Dutch offered ‘euthanasia on wheels’

By Anna Holligan, BBC News, The Hague, 2 March 2012
Euthanasia has been legal in the Netherlands for a decade. But an organisation based in The Hague is now offering a mobile euthanasia service, prompting accusations that the law has been pushed too far.

The anti-euthanasia lobby is in a fury, branding the mobile euthanasia units “death squads” and accusing the government of not doing enough to enforce the strict medical codes of practice that accompanies the procedure.

Teams will be travelling around the country assisting patients whose own doctors refuse to help them to die. The new units consist of a doctor, a nurse and all the medical equipment required to carry out euthanasia.

Patients can choose injections administered by the medical team, or they may drink a lethal concoction of life-ending drugs.

In 2002, the Netherlands became the first country in the world to legalise euthanasia. Every year there are between 2,500 and 3,000 procedures carried out, accounting for about 2% of deaths annually.

The legal guidelines in the Netherlands state that patients must be fully conscious when requesting euthanasia. Two doctors must agree that there is no chance of recovery and that the patient is experiencing “unbearable and interminable suffering”.

But Bert Dorenbos who represents the Dutch Cry for Life campaign group thinks mobile units push the limits of the legislation too far.

“It’s a crazy idea. It’s an excuse for pro-euthanasia people to push their agenda. I think it’s a PR campaign more than caring for patients who are suffering.

“‘Come to our clinic and we will help you die.’ They make it sound so easy and simple and it should not be that way.”