The number of mentally-ill patients killed by euthanasia in Holland has trebled in the space of a year, new figures have revealed.
In 2013, a total of 42 people with ‘severe psychiatric problems’ were killed by lethal injection compared to 14 in 2012 and 13 in 2011.
The latest official figures also revealed a 15 per cent surge in the number of euthanasia deaths from 4,188 cases in 2012 to 4,829 cases last year.
The incremental rise is consistent with a 13 per cent increase in 2012, an 18 per cent rise in 2011, 19 per cent in 2010 and 13 per cent in 2009.
The rise is also likely to confirm the fears of Dutch regulator Theo Boer who told the Daily Mail that he expected to see euthanasia cases smash the 6,000 barrier in 2014.
Overall, deaths by euthanasia, which officially account for three per cent of all deaths in the Netherlands, have increased by 151 per cent in just seven years.
Most cases - some 3,600 people – involved cancer sufferers but there were also 97 people who died at the hands of their doctors because they were suffering from dementia, the figures show.
The figures, however, do not include cases of so-called terminal sedation, where patients are given a cocktail of sedatives and narcotics before food and fluids are withdrawn.
Studies suggest that if such deaths were added to the figure then euthanasia would account for one in eight – about 12.3 per cent – of all deaths in the Netherlands.
Dr Peter Saunders of the Christian Medical Fellowship said the Dutch experiment proved that doctor-assisted death was impossible to effectively regulate.
Dutch regulator Theo Boer said that he expected to see euthanasia cases smash the 6,000 barrier in 2014 in Holland
‘Euthanasia in the Netherlands is way out of control,’ he said.
‘The House of Lords calculated in 2005 that with a Dutch-type law in Britain we would be seeing over 13,000 cases of euthanasia per year,’ he continued.
‘On the basis of how Dutch euthanasia deaths have risen since this may prove to be a gross underestimate.
‘What we are seeing in the Netherlands is “incremental extension”, the steady intentional escalation of numbers with a gradual widening of the categories of patients to be included.’
He said there was a similar pattern of increasing numbers of assisted suicide and euthanasia in the US state of Oregon, Switzerland, and Belgium.
Dr Saunders said: ‘The lessons are clear. Once you relax the law on euthanasia or assisted suicide steady extension will follow as night follows day.’
He added: ‘Britain needs to take warning as debate on the Falconer bill continues.’
Lord Falconer’s Assisted Dying Bill received its Second Reading in July and it will reach committee stage in November after Parliament reconvenes.
Supporters, such as campaigners Dignity in Dying, insist that the Falconer Bill is based on a US model of assisted suicide ‘which has been working safely for over 17 years and has never been extended beyond the criteria of terminal illness’.
But Professor Boer, who has reviewed 4,000 cases of euthanasia in his role as a regulator, told Parliament in the summer: ‘Don’t go there.’
Once a firm advocate of euthanasia, he said that he now the Dutch were ‘terribly wrong’ to think they could control it.
Writing in the Daily Mail, he said his country has witnessed an ‘explosive increase’ in the numbers of euthanasia deaths since 2007 and that he expected the number of such deaths this year to hit 6,000.
He was also gravely concerned at the extension of killing to new classes of people, including the demented and the depressed. ‘Some slopes truly are slippery,’ he said.
Doctors in neighbouring Belgium, which this year legalised euthanasia for children, are now killing an average of five people every day by euthanasia, according to latest figures, with a 27 per cent surge in the number of euthanasia deaths in the last year alone.
In one of the most shocking cases, a Brussels man last week described how he arranged the double euthanasia of his octogenarian parents who wanted to die because they were afraid of loneliness.
It has also emerged that a Dutch woman in her 80s was killed by her doctors just because she did not want to live in a care home.
The case is the first to be referred to Dutch prosecutors by regulators since euthanasia was legalised in Holland 12 years ago.
Euthanasia is permitted in cases where there is unbearable suffering, increasingly interpreted to mean mental anguish.
