{"id":9470,"date":"2021-10-03T19:16:07","date_gmt":"2021-10-03T10:46:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.exitinternational.net\/?p=9470"},"modified":"2021-10-03T19:17:48","modified_gmt":"2021-10-03T10:47:48","slug":"is-cooperatie-laatste-wil-a-criminal-organisation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.euthanasia.net\/exit\/is-cooperatie-laatste-wil-a-criminal-organisation\/","title":{"rendered":"Is Co\u00f6peratie Laatste Wil a Criminal Organisation?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Is Co\u00f6peratie Laatste Wil a Criminal Organisation?<\/p>\n

Did the chairman of the Last Will Cooperative participate in a criminal organization?<\/strong><\/p>\n

The chairman of Co\u00f6peratie Laatste Wil believes that everyone who wants to die should be able to choose to do so. Now he is suspected of participating in a criminal organization.<\/p>\n

The ultimate goal of CLW is the ‘secure management’ of a small vault containing ‘last will pills’ [editor’s note – sodium azide] for its members to use ‘at their discretion.’<\/p>\n

Anyone who wants to should be able to opt for ‘a mild death’ by ‘taking a substance’, said Jos van Wijk in an article that was published in 2013 in the opinion magazine Relevant<\/em>.<\/p>\n

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

Things have not gone that far yet, the article reports, because ‘assisted suicide is punishable and the cooperative wants to operate within existing legislation at all times’.<\/p>\n

It is questionable whether that aim was successful, because CLW chairman Jos van Wijk was arrested on Wednesday. He was incarcerated until Thursday afternoon.<\/p>\n

According to his lawyer, Tim Vis,\u00a0 73-year-old Van Wijk, wants to be called by his name because he is ‘not a criminal’, even though he is suspected of involvement in assisted suicide and participation in a criminal organization, according to the Public Prosecution Service.<\/p>\n

A criminal organization is when two or more persons engage in the commission of crimes in a structured partnership.<\/p>\n

According to the Public Prosecution Service, the conclusion CLW is a criminal organization ‘is not correct’.<\/p>\n

On Tuesday, the police unexpectedly showed up at Van Wijk’s door, said Vis.<\/p>\n

His home was searched when he was not at home. The next day he reported himself to the police station, where, according to Vis, he was interrogated for two days.<\/p>\n

According to Vis, questions were mainly asked about the working method of CLW, and not about specific cases.<\/p>\n

Van Wijk ‘pertinently does not recognize himself’ in the suspicions, says Vis.<\/p>\n

Under the law, a person who ‘deliberately assists or provides the means to commit suicide’ can face up to three years in prison.<\/p>\n

According to professor of law and health care, Martin Buijsen at Erasmus University, people who have been convicted are those who provided a lethal drug to someone who also died of it.<\/p>\n

He mentions the former chairman of the NVVE foundation who, in 2007, helped a seriously ill 80-year-old woman end her life and was sentenced to twelve months in prison (ten conditional).<\/p>\n

And another man who helped a loved one to build a helium installation, with which he committed suicide. ‘Just providing information is not punishable,’ he says.<\/p>\n

The provision of leaflets and information has been discussed in court cases, Buijsen says, but that has never led to a conviction.<\/p>\n

Co\u00f6peratie Laatste Wil adheres to the ideas of the late legal scholar Huib Drion<\/strong><\/a>, who wrote in a well-known op-ed in the NRC in 1991 that ‘many old people would find great peace of mind if they had a means to get out of the to step into life’.<\/p>\n

After it was founded in 2013, CLW quickly gained a large following, which now consists of 26,500 members.<\/p>\n

Is Co\u00f6peratie Laatste Wil a Criminal Organisation?<\/strong><\/p>\n

In September 2017, the Public Prosecution Service already started a criminal investigation into the organization, when it became known that it wanted to buy a suicide drug and make it available to its members.<\/p>\n

CLW then noted that assisted suicide is a punishable offence. At that stage, the organisation had not yet ordered the deadly powder. They promised to stop the activities.<\/p>\n

The Public Prosecution Service then monitored the organization for another six months and, in its own words, stopped the investigation because nothing criminal was observed.<\/p>\n

At the beginning of August of this year, the Last Will Cooperative was associated with the arrest of a man known as ‘Alex S’, who is also a member of the cooperative.<\/p>\n

Alex S was arrested on suspicion of trafficking a deadly substance. But those two things are separate, says lawyer Vis.<\/p>\n

Alex S., who is still incarcerated, is suspecrted of having sold a suicide drug to hundreds of people from early 2018 to June 2021.<\/p>\n

At least six people have died after using the drug. The criminal investigation into the man started after the death of a woman from Best in May 2021.<\/p>\n

Living Room Meetings<\/strong><\/p>\n

Two weeks after Alex S’s arrest, CLW announced that it would discontinue its ‘living room talks’, in which cooperative volunteers talk to members about issues surrounding a self-chosen end of life.<\/p>\n

‘It seemed as if, in the smoke of those conversations, initiatives were being taken to obtain a deadly drug.<\/p>\n

‘CLW did not want that, and because they wanted to clarify what exactly happened, the meetings were suspended.<\/p>\n

At the same time, a lawsuit against the State was initiated by CLW.<\/p>\n

The plaintiffs want the criminalization of assisted suicide to be removed and believe that means to end life must be made legally available.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Is Co\u00f6peratie Laatste Wil a Criminal Organisation? Did the chairman of the Last Will Cooperative participate in a criminal organization? The chairman of Co\u00f6peratie Laatste Wil believes that everyone who wants to die should be able to choose to do so. Now he is suspected of participating in a criminal organization. The ultimate goal of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":9471,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0},"categories":[1,5],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\t\n\t\n\n\n\t\n