The concept bill that should legalize assisted suicide for the life-weary elderly in the Netherlands contains insufficient safety guarantees. A blowback for the governing liberal D66 party.
The Council of State, a constitutionally established advisory body to the government and Parliament, made this judgment in an advisory report completed in December. It was made public on Friday. The law is about euthanasia for people who do not want to die because they are terminally ill but for another reason.
The Council argues that, according to research, older people with an active death wish without being seriously ill face complex problems. “Important factors that increase the desire to die are worrying: financial worries, illness, loneliness, dependence on others, and the feeling of being a burden to others. Moreover, the death wish in this group is variable and strongly situation and context-dependent. The wish does not play continuously and does not always carry the same weight. Research also shows that, in some cases, the death wish diminishes or disappears over time,” the Council concludes.
Therefore, it is important, the Council continues, to ensure that people do not end their lives without being sure that they really want to. Their wish might be prompted or related to medical problems or problems that could be resolved.
According to the Council, the current bill does not meet this requirement. It should therefore be drastically amended by the submitters before the House of Representatives can consider it.
Suicide
According to the highest advisory body, it is important that it can be established that people really want to die, have thought about it well and no longer have any doubts and that their death wish is not related to other problems, such as money. The Council of State recommends building in more safeguards before the bill is considered.
In principle, assisted suicide remains punishable under the initiative proposal unless it concerns elderly people of at least 75 years and if a series of due care requirements are met. For example, the older person must be mentally competent, there must be at least two months to think about it between the first and final request, and it must be established that it is a voluntary and well-considered choice, as D66 has included in its private member's bill.
In any case, the two-month reflection period is not sufficient, the Council of State rules. The Council also believes that the elderly person and the person who will accompany them if they wish to die should come to a conclusion after an investigation that there is “no reasonable other solution” available to alleviate the suffering and remove the wish to die. That guarantee is currently not in the law.
The highest advisory body has questions about the age limit of 75 years. Therefore, it is not arguing for a different age limit but wants to see a better substantiation based on research.
The rejection is non-binding. It is still possible for the House to put this bill up for voting.