This post is written by Simon Caldwell. You can find the original post here: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2779624/Number-mentally-ill-patients-killed-euthanasia-Holland-trebles-year-doctors-warn-assisted-suicide-control.html
In 2013, a total of 42 people with ‘severe psychiatric problems’ were killed by lethal injection compared to 14 in 2012 and 13 in 2011.
The latest official figures also revealed a 15 per cent surge in the number of euthanasia deaths from 4,188 cases in 2012 to 4,829 cases last year.
The incremental rise is consistent with a 13 per cent increase in 2012, an 18 per cent rise in 2011, 19 per cent in 2010 and 13 per cent in 2009.
The rise is also likely to confirm the fears of Dutch regulator Theo Boer who told the Daily Mail that he expected to see euthanasia cases smash the 6,000 barrier in 2014.
Overall, deaths by euthanasia, which officially account for three per cent of all deaths in the Netherlands, have increased by 151 per cent in just seven years.
Most cases - some 3,600 people – involved cancer sufferers but there were also 97 people who died at the hands of their doctors because they were suffering from dementia, the figures show.
The figures, however, do not include cases of so-called terminal sedation, where patients are given a cocktail of sedatives and narcotics before food and fluids are withdrawn.
Studies suggest that if such deaths were added to the figure then euthanasia would account for one in eight – about 12.3 per cent – of all deaths in the Netherlands.
Dr Peter Saunders of the Christian Medical Fellowship said the Dutch experiment proved that doctor-assisted death was impossible to effectively regulate.
Dutch regulator Theo Boer said that he expected to see euthanasia cases smash the 6,000 barrier in 2014 in Holland
‘Euthanasia in the Netherlands is way out of control,’ he said.
‘The House of Lords calculated in 2005 that with a Dutch-type law in Britain we would be seeing over 13,000 cases of euthanasia per year,’ he continued.
‘On the basis of how Dutch euthanasia deaths have risen since this may prove to be a gross underestimate.
‘What we are seeing in the Netherlands is “incremental extension”, the steady intentional escalation of numbers with a gradual widening of the categories of patients to be included.’
He said there was a similar pattern of increasing numbers of assisted suicide and euthanasia in the US state of Oregon, Switzerland, and Belgium.
Dr Saunders said: ‘The lessons are clear. Once you relax the law on euthanasia or assisted suicide steady extension will follow as night follows day.’
He added: ‘Britain needs to take warning as debate on the Falconer bill continues.’
Lord Falconer’s Assisted Dying Bill received its Second Reading in July and it will reach committee stage in November after Parliament reconvenes.
Supporters, such as campaigners Dignity in Dying, insist that the Falconer Bill is based on a US model of assisted suicide ‘which has been working safely for over 17 years and has never been extended beyond the criteria of terminal illness’.
But Professor Boer, who has reviewed 4,000 cases of euthanasia in his role as a regulator, told Parliament in the summer: ‘Don’t go there.’
Once a firm advocate of euthanasia, he said that he now the Dutch were ‘terribly wrong’ to think they could control it.
Writing in the Daily Mail, he said his country has witnessed an ‘explosive increase’ in the numbers of euthanasia deaths since 2007 and that he expected the number of such deaths this year to hit 6,000.
He was also gravely concerned at the extension of killing to new classes of people, including the demented and the depressed. ‘Some slopes truly are slippery,’ he said.
Doctors in neighbouring Belgium, which this year legalised euthanasia for children, are now killing an average of five people every day by euthanasia, according to latest figures, with a 27 per cent surge in the number of euthanasia deaths in the last year alone.
In one of the most shocking cases, a Brussels man last week described how he arranged the double euthanasia of his octogenarian parents who wanted to die because they were afraid of loneliness.
It has also emerged that a Dutch woman in her 80s was killed by her doctors just because she did not want to live in a care home.
The case is the first to be referred to Dutch prosecutors by regulators since euthanasia was legalised in Holland 12 years ago.
Euthanasia is permitted in cases where there is unbearable suffering, increasingly interpreted to mean mental anguish.
This post is written by Simon Caldwell. You can find the original post here: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2779624/Number-mentally-ill-patients-killed-euthanasia-Holland-trebles-year-doctors-warn-assisted-suicide-control.html
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