Netherlands euthanasia lobby pushes kill pill.

By Alex Schadenberg
International Chair, Euthanasia Prevention Coalition

The Netherlands euthanasia lobby (NVVE) has renewed their push for a kill pill that would be made available, free of charge and upon request, to people who are 70 or older. 

In 2010, the Netherlands euthanasia lobby collected signatures supporting the "last will pill" for people over 70. According to a report in the Dutch News:

The NVVE now wants to discuss its ideas for an experiment with the health and justice ministries and with the Dutch doctors’ association KNMG. 

‘We see that society wants such a pill, particularly among the babyboom generation which is not afraid to speak its mind,’ NVVE director Robert Schurink told the NRC. ‘They want control over the end of their lives.’ 

At the moment, the NVVE helps people who do not want to live any longer access foreign suppliers who can help them buy the pills to do the job, the paper said.

The concept of the kill pill comes from a few "academics" who philosophically believe that death is the ultimate freedom. They really don't care that their philosophy threatens the lives of the many so a few academics can say - "I am free."

What about people who are living with situational depression, or for example someone who is grieving a lost spouse. Is it freedom to assist the suicide of someone who is living through the dark time of their life? No it is a form of social abandonment and the ultimate form of elder abuse.

It is bad enough that the Netherlands allow euthanasia, but to simply say - "Oh by the way I am tired of living, give me the kill pill" is a dangerous and callous response.