By Tom Kando
I’d like to piggy-back on Madeleine’s post, Senior Citizens Visiting Holland Beware!! In that post, she discusses Presidential candidate Rick Santorum’s recent allegation that the Dutch euthanize their elderly against their will. This is not new. My conservative friends have made similar accusations for years.
Killing someone against their will is called murder. So Rick Santorum and other conservatives are saying that the Dutch authorities of murdering many of their senior citizens. Here is my rebuttal:
1. The accusation is a lie: the number of people put to death in the Netherlands against their will is zero, zip, nil, nada, not one. The Dutch have living-will and do-not-resuscitate rules, as do many states in America. They have legalized euthanasia, as has Oregon, among others. But I repeat: Not ONE single Dutchman is put to death against his/her will, by hospitals or by any other authority. Of course, there are Dutchmen who get murdered - by street criminals. Which brings me to my second point:
2. How do the US and the Netherlands compare, in terms of people being killed against their will (= murder)?
In the Netherlands, there are about 160 murders per year. In the US, the number is around 16,000. Which means that the US proportional rate is about five times higher. But this is a different issue, you say. Right.
So what about people being killed against their will (= murder) by the authorities?
Under capital punishment, the US still executes nearly 50 people every year (most of them in Texas).
Netherlands: no capital punishment. The US executes more people than nearly every other country (China and Iran still beat us). Also, police kill many hundreds of people every year in the line of duty. This also falls under the heading of “being killed by the authorities against your will.”
But, you say: executing serial killers, cop killers, terrorists, child torturers and other monsters is fine. I agree. I am not against the death penalty in principle.
Also: many homicides by peace officers are justifiable (or so the “internal investigations” tell us). And there is a lot of “suicide by cop:” Some asshole decides to check out, but he is too cowardly to do the job himself, so he challenges a peace officer to do his dirty work for him. Yes, this happens.
But here is my main point: Santorum’s (and other conservatives’) allegations about Dutch murderous euthanasia are a lie. NO ONE is EVER put to death against their will by the authorities in the Netherlands - something which cannot be said about the United States, as I have shown.
So this is a case of the pot calling the kettle black. And worse than that, it highlights the fact that political candidates get away with blatant lies about another country's practices. Check out this link: Euthanasia in the Netherlands: Rick Santorum's bogus Statistics
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9 comments:
I am releived to hear this. I previously read Madeline's post and was concerned. Thanks for clearing this up.
Gail
You expected more from Mr. Santorum? Politicians will say what they believe the people who are most likely to vote for them want to hear. Do they stretch the truth? Yes. Do they lie? Hmmmm...
Yes, what Santorum said is a lie. And he knows he is lying because the facts are easily verifiable.
If a Dutch politician said that 5% of prisoners in California get executed, you would call that a lie wouldn't you? Or is it stretching the truth?
When Santorum says that 10% of all deaths in the Netherlands are a result of INVOLUNTARY euthanasia, that is a pure lie in my book. Not one single person has ever been euthanasized against their will in Holland and only 1.8 percent of deaths were a result of euthanasia in 2005 and 2.3 percent in 2010.
It is important to call politicians on distorting the facts and wrong to assume that it is the same as stretching the truth.
Sorry, but Santorum was not wrong. In 1990 the Dutch government was concerned about where Physician Assisted Suicide was going prior to its actual legalization and did a study of the court monitored practice. Respondents were guaranteed immunity and the following statistics showed up: 11,840 were "assisted", 2,700 were truly voluntary, 1,040 were non-voluntary of whom 14% were sane. 8,100 were covertly overdosed, 61% of whom were non-voluntary. The courts imposed a set of requirements to prevent abuse, but the extensive red-tape led 60% of the deaths to go unreported. Doctors admitted in 17% of the cases that alternatives were available and between 20 to 50% of the cases no second opinion ( a legal requirement) was sought. Tom, I have made this issue a study, call on me if you want an explanation of how this evasion of the law became common. The Dutch are not monsters, but there is a logic to this progression.
The study you refer to, is the 1990 Remmelink Report. After euthanasia became legal in Holland, two 2005 studies showed that the amount of involuntary euthanasia had gone down. The current figures do not support what Santorum is saying.
Other, independent studies have shown that there is, in fact, less involuntary euthanasia in the Netherlands than in some other countries. In other words, there is a progression, but in the right direction.
The Dutch have done the right thing by making voluntary euthanasia legal.
There is wide public support for voluntary euthanasia in the Netherlands and we seem to forget that the goal is to reduce suffering, not cause harm.
The Remmelink Report is 22 year old, dating back to BEFORE Holland legalized euthanasia. Since then, there has been a great deal of debate and several court cases. As Stan himself admits, the courts have introduced some corrections since then. And of course, Dutch law explicitly forbids the intentional taking of human life.
So if there is any “progression” or “slippery slope, it’s in a positive direction. Early errors are being corrected.
Palliative use of morphine and other pain killers may shorten life, but have nothing to do with deliberate and involuntary killing.
In this debate, we are losing sight of the main point: sparing dying patients an excruciatingly painful death.
On a personal note: our mother, turning 100 this year, lives in an assisted living retirement village over there. She is surrounded by other 90+ year old people. Over the past 10 years, we have observed the medical care which she and dozens of her age-mates receive: Everything is focused on life-prolonging measures, not life-shortening.
The quality of elder care and medical care which our mother enjoys in the Netherlands is so high that we would never consider moving her to the US .
Stan may have some decades-old data. We respect his opinions and will continue to look into this issue. However, everything we know from reading about this as well as extensive personal observation and exprience for more than 10 years, which also constitutes valid data, suggests that he and Santorum are wrong.
Furthermore:
We are saying that no patients in the Netherlands have undergone involuntary euthanasia SANCTIONED BY THE AUTHORITIES.
Of course, individual physicians do break the law sometimes, in Holland like elsewhere. Stan himself refers to what happened in Holland as law evasion.
When this happens, criminal prosecution follows to the extent possible, in Holland like elsewhere. The US put Kevorkian in prison, and the Dutch have prosecuted a number of physicians.
As I said, Dutch law explicitly forbids the intentional taking of human life.
Not one Dutchman is euthanized against their will. hmmmmmmmm I find that impossible to believe since elders are being put to death in hospitals here in california us and other parts of the world where euthanasia is not even legal. It can be done by intelligent doctors or doctors with an opportunity. Since it is acceptable, the law must change to make it unacceptable. It is not only elders but babies or the disabled or whoever is an easy target which are many who go to the hospital. But I know for sure that this happened to my mom who was euthanized after the doctors decided she had no quality of life. She had been in a narcotic coma that was given to her by hospital medical drug pushers staff against her will. After put into a coma they were able to say that she had no quality of life.Yes the nerve of these medical monsters to be so cruel. They refused to treat her very treatable infection. The medical staff only used medicine that was a killer for her condition. Like giving a diabetic sugar water to treat their diabetes, but it was even worse than that.This is illegal but when I took this problem to the dep of health they told me that it was standard treatment. That means that any kind of euthanasia is standard treatment even though it is illegal. I can only imagine if it was legal. I will try to find ways now to enforce these laws.I want to get these euthanasia thugs put in prison for life where they belong. I also want to get the drug pushers some major prison time as well. These laws need to make it very difficult for medical staff to Euthanize ( murder) and very difficult for them to drug people to death or injure them.I will work at enforcing no euthanasia of any kind in the medical field and no deadly narcotics that hurt and kill.
I am sorry about last anonymous' experience.
He/she brings up many points.
Overdrugging by the medical profession is indeed a problem, especially in the US.
Illegal euthanasia is also a problem. We mentioned the example of the UK.
My argument is essentially that INVOLUNTARY euthanasia (=murder) is illegal in the Netherlands (and I assume in most other civilized countries).
Of course, what physicians and hospitals do varies a great deal, and it would be naive to assume that IN PRACTICE no one is ever put to death without explicit consent.
The issue of the sanctity of human life vs.reducing horrible end-of-life suffering is complex.
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