Dutch Professor: British proposed assisted death criteria are similar to how Canada's law began.

"When you legalise euthanasia, we see that all over the world, it will set in motion a new dynamic where supply will create demand."

Alex Schadenberg
Executive Director, Euthanasia Prevention Coalition

Theo Boer

Professor Theo Boer who was a member of a Netherlands Regional Euthanasia Review Committee, was interviewed on October 16 by the Times Radio (UK) concerning the upcoming assisted suicide bill that will be debated in the UK.

Kim Leadbetter, MP was to introduce the - Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill but we are informed that the language of the bill will not be available until sometime in November.

In his interview with the Times Radio, Boer responds to the proposed outline of the bill by comparing it to the Canadian and Netherlands experience with euthanasia:

When you legalise euthanasia, we see that all over the world, it will set in motion a new dynamic where supply will create demand.

What you are now saying about these British criteria is just about exactly the same as how Canada started. It said, it was for terminal illness, for only a physical illness and now we are way down the path because there were patients in Canada that said this is so unjust, a chronic patient, and I agree with that, a chronic patient can suffer so much more than a terminal patient.

Question: Was it a kind of a legal challenge that mean't that they could expand it?

Yes, In Canada it worked through litigation, through court cases. So they had the Truchon/Gladu case, where I was an expert witness for the Canadian government in 2018. It started with a court case, that was the litigation, and then, so it is really a matter of justice and I think that is inevitable.

As I said, how can you defend rights to a swift death to someone who is terminally ill, while there are people with chronic illnesses that suffer all the much more?

Question: Would that be anyone with a chronic illness?

Well, personally I think this is a slippery slope, so I'm very hesitant. But I think the most heartbreaking cases now in the Netherlands are young psychiatric patients. We have ground breaking cases.

A 17-year old girl who had psychiatric illness for five years and suffering unbearably.

It is so heartbreaking, not only the fact that they die, but also the suffering that they undergo. So really I don't know. And we don't know in the Netherlands where this will stop. So we are also, of course as you know, discussing a law that will grant anyone over 74 the right to euthanasia on the basis of a completed life.

Question: What did you say? A completed life?

Completed life means that old age is the only reason that you, I should say, a sufficient reason. You don't even need to be sick. That is a law that has been discussed for years, and now that we have a little more populist government in the Netherlands, I think they are more hesitant. But we were almost on the brink of having this "completed life" law.

Question: Do you agree with that?

No, No. As you may hear between the lines, I was advocating for the euthanasia law, but as I have seen the practice developed from euthanasia being an exception to euthanasia becoming a rule.

I now actually think that doctors, for example in Britain, when there's really unbearable suffering at the end of life, perhaps they should help the patient to die, for example, with an extra dose of morphine, but not legalising it because when you legalise euthanasia, we see all over the world, it will set in motion a new dynamic where supply will create demand.

Previous articles by Theo Boer:

• Euthanasia is impossible to police once legal (Link). 
• Let's not romanticize the Dutch euthanasia experiment (Link). 
• Be careful what you wish for when you legalise active killing (Link).