Marta Russell
Ulhas Joglekar wrote:
> Wednesday 5 April 2000
>
> Netherlands may be first to legalise euthanasia
> AMSTERDAM: Campaigners are predicting that euthanasia and assisted suicide
> will soon become legal in the Netherlands -- for anyone aged 12 and upwards.
> If a bill now before Parliament is passed, it will make The Netherlands the
> first country to legalise mercy killing.
> "I think during the course of this year, and even possibly before the
> summer, the second chamber (Lower House) will address the issue and vote in
> favour," Jacob Kohnstamm, new chairman of the Dutch Voluntary Euthanasia
> Society (DVES), told foreign journalists on Monday.
> The Dutch have tolerated mercy killings for years, but with the possibility
> of doctors being prosecuted for murder under the penal code, the bill aims
> to remove a legal grey area. However, the clause to allow euthanasia for
> children without parental consent has proved highly controversial.
> The DVES argues that a 1995 bill giving girls aged 12 to 15 the same right
> to an abortion as adults, without parental consent, met similar opposition
> before passing. "If you think of a child who has cancer, who has gone
> through medical treatment, when they're 14 or 15 years old they tend to be
> more mature than most of the people I meet in one day," said Kohnstamm, a
> lawyer and member of the Upper House.
> "All doctors concerned say it is very rare for parents and kids not to want
> the same thing." But the Royal College of Physicians in Netherlands says
> this means the clause is unnecessary, and the Dutch organisation for parents
> of children with cancer agrees. (Reuters)
> For reprint rights: Times Syndication Service
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> © Bennett, Coleman & Co. Ltd. 2000.