has gone public with his admission. “We were wrong—terribly wrong,” he wrote in an article for Daily Mail that was recently posted on Careful!, a Mercatornet blog about end of life issues. Boer, along with most of his colleagues, believed that safeguards in the 2001 Netherlands law permitting euthanasia and physician assisted suicide were adequate to prevent the “slippery slope” of increased usage. As Boer said—they were wrong—terribly wrong! Since 2008 annual deaths from PAS have increased 15% each year escalating from 1882 in 2002 to 4,188 in 2012. Boer estimates there will be more than 6,000 this year or next.
Perhaps more chilling is the establishment in The Netherlands of “End of Life” Clinics whose sole purpose for existence is to aid patients in suicide. Serviced by “traveling euthanizing doctors.” These doctors make no attempt to treat disease or illness. On average, Boer says they see each patient only three times and have only two options: assisted suicide or send the patient away. “They will not rest until a lethal pill is made available to anyone over 70 years who wishes to die. Some slopes truly are slippery,” laments Boer.
Further evidence that Netherlands is sliding down a slippery slope under legalized is the rise in reports of euthanasia and PAS among those whose suffering is not caused by terminal illness but by the diagnosis of psychiatric illness or dementia or merely because they are aged, lonely or bereaved.
Read more at http://presbyterianspro-life.blogspot.com/2014/07/dutch-medical-ethicist-says-we-were.html
2 Comments. Leave new
“We were wrong—terribly wrong,”
No………. Really!!!!
there’s really not much difference between Netherlands law and prescription drug abuse among seniors in the US. the medical establishment in this country is constantly pushing drugs on the elderly, with side effects quite often rendering them severely brain damaged, or worse. ‘comfortable’ relatively pain free existence is the goal, comfort care it’s called. families are generally absentee while this is going on, only show up long enough to check brain damaged loved one into what are now politely referred to as ‘rehab’, assisted living, memory care facilities, in reality very expensive warehouses for the elderly. there’s hardly ever any mention of natural health care, or religion. i asked a doctor this week what his religious beliefs are, he was stunned, said he never in his extensive career had anyone even ask. he refused to give a straight answer, asked me why i needed to know. i said i’m tired of dealing with medical indifference about my mother’s care, bordering on negligence, and was actually told by one of her so called health care professionals, a nurse practitioner, she is ‘an old woman who has lived her life’. it’s not just other countries having this problem. health care professionals in the US are doing the same thing right under our noses. it’s up to us to advocate for our seniors, make sure they are getting proper care. and this includes spiritual care; making sure they have a way to get to church if they can’t drive, or arrangements for homebound visits. ignoring our elderly, getting so wrapped up in our own worldly pursuits, careers, all that nonsense, is what’s making a lot of them suicidally miserable and/or lonely in the first place.