Euthanasie

Euthanasia. This subject was discussed widely in Dutch politics last year but it still a little vague what it’s all about. With this talk I will try to clarify what euthanasia is and try to help to form your opinion about it. In the dictionary it says euthanasia is to put someone who is gravely suffering or has an incurable disease to death by his own request. There are different reasons and cases of euthanasia: - for example baby’s, who has an incurable disease, and who can’t decide - if someone is in a coma he can’t decide except in the case that he has made a contract with a doctor that if he’s in coma for a certain number of weeks he doesn’t want to live anymore. - people who don’t want to live anymore because they’re old, have become deaf, can’t walk, can’t see, are showing dementia they find life not worth it anymore. - people who have fatal diseases like aids or cancer who want to die before they start having terrible pains. In November last year the Netherlands became the first country in the world to legalize euthanasia. In real life euthanasia was already performed about 3000 times a year but not legally. Now with the new law, doctors are to ensure that a patient is suffering terribly and is not curable, that it’s completely voluntarily. A second doctor is also to form his or her opinion about it. No other country has such law yet but there is a growing acceptance of euthanasia across the world. It is tolerated in Belgium, Switzerland and Colombia, as it has been in the Netherlands for years. Europe is worried about the new law in the Netherlands. But people are asking, what are we supposed to do for example in the case of a 19 year old boy, suffering from motor neurone disease- a fatal nerve condition- the only means of communication this boy has is the blinking of his left eyelid. The boy himself has made clear that he wants to die when he loses the ability to blink for it is his only way of communication. Others say the boy shouldn’t be treated as if he were a vegetable. They say the boy still has his senses of touch, hearing and sight and of course his mind. In today’s society we still expect doctors to save lives, rather than end them. But today’s treatments are not so much about saving lives of patients like this boy, but lengthening them. Doctors are keeping people alive who would never have survived even then years ago. Not only Europe is worried, the church is worried as well. "Only God can decide when life ends," warned a Calvinist Party leader. People also fear that doctors will have to much power. Although most of the world is worried about the new law the Netherlands seems to be quite positive about it. On a questionnaire on internet 76% of the people said it is a doctors task to perform euthanasia, 19% disagreed and 3% didn’t have an opinion about it. I think euthanasia is to help people not to kill them, because if someone wants euthanasie, thats because they think life is not worth anymore, that’s there own choise. I hope I have clarified something for you and maybe helped you forming your opinion about it. This was my talk. Are there any quetions?