Is the Netherlands refusing to treat elderly Covid-19 patients.

Alex Schadenberg
Executive Director, Euthanasia Prevention Coalition

An article by Salvador Aragonés published by Aleteia.org claims that the Netherlands is rationing healthcare by denying treatment to patients based on age. Aragonés also claims that the Netherlands is blaming the financial crisis in Italy and Spain as caused by their medical treatment policy. Aragonés writes (google translated);

A great scandal is caused in Europe, and not only in Europe, with the systematic attitude of the Netherlands in treating coronavirus patients in their territory by age, even before their hospitals are full. 

According to statements by Dr. Frits Rosendaal, head of clinical epidemiology at the Leiden University Medical Center, and a member of the Royal Dutch Academy of Sciences and Art, with many awards and recognized merits. This well known doctor in the Netherlands is now battling the coronavirus, comments on how hospital admissions for the Covid-19 virus are followed in the Netherlands, while criticizing the way of life of Italy and Spain. 

The doctor (Rosendaal) said: “In Italy, the ICU capacity is managed very differently [from the Dutch]. They admit patients that we would not include because they are too old. The elderly have a very different position in Italian culture." He (Rosendaal) does not understand how in these southern European countries they admit “old people to the ICU”. The Netherlands does not hospitalize the weak and the elderly in order to make room for young people. He attributes it to a “cultural difference” between the Netherlands and the Latin countries.

Aragonés links the Dutch policy of not treating elderly Covid-19 patients with euthanasia. He states (google translated):

...in the Netherlands as in Belgium, euthanasia has been applied for years, according to the authorities, “voluntary”. However, in Germany, and in France, Spain and Italy, they have received elderly patients from these countries to be cured, not of coronaviruses, but of anything, because they do not trust the hospitals of their country: euthanasia is not Voluntary, they say, nor is it respected - not infrequently - the will of the person to whom euthanasia is applied.

Aragonés then states that Dutch finance minister Wopke Hoekstra is urging the European parliament to investigate "wasted finances" in Portugal and Spain related to Covid-19.

Treatment and care related to the Covid-19 has clearly affected relations between European nations.

On March 28, the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) published a bulletin upholding the equality and human rights of people with disabilities and the elderly concerning treatment decisions and healthcare allocation.

Portugal may soon legalize doctors lethally injecting their patients.

Alex Schadenberg
Executive Director, Euthanasia Prevention Coalition

On February 20, the Portuguese Parliament voted on five different proposals to legalize euthanasia. All of the proposals passed, even though two years ago, similar proposals were defeated.

The Portuguese government will now propose a single bill for parliament.

A report by Barry Hutton for the Associated Press explains that Portuguese president, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa opposes euthanasia and may veto the bill. Hutton wrote:

President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, who is known to be reluctant about euthanasia, could veto the new law, but parliament can override his veto by voting a second time for approval. The Portuguese president doesn’t have executive powers. 

The head of state also could ask the Constitutional Court to review the legislation; Portugal’s Constitution states that human life is “sacrosanct,” though abortion has been legal in the country since 2007.

Based on the recent vote, it is possible that the Portuguese parliament can over-ride a veto.

Groups that oppose euthanasia are gathering signatures to demand a referendum on the issue. During the parliamentary debate on euthanasia, there were hundreds of people protesting euthanasia. One One banner said: 

“Euthanasia doesn’t end suffering, it ends life.”

Recently the Spanish parliament also voted to continue to debate euthanasia. 

As bad as this is, the debate in Portugal is not over.

Spain debates bill to legalize euthanasia.

Alex Schadenberg
Executive Director, Euthanasia Prevention Coalition

Reuters reported that the Spanish parliament voted 203 to 140 (2 abstained) to continue debating a bill to legalize euthanasia in Spain. Reuters stated:

“We’re talking about clearly debilitating diseases without a cure, without a solution and which cause significant suffering,” government spokeswoman Maria Jesus Montero said, adding that doctors who object to the practice will be able to opt out.

Montero is suggesting that the legislation will only allow euthanasia for extreme cases, but the reality is that once it is legal the law must be equally applied or it will be considered discriminatory.

The Quebec Minister of Health, in 2014, suggested that there would only be 100 euthanasia deaths per year. In 2019, approximately 5000 people died by euthanasia in Canada.

Euthanasia requires the direct action of a doctor to approve and carry-out a death by lethal injection.

The bill will now go to the Parliamentary Health Committee for discussion and then to the Senate before it can return to the lower house for a final vote.

Canadian physicians warn Spanish Parliament about euthanasia

Media Release: October 23, 2018

As the Spanish Parliament debates the euthanasia and assisted suicide bill, Canadian physicians feel it is essential to bring to your attention the dangers and failures of the euthanasia and assisted suicide laws in Canada which have been in place since 2016. 

Link to this media release in Spanish (Link).

Since then, there has been constant pressure to normalize and expand these practices and to abandon the safeguards instituted to protect vulnerable people.

