“Authorizing by law that it is permissible to put an end to life on demand is not the best way to increase transparency about the procedures and attention of physicians to the terminal phase of life”. This declaration of principle is contained in a statement put out by the Dutch Bishops’ Conference in recent days. In their statement the bishops contest the recent “Marty Report on euthanasia”, aimed at justifying medically assisted suicide. Msgr. Willem Jacobus Ejk, spokesman of the Episcopal Conference for questions of medical ethics and one of the signatories of the statement, points out that “since the legalization of euthanasia and assisted suicide in 2001”, the “gap between the law and the practice has grown” and denounces the fact that “in many cases, under the semblance of a ‘terminal sedation’, a genuine act of euthanasia is committed” through “the administration of growing doses of painkillers and sedatives that suppress the consciousness of the invalid and may accelerate death”. This is a widespread practice. According to the chairman of the college of public prosecutors, De Wijkerslooth, “it ought to be regulated by law and subjected to the obligation of declaration applied to cases of euthanasia”. In Ejk’s view, “palliative treatment needs to be improved”. Such treatment was only introduced “into the Netherlands in the late 1990s. It enables terminal patients to avoid the chronic sufferings that