{"id":10207,"date":"2022-02-14T00:46:57","date_gmt":"2022-02-13T16:16:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.exitinternational.net\/?p=10207"},"modified":"2022-02-14T00:46:58","modified_gmt":"2022-02-13T16:16:58","slug":"dutch-high-court-allows-euthanasia-for-dementia-patients","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.euthanasia.net\/exit\/dutch-high-court-allows-euthanasia-for-dementia-patients\/","title":{"rendered":"Dutch High Court Allows Euthanasia for Dementia Patients"},"content":{"rendered":"

Dutch High Court Allows Euthanasia for Dementia Patients<\/p>\n

The Netherlands Supreme Court on Tuesday upheld a landmark euthanasia ruling in the case of a doctor charged with murder for performing euthanasia on a patient with severe dementia.<\/p>\n

THE HAGUE, Netherlands (CN) \u2014 The Netherlands Supreme Court<\/a> on Tuesday upheld a landmark euthanasia ruling in the case of a doctor charged with murder for performing euthanasia on a patient with severe dementia.<\/p>\n

It was the first time a doctor had been criminally charged since the passage of the Termination of Life on Demand Review Act, which legalized euthanasia in the Netherlands in 2002.<\/p>\n

Willem van Schendel, vice president of the Supreme Court, read the verdict out loud before a mostly empty courtroom in The Hague. The Dutch courts are only opened for a limited number of cases in an effort to prevent the spread of Covid-19.<\/p>\n

\u201cA physician may respond to a written request for euthanasia for people with advanced dementia. In such a situation, all requirements set by the law with regard to euthanasia must be met, including the requirement that there is hopeless and unbearable suffering,\u201d van Schendel said.<\/p>\n

\"Dutch<\/a><\/p>\n

A 74-year-old woman, who was not identified by the court, had signed an advanced directive following her diagnosis with Alzheimer\u2019s disease in 2012 that if she was admitted to a nursing home with dementia, she wished to be euthanized.<\/p>\n

However, after she was admitted to a nursing home, she gave conflicting statements as to whether she wanted the assisted suicide. According to nursing home staff, the woman sometimes said that she wished to die, but other times said she was not ready. In consultation with two other doctors and the woman\u2019s family, she died by euthanasia in 2016.<\/p>\n

Her 68-year-old doctor, identified only as Catharina A., was found not guilty of murder in September. The charges were based on a review, mandatory in all euthanasia cases, that found euthanasia should not have been performed as the patient\u2019s statements were unclear.<\/p>\n

“Euthanasia in the case of disability remains a complex process that requires extreme caution. But with today\u2019s ruling, doctors in the Netherlands can be less afraid,\u201d said Steven Pleiter, director of the Euthanasia Expertise Center.<\/p>\n

The case has had a chilling effect on euthanasia in the Netherlands, with an increasing number of doctors refusing to perform the procedure.<\/p>\n

The public prosecutor did not appeal The Hague district court\u2019s verdict but the attorney general brought the case before the Supreme Court in order to have the highest court in the country rule on the matter.<\/p>\n

In Tuesday\u2019s ruling, the Supreme Court laid out the main principles for providing euthanasia to patients who are suffering from advanced degenerative diseases.<\/p>\n

Before becoming legally incompetent, the patient must have issued a written directive stating that they wanted to be euthanized. Doctors must also take into consideration statements made by the patients during the advanced stages of their disease, but a lack of clarity in what a patient says, as was the situation with the woman in the case before the court, doesn\u2019t mean a physician must refuse to perform euthanasia.<\/p>\n

Further, the court wrote that \u201ccriminal prosecution is not always the most appropriate response to a possible case of careless medical conduct,\u201d an apparent criticism of the public prosecutor for bringing the case in the first place.<\/p>\n

Beyond upholding the lower court\u2019s ruling that there was no crime, the Supreme Court overruled a decision by the Central Disciplinary Board for Healthcare that the doctor had not followed the proper euthanasia procedure. The disciplinary board had issued a formal warning to the doctor, who has since retired.<\/p>\n

\"Dutch<\/a><\/p>\n

While euthanasia is legal in the Netherlands, there are strict conditions. Patients who wish to undergo euthanasia must first meet with their doctor, who will evaluate them. They must be experiencing \u201cunbearable suffering with no prospect of improvement.\u201d A second doctor must confirm that the patient is voluntarily undertaking the procedure and is eligible.<\/p>\n

The patient\u2019s death, which can either be the result of the doctor administering a fatal drug or providing the drug to the patient to administer themselves, is then evaluated by a review committee, composed of a medical doctor, an ethicist and a legal expert.<\/p>\n

\u201cWith a careful method, in accordance with the law, it is clear that you can treat deeply demented people on the basis of a living will,\u201d Pleiter said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Dutch High Court Allows Euthanasia for Dementia Patients The Netherlands Supreme Court on Tuesday upheld a landmark euthanasia ruling in the case of a doctor charged with murder for performing euthanasia on a patient with severe dementia. THE HAGUE, Netherlands (CN) \u2014 The Netherlands Supreme Court on Tuesday upheld a landmark euthanasia ruling in the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":10208,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0},"categories":[101],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\t\n\t\n\n\n\t\n