http://www.doorbraak.eu/gebladerte/10732f44.htm
Euthanasia
D66 has always been a pioneer in socially acceptable and then make euthanasia legal. Members of the party are still to be found in the leadership of the Dutch Association for Voluntary Euthanasia (NVVE). The then D66 there Heleen Dupuis was it between 1981 and 1985, the President, and now that Jacob Kohnstam, former Secretary for D66. D66 Minister Borst is also a member of the NVVE and even held a speech at the opening of the new NVVE building in 1995. (6)
At the time of the creation of D66 in the Netherlands was not discussed euthanasia, unlike in other European countries. This changed in 1969 when the rightmost Leiden Professor JH van den Berg his booklet “Medical power and medical ethics” which he released the medical advances under fire took. “Now people are kept alive formerly would have died long ago,” he wrote. Van den Berg said, is “a new ethic” which suited the modern era, and indicated how these “victims of medical-technical power” could break out of their suffering. When the family of the “victim” has had enough, the doctor him, according to the “new ethics”, must administer a lethal injection. In cases where the family still clings to the “old, discarded ethics”, a committee of doctors and laymen that decision should sheets, so thought Van den Berg, (7) which is also a staunch supporter of the South African apartheid showed , many racist slurs and include co-founder of the association Our Kingdom, one of the forerunners of the extreme right-wing environmental party Green Right. (8) He knew euthanasia to sell as the liberation of the patient from the medical power and so as increase its autonomy.
Euthanasia is not a simple medical procedure and it can be dangerous to a profession – nota bene doctors – to give consent to kill. Sometimes a patient really feel that there is only one solution to his suffering, but that is only rarely before, according to data on palliative care. Allow physicians to request euthanasia patients seems at first sight really more freedom and autonomy. It may, however, in an increasingly becoming harder and individualized society unpacking as a threat to people who are ill, severely depressed or feel alone in the world. If euthanasia is commonplace and one of the normal medical procedures, will make it self-evident decline to continue searching for a cure to the dramatic situation to get that led to the demand for euthanasia. The real danger is that sensible light will navigate with human lives, especially of “unproductive” people or difficult patients, people who are not (no longer) meet the modern ideal of the autonomous man. Especially when a debate arises in which aging, dementia and euthanasia are increasingly linked together. To think about the 900 cases per year of active life be terminated without euthanised asked for it (9), as for example with mental disabilities (10) or people in a coma.
Typically D66 item
After 15 years of discussion and massage of the society through media, NVVE lobby and court decisions that permit euthanasia, should D66 MP Elida Wessel-Tuinstra in 1984 an initiative bill to reduce criminality of euthanasia. The proposal was contributed by the influential professor of health law Henk Leenen. D66 This member has been since the foundation of his party behind the scenes, especially as advisor to the House Group in the field of healthcare. “Let me do my job,” says the pragmatist. “I do not go to conferences and meetings.” Wessel-Tuinstra about that time: “The party of the VVD was true that euthanasia should be possible and the Labour Party said in a first reaction even that the proposal does not go far enough, because nothing was recorded on comatose patients, but the D66 was Party who took the initiative, because other parties not dare. ”
In 1994 receives the D66 for euthanasia main ministries assigned. Chest comes on Health and Sorgdrager on Justice. Meanwhile, in 1993, euthanasia became less criminal, but the purple cabinet with D66 on the key posts going through to the next round sentence. Chest appears brighter than argued. “If a child at the beginning of life, severe multiple handicaps, then it is justified if the parents request to stop the treatment,” said the Minister of Health (11). The issues surrounding this practice solves Chest on a technocratic, depoliticised way: “We want a review committee set except where doctors also ethicists and lawyers sit”. This idea is partly derived from NVVE lawyer Sutorius. Which also suggests “district committees to establish that doctors can consult when the life of a baby want to stop.” (12) The comparison with the previous proposals of Van den Berg is striking. In 1997 in Amsterdam on a trial first committee Support and Consultation on Euthanasia in Amsterdam (SCEA), where doctors together to provide advice on whether or not to apply euthanasia. The test succeeds apparently, because then there will be a nationwide network SCEN and 5 “regional review committees” established. The latter sheets from 1999 an opinion on the “care” of euthanasia, although only after the person has been euthanized. The committees review each approximately 3 cases per day.
Sorgdrager is now president of one of these committees. When she was minister, she was accused doctors incapacitated had slain, to sue in order to achieve a more liberal jurisprudence to come. The minister did not themselves political choices about what can and can not do, but opted for an expert opinion. “That is a misuse of the judiciary and a disregard of the numerous social, ethical and psychological aspects to this issue that may stick and be more important to the legal side,” said J. The Good, dean of the Bar Association in Leeuwarden. (13)
Very D66 is engaged in the struggle for euthanasia. In 1997, Van Boxtel, meanwhile D66 Minister for Urban Policy and Integration, a private member proposal. “He has then PvdA and VVD elaborated and submitted. That purple initiative bill is in the coalition ended,” said Boris Dittrich D66. In November 2000 is the day. The D66 magazine Democrat writes enthusiastically: “The right to euthanasia is a typical item D66, D66 MPs which generations have fought. Finally, the breakthrough occurred: late November, the House approved a legislation of euthanasia.” The D66 is Kohnstam: “As chairman of the NVVE I debate late November followed closely. The law has now been adopted for 95 percent the bill Elida Wessel-Tuinstra then proposed. D66 as we can truly say that We have fought for the law as it now is. Well, I am convinced that the debate about euthanasia will continue. There is now a statutory scheme, but the discussion about borderline cases will continue. “(14)
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