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The people who suffered from an illness that could not be cured and were in pain can receive assisted suicide since 2002 in the Netherlands.The first country who allowed assisted suicide was the Netherlands and it was only available for people who were terminally ill.
The Dutch want to implement another law that could allow people that are not ill and don’t suffer from any pain to do the same thing. Euthanasia is going to be a solution for people who believe that they have lived a long life and who want to die.
Many people criticize this law already because they believe that too many people were allowed kill themselves even though they were not terminally ill. The people how received assisted suicide did have a disease, generally dementia or other mental illness
This law accounted for more than 5000 deaths last year in the Netherlands. This means almost 4% of the deaths in that country were caused by euthanasia.
Edith Schippers, the Health Minister did mention that this law is only going to apply to people who are old and believe that their lives have been complete. The persons who are going to be allowed to do this are going to be guided. Doctors are going to make sure that this is what these people want and need.
The Health Minister said that this law is going to be review and specialists are going to be hired in order for everything to be safe.
This proposal is a surprise because, despite the fact that the study said there is no need for this extension of the existing law, the extension was still proposed. The study was commission put researchers to make a study on this matter, in order to see if this extension is needed, if people feel the need to have assisted suicide once they reach a certain age. The study showed that there is no need. The minister came to contradict it and said that this is the only way for ill people who don’t have a chance of cure and for old people who have lived their life and think that it is complete.
If this proposal is accepted, the law is going to be drafted with the help of ethicists and doctors and it will be complete in the second half of 2017.
Image source: Yale Global Health Review
