Euthanasia in the Netherlands
In the Netherlands, euthanasia is understood to mean termination of life by a physician at the request of a patient. It is to be clearly distinguished from withdrawing from treatment when further medical intervention is pointless, allowing nature to take its course. The latter is normal and accepted medical practice, as is the administration of drugs necessary to relieve pain even in the knowledge that they may have the side effect of hastening death. It should be emphasized that both termination of life upon request and assisting at a suicide are prohibited in the Netherlands. But in the Dutch penal code a special ground for exemption from criminal liability has been developed for physicians who terminate a patient's life on request or assist in a patient's suicide, provided they satisfy the due-care criteria formulated in an act that went into effect in April 2002. This regulation on euthanasia—called the Termination of Life on Request and Assisted Suicide (Review Procedures) Act—is clearly a political compromise between Dutch liberals and Social Democrats, on the one hand, and the Christian Democrats, on the other. If this act had wholly decriminalized euthanasia it would not have received Christian Democrat support.
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