The Canadian government is now looking into extending euthanasia and assisted suicide to children, people with mental illness, and cognitive disorders.

Doctors and hospitals are under pressure to provide euthanasia or to refer cases to another clinician, even when it violates their fundamental principles to do so. 

(Euthanasia in Canada: A Cautionary Tale, World Medical Journal September 2018).

Dr Paul Saba

Dr. Paul Saba alleges that a patient’s consent to be euthanized cannot be free and informed if the patient does not have access to the proper health care including palliative care.

Dr. Saba’s argument is not theoretical given the report from the Quebec Commission on end of life care. It indicates that the euthanasia laws are not being respected. In Quebec, 52 cases not conforming to the law were performed in 2016-2017.

The lack of health services in the province and particularly palliative care, was denounced recently by the President of the College of Physicians which is the regulatory body for medical practice. The College reported some patients were seeking euthanasia because of the lack of palliative care.

Dr Saba states:

“The present Canadian laws are not safe. In the same way the proposed Spanish laws will have the same outcome. You cannot safely put into place euthanasia and assisted suicide without having a comprehensive palliative care system active and running. People need assistance in living and not assistance for suicide.”

Dr. Rene Leiva, a family physician contends that the present Canadian laws and proposed Spanish laws do not protect patients from ending their lives prematurely because of feelings of hopelessness, lack of future, feelings of being overwhelmed, being a burden and not having access to medical care which would treat their pain and suffering.

Dr Laurence Normand-Rivest

Dr. Laurence Normand-Rivest who is a palliative care physician reminds the world that Canada’s present legalization of euthanasia and assisted suicide and the proposed Spanish law are contrary to practices in the vast majority of countries around the world. These laws protect the lives of its citizens and particularly those facing disease, disabilities and conditions that could make them candidates for euthanasia and assisted suicide.

The World Medical Association, which comprises 114 countries worldwide, has consistently rejected euthanasia and describes this practice as unethical.

Presently only 6 countries of the world have laws legalizing either euthanasia or assisted suicide. This represents less than 2% of the world’s population.

Dr. Paul Saba, Dr. Rene Leiva and [mC1] Dr. Laurence Normand-Rivest are members of the Physicians’ Alliance against Euthanasia, representing more than 1100 Canadian doctors.

Contact information: Dr. Paul Saba 001-514-886-3447, pauljsaba@gmail.com
Link to media articles from Spain:

https://www.actuall.com/vida/medicos-canadienses-advierten-a-espana-sobre-el-peligro-de-la-eutanasia/

https://www.consalud.es/profesionales/medicos-canadienses-advierten-a-espana-del-peligro-de-la-eutanasia_56184_102.html

https://www.cope.es/actualidad/sociedad/noticias/medicos-canadienses-advierten-parlamento-espanol-sobre-peligro-eutanasia-20181023_281190

Spain to debate legalizing euthanasia.

Alex Schadenberg
Executive Director - Euthanasia Prevention Coalition

Spanish Legislature

Spain's socialist government introduced a bill, last June, to legalize euthanasia. The debate on the bill is scheduled for October 25.

The Conservative - Popular Party - strongly opposes the bill and their leader has announced that it will introduce alternative legislation to provide greater support for palliative care.

Media reports are suggesting that the bill has support from the majority in the 350 member Spain legislature.

Last May, a similar bill was expected to pass in the Portugal legislature but it was defeated after the Communist Party voted against the euthanasia bill.

Pushing back against euthanasia & assisted suicide.

This article was published by OneNewsNow on June 1, 2018

As more people become educated about assisted suicide, more and more of them are pushing back on the push to take other people's lives.

Alex Schadenberg

Euthanasia is legal in the Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg and Switzerland, but other European nations so far are saying no.

Alex Schadenberg of the Euthanasia Prevention Coalition tells OneNewsNow the latest country to turn thumbs down is Portugal, where lawmakers debated and defeated four euthanasia bills. One of them was narrowly defeated.

"Nonetheless, even though the vote was close," he says, "a defeat is a defeat and we're very happy with that."

The euthanasia bills cannot be voted on again until after the next national election, which will be in 2020.

Alexandra Snyder

Alexandra Snyder, executive director of Life Legal Defense Foundation, says it's important to push back on the libertarian-sounding argument that people should be free to make their own choices, including taking their own life.

"I think that that's what we have to look at and say, You know what? The state does not allow people to do whatever in the world they want to do," she suggests. "And as a matter of public policy, there are specific things that we explicitly prohibit people from doing.'"

Snyder points out that two state courts in California have declared unconstitutional a 2015 law signed by Gov. Jerry Brown that allows doctors to prescribe lethal drugs to people with only a few months to live.

"We don't allow people to commit suicide because it is so violative of their dignity," she says. "And yet here we have a case where we're trying to carve out some very vague exceptions to that public policy and that's problematic."

According to Schadenberg, Finland also recently defeated a euthanasia bill and ongoing debate in Spain has yet to produce a new law there.

All of these, he says, are "great victories" for the dignity of life.