Nolan Pro-Life

July News- Updated August 3, 2001

Date: Fri, 27 Jul 2001 18:32:17 -0400
From: "Jules Duguay" <dug@idirect.com>
To: <cinlife@cin.org>
Subject: U.N. human rights group fears "routine" euthanasia
Message-ID: <002901c116eb$ffd59e80$b7d0fea9@dug>

U.N. human rights group fears "routine" euthanasia

GENEVA, July 27 (Reuters) - The United Nations Human Rights Committee
criticised the Netherlands on Thursday for its controversial legalisation of
euthanasia, saying the law could lead to routine and insensitive mercy
killing.

The Netherlands became the first country in the world to give legal
underpinning to euthanasia in April when its upper house of parliament
passed a bill allowing doctors to help patients die, under strict
conditions.

"With the passage of time, such a practice may lead to routine (mercy
killing) and insensitivity to the strict application of the requirements in
a way not anticipated,"
the 18-member committee said in a draft report.

Under Dutch law, due to come into effect next year, doctors will not be
punished for ending the life of a patient who has made a voluntary and
"well-considered" request to die.

The patient also has to be in a situation of unbearable suffering with no
prospect of recovery or substantial alleviation of pain.

The committee, made up of independent experts who hold three sessions a
year, said it was not convinced the Dutch system would detect and prevent
cases where pressure could be exerted on a patient to get round those
criteria.

Other worrying factors in the law, it said, included the fact that checks
were only carried out after the patient had died, and that it covered
children aged 12 to 16 who had the backing of their parents in a euthanasia
request.

The Dutch government should look at the law again in the light of these
observations, the draft report declared.

It said committee members would like more information and detailed
statistics when the Netherlands next made a report, which all countries who
have signed the 1976 International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights
have to present to the body periodically.

Dutch Prime Minister Wim Kok said earlier this month that it was "bloody
nonsense" to say legalisation gave doctors a licence to kill.