Dutch launch mobile euthanasia teams



Six specialised teams will criss-cross the Netherlands to carry out euthanasia at the home of patients whose own doctors refuse to do so, a pro-euthanasia group said.

"From Thursday, the Levenseindekliniek (Life-end clinic) will have mobile teams where people who think they comply with the criteria for euthanasia can register," Right-to-die NL (NVVE) spokeswoman Walburg de Jong said.

"If they comply, the teams will carry out the euthanasia at patients' homes should their normal doctors refuse to help them."

Ms De Jong says the group, called the Life-end clinic, has teams made up of a specially-trained doctor and nurse who will work part time, visiting patients all over the Netherlands.

The Netherlands became the first country in the world to legalise euthanasia in April 2002, and has strict criteria regulating how such mercy killings can be carried out.

Patients must be mentally alert when making the request to die.

Patients also have to face a future of "unbearable, interminable suffering" and both the patient and the doctor - who have to obtain a second opinion - before euthanasia is carried out, must agree there is no cure.

Each euthanasia case is then reported to one of five special commissions, each made up of a doctor, a jurist and an ethical expert charged with verifying that all criteria had been observed.

The mobile euthanasia plan, which received the thumbs-up from Dutch health minister Edith Schippers in the Dutch parliament, has been met with scepticism from one of the Netherlands' largest medical lobbies.

The Royal Dutch Society of Doctors says it doubts whether the "euthanasia doctors" will be able to form a close enough relationship with a patient to make a correct assessment.

Ms De Jong says around 3,100 mercy killings are carried out each year in the Netherlands and that the NVVE has already been phoned by 70 potential patients since the plan was announced in early February.

The NVVE says its teams are expected to receive around 1,000 assisted suicides requests per year.

http://abc.com.au/news/2012-03-01/dutch-launch-mobile-euthanasia-teams/3861636

Its a tough one because half way through last week I was praying for a quick and painless death. A few days later I was on the mend..today Im back at the Gym, full of beans and ready for work next week.
But seriously..Euthanasia is an important topic and as a supporter I reckon it should be an election issue.

corporate_whitey wrote on Mar 1^st, 2012 at 10:11am:


You just figured that out? 

Euthanasia should be, but never will be.
Because if they talk about that, it brings up the matter of rights. Something that the government has been taking away for quite some time.
Of course people should have the right to do what they want to their own body whether it be euthanasia, drugs, prostitution or anything along those lines.
But the government prefers not to talk about it because they know they are wrong.
Its how they make their money and without it, the chains on society become weaker and likewise with the government.

corporate_whitey wrote on Mar 1^st, 2012 at 10:14am:


Really.
Listen and watch who comes to your front door.
It might be one of those Green mobile euthanasia teams.

chicken_lipsforme wrote on Mar 1^st, 2012 at 10:19am:

Don't be suprized if its the other way and the downtrodden have you swinging from the Bolte bridge though...

Euthanasia is a key plank of the Communist Greens platform for a very good reason.

It is well known by informed people that Prime Minister Bob Brown of the Communist Greens has a burning desire to see Australia become a primitive agrarian economy with EVERYTHING controlled by a central "government" - in  other words Uncle Bob wants Australia to become a COMMUNIST country.

Part of the Communist ethic is that people are regarded as farm animals who are useful only while they can work for the Communist good.

The question naturally arises, what should be done with people who are too old and or too sick to be productive farm animals any more ?

The answer ? Simple, have legalized euthanasia and secret police. The process is for the secret police to visit any unproductive farm animals and put them down under the legalized euthanasia law. Great idea - no old or sick people to pay welfare for and only productive farm animals in the economy.

juliar wrote on Mar 1^st, 2012 at 11:05am:




Does the Liberals still accept donations off the cigarette industry?

Because if anyone forces non voluntary euthanasia onto Australians then it's the political party that supports cigarette deaths for financial political donations.

Cigarette forced euthanasia via addiction and forced euthanasia via passive smoking and forced euthanasia of children via being poisoned by having addicted smoking parents.


So if Liberals support forced euthanasia via cigarettes, why do they oppose voluntary euthanasia of terminal patients?