CLONING AND EUTHANASIA: WALKING HAND IN HAND

CLONING AND EUTHANASIA: WALKING HAND IN HAND

"Dutch law reveals a grim picture of what happens when government-sanctioned euthanasia replaces methods of preventive and palliative hospice care. Doctors are encouraged, via cooperation with the Dutch Voluntary Euthanasia Society and the Royal Dutch Medical Association, to facilitate death as a means of 'compassionate' care. The immediate family (exhausted by the high costs and psychological commitment to long-term care) is dissuaded from exploring other options. The patient does not make a fully informed autonomous decision, and is pressured to sign the consent forms so that ‘the death process’ can proceed. Often, the victim is feeble and incapacitated, and unable to respond quickly enough to questions about the procedure to which he is submitting. In such instances, consent is not given by the terminally ill patient."