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Netherlands Legalizes Mercy Killing
AMESTERDAM, Jan. 1 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - The Netherlands has become the first country in the world to legalize euthanasia, giving terminally ill patients the right to end their lives.
The new law protects doctors from prosecution for carrying out mercy killings if they are performed with due care, BBC’s online news service reported.
Strict conditions apply to this law, with regional review committees made up of legal, medical and ethical experts carefully judging each patient's request.
A second medical opinion will be needed, and the suffering of the patient must be deemed unbearable. When there is doubt the case will be referred to the public prosecutor.
The bill to legalize euthanasia in the Netherlands was supported by a clear majority of the Dutch people and was easily passed in parliament.
The upper house of the Dutch parliament approved the legislation last April and it came into force on January 1, 2002.
However, not everyone agrees that humans should have the right to choose to die.
The Dutch Roman Catholic Church said the law would make it too easy for people to give up. "People who are ill but consider themselves a burden to their family, that's the problem," a spokesman for the Bishops Conference had said in April 2001.
The main opposition, the Christian Democrats (CDA), and smaller Calvinist parties also opposed the law.
Andre Rouwoet, one of five MPs for the Dutch Christian Union, said his party believed life was a "God-given gift" and that people could not decide on their own death.
"The main objection of our party is that the idea of … legalizing euthanasia is based on the assumption of human autonomy, that every individual person can decide about his own life but also his death," he said.
One doctor at the German Hospice Foundation, Monika Schweihoff, said the Dutch plan was "appalling".
"The Netherlands is the first country to legalize euthanasia since the Nazis," she said in a statement.
Even the issue of so-called mercy killing is still debatable among religious scholars. One Muslim scholar, Muzammil Siddiqi, told IslamOnline that euthanasia is not allowed in Islam.
“Islam considers human life sacred. Life is to be protected and promoted as much as possible. It is neither permissible in Islam to kill another human being, nor even to kill one's own self (suicide).
Killing is only allowed in a war situation when the enemy is the aggressor, then the killing of the enemy is allowed for self-defense, according to the Islamic ruling (Fatwa) issued by Sheikh Siddiqi.
“The court of law may pass a death sentence against a person as a punishment for some crimes such as premeditated murder or other serious crimes.
“However, there is no provision in Islam for killing a person to reduce his pain or suffering from sickness. It is the duty of the doctors, patient's relatives and the state to take care of the sick and to do their best to reduce the pain and suffering of the sick, but they are not allowed under any circumstances to kill the sick person,” the Islamic scholar stated.
In his Fatwa, Siddiqi, added that “the sick person also should patiently endure the pain and should pray to Allah. If he/she is patient, there will be a great reward and blessing for him/her in the eternal life.
“If, however, a number of medical experts determine that a patient is in a terminal condition and there is no hope for his/her recovery, then it could be permissible for them to stop the medication,” he said.
Siddiqi pointed out that if the patient is on life support, it may be permissible, with due consultation and care, to decide to switch off the life support machine and let the nature take its own time.
Under no condition it is permissible to induce death to a patient.
Euthanasia has been tolerated for decades in the Netherlands, although last month a court found a doctor guilty of malpractice for helping an 86-year-old former senator to die because he was tired of living.
The doctor was neither sentenced nor fined by the court.
The case has inflamed public debate over whether a person who is not physically ill should have the right to die.
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