Christian Doctors Criticize Dutch Guidelines for Infant Euthanasia

A recent proposal to provide euthanasia guidelines for severely ill newborns in the Netherlands has drawn criticism from the Christian Medical Association.

A recently published essay by two Dutch doctors proposing euthanasia guidelines for severely ill newborns in the Netherlands has drawn criticism from the Christian Medical Association.

Although euthanasia is illegal for children under 12 in the Netherlands, the authors of the essay contend that infant euthanasia is already taking place.

"It's time to be honest. All over the world doctors end lives discreetly, out of compassion," said one of the authors, doctor Eduard Verhagen, during an interview with the British Medical Journal.

In making their case, the two doctors cite a survey showing that about 20 Dutch newborns are killed by doctors every year "for whom a very poor quality of life, associated with sustained suffering, is predicted."

Therefore, Verhagen and Sauer say, a euthanasia protocol is needed because the Dutch government has "neither created a committee nor offered guidance" on the topic.

In their controversial essay, published on March 10 in the New England Journal of Medicine, the two doctors propose that there be consent by both parents, a team of physicians, and a clear condition and prognosis before killing the child.

Meanwhile, in a statement responding to the "revelation" that "Dutch doctors now openly euthanasize infants," the CMA executive director Dr. David Stevens said the nation has now "slid" to a point where medically-induced homicide is endorsed.

"In just a few generations since World War II, the Netherlands has slid from firm opposition to medical killing to tolerating it illegally to endorsing it in law and now to expanding it to children," said Stevens.

Stevens explained that contrary to popular belief, Dutch euthanasia is all about "money" and "physician autonomy".

"On the face of it, Dutch euthanasia is all about pain and suffering and patient autonomy," said Stevens. "But in reality, Dutch euthanasia is all about money, convenience and physician autonomy.

"Now euthanasia has found its ultimate victim in infants who are unable to speak for themselves and powerless to defend their own right to life."