| This is something that amazes me about the Dutch. I'm working not too far from the Netherlands, and nobody here seems to have mentioned that the Dutch state effectively gives elderly 2 choices : 1) they can choose pain meds overdose and/or euthanasia (active/passive) 2) they can choose to go without medical care (when above a certain age, the rule is that if, on average, a treatment does not result in at minimum a 5% increase in the length of useful life per EUR 20k spent per year, that treatment will not be given). An example I'm intimately familiar with. Someone who required dialysis since he was 38 due to late-onset diabetes which wasn't discovered for too long (ie. partially destroyed his kidneys at a -relatively- young age). The national health insurance would stop covering his treatments at the age of 62 (note that this age is going down due to medical expenses rising above inflation). So the choice was pain meds overdose, or self-poisoning. To say that this person voluntarily chose euthanasia is a flat-out lie. He would have chosen to prolong his life, if there were no consequences. The deciding factor for the timing of his death was the financial needs of the state. Note that the royal family was actually scared of the government they led when it came to a prince who has slipped into a coma. They openly chose to have him treated in the UK (he had an accident in Austria skiing), to prevent the euthanasia choice being made for them. ( http://www.rnw.nl/english/article/dutch-would-have-stopped-t... ) I am scared to think how many, percentage-wise, elderly Dutchmen actually are forced to chose between euthanasia and the cessation of most medical aid. And, frankly, knowing that that person paid decades for health insurance that promised health care until end of life, only to have the government change the deal under him ... I find it reprehensible. But it never seems to gather much attention. It seems Holland just wants to get rid of it's elderly. |