Word: euthanasia
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...will find out. Soon it will be possible in the Netherlands for doctors to inject lethal drugs into chronically ill people who want to die. No other nation has formally legalized euthanasia. And though mercy killings have not been criminally punished for years in the Netherlands and a few other places--Colombia and Switzerland among them--there's something creepy about how far the Dutch have gone with the law. When it takes effect in the fall, doctors will be able to euthanize sick children as young as 12, as long as the kids ask and Mom and Dad agree...
...sure, the Netherlands hasn't completely become Hemlockland. Two physicians must agree that a euthanasia applicant suffers an unbearable, hopeless condition. Subsequently, each case of mercy killing will be reviewed by a lawyer. Something like the Dutch law exists in only one U.S. state, Oregon, but its Death with Dignity Act is less sweeping (see chart). Under its strict rules, doctors there signed only 96 prescriptions for lethal doses of medication from 1998 through 2000. By comparison, physicians already euthanize roughly 4,000 Dutch each year--and it's not even technically legal...
...killing foes feel emboldened by the legal uncertainties. A psychologist must agree that Oregon applicants don't suffer "depression causing impaired judgment," but critics say that standard is vague. Dutch opponents also focus on the emotionally impaired. "Vulnerable patients who consider themselves to be a burden might opt for euthanasia while in fact they would be happier with improved care," says Henk Jochemsen of the Dutch Center for Medical Ethics...
Events ranged from a symposium at Harvard Law School (HLS) talking about the legal history of abortion and euthanasia, to a performance by Caedmon's Call, a Christian rock band...
...Saturday, a physician from Rhode Island used flow charts to prove what he thinks is the destructiveness of euthanasia in a panel called "New Realities and the Future of the Pro-Life Movement...