There are other examples that there is indeed a phenomenon of “social slippery”. In Switzerland, the University Hospital of Geneva reduced its already limited palliative care staff (from 2 full-time doctors to 1.5) in 2006 after a hospital decided to allow assisted suicide; the community palliative care service was also closed (JP. Unpublished data). Among doctors in the Netherlands, 15% expressed concern that economic pressures might lead them to consider euthanasia for some of their patients. The case of a dying patient who was euthanized to free up a hospital bed 46 has already been cited. There is evidence that access to euthanasia and AMP, which are seen by some as simpler solutions, has complicated access for physicians to train and deliver palliative care, as providing palliative care requires emotional and time skills and commitments on the part of the clinician.47,48 At the British parliamentary hearings on euthanasia a few years ago, a Dutch doctor said: “We don`t need palliative care, we practice euthanasia” 49. Compared to euthanasia cases, cases without an explicit request were more likely to have a shorter duration of treatment for the incurable disease.10 Proponents of euthanasia typically use terminally ill patients who endure pain and have no prospect of improvement other than the type of patients who exemplify a situation where euthanasia is the most merciful option. Few people would not understand this request and could therefore approve euthanasia in these limited circumstances. But it would be useful to examine how even this narrowly defined support can actually enable scenarios beyond the incurable disease. Although doctors can use several types of drugs to perform euthanasia and some existing laws stipulate the use of certain drugs, the most commonly recommended in jurisdictions typically include a combination of benzodiazepines (optional) to relax the patient, followed by a high dose of a barbiturate such as thiobarbital, pentobarbital or secobarbital, which usually results in death.
followed by a muscle relaxant, if necessary (5,11,33). The doctor is often absent when the patient administers the life-ending drugs in the United States, usually by swallowing a deadly cocktail, but in Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg, the presence of a doctor is mandatory (5). The Dutch Medical Association has published guidelines on recommended and non-recommended medicinal products, which it includes in the Code of Professional Conduct (29). In Belgium, pharmacists have published guidelines on specific products and dosages, and the Life End Information Forum (LEIF) in Flanders, the Dutch-speaking part of Belgium, has disseminated information on best practice (29). Among the most commonly used medications for physician-assisted suicide is a self-administered barbiturate to induce loss of consciousness, after which death slowly results from asphyxiation due to cardiorespiratory depression (34). This article advocates for the protection of life and societal norms of mutual care by prohibiting euthanasia and assisted suicide. Instead of requiring the legalization of these troubling practices, international law protects the right to life – especially for the most vulnerable. The threat posed by a number of legislative proposals across Europe is illustrated by the example of countries that have already embarked on this path.
A study of recent developments in Belgium, the Netherlands and Canada shows that where euthanasia and assisted suicide are legalized, the number of people euthanized and the number of permissible conditions without a logical stopping point increase. The paper concludes by refuting the main arguments on which legalization is based. But how can you tell a person who dies of throat cancer today that they cannot have voluntary euthanasia because of what the Germans did in 1940 and 1942? I think the person would say, “That`s not relevant. This is me. It`s my body. It`s my freedom. It`s my life. And that`s my death. Let me be in control. Proponents of euthanasia have largely ignored these concerns about the “social slippery slope,” choosing to refute the “slippery slope” argument on the grounds that legalizing euthanasia and SAP has not resulted in an exponential increase in euthanasia or SAP, or a disproportionate number of people at risk of euthanasia.7,26,30 However, there is evidence to dispute this claim. In Belgium, rates of involuntary and involuntary euthanasia have decreased; Together, they accounted for 3.2%, 1.5% and 1.8% of all deaths in 1998, 2001 and 2007 (1800, 840 and 990 people, respectively, 30). In the Netherlands, the rate increased from 0.7% in 2001 to 0.4% in 2005 7.
The actual rate is likely higher given the large number of unreported cases. Despite the decline, rates are worrying. Contrary to the usual lack of solutions in the debate on this issue, each of these commissions independently came to the same conclusion, namely that legalization would be reckless and dangerous public policy because the inevitable abuses could not be eliminated. Even more surprising, while it is difficult to accidentally find even a small number of people who can agree on almost every aspect of euthanasia, three of these four committees came to this unanimous conclusion, even though they included all those who had opposing personal views on euthanasia. But if we know the current capacity of good palliative care to relieve the severe pain of incurable diseases, although it is also known that such care is not yet sufficiently available to many, the same question could be formulated more precisely: “If a physician is so negligent as to leave a terminally ill patient with severe pain, Should the doctor be able to amplify this neglect by killing the patient instead of seeking expert help? These are really adequate standards of medical care, not euthanasia. Assisted suicide and voluntary euthanasia are illegal in New Zealand under section 179 of the New Zealand Crimes Act 1961, which criminalizes “supporting and abetting suicide”. It is important to note that research conducted in Belgium and the Netherlands has shown that not all cases of euthanasia and assisted dying are reported, so these figures probably underestimate the true extent of the practices (7). Some physicians who administer opioids with the intent to end a person`s life at their request do not recognize their actions as euthanasia, and in other cases, physicians do not want to follow the prescribed procedures with the recommended medications because their patient does not meet all the requirements or because they find the procedure too cumbersome (29).
Zylicz, a palliative care physician who has worked extensively in the Netherlands with people requesting euthanasia and PAS, provides a taxonomy to understand the reasons for requests and provides springboards to respond to requests. Applications can be divided into five categories (summarized by the abbreviation abcde) 54: For example, the Netherlands – one of the first countries to decriminalize euthanasia – has very strict criteria for legal euthanasia.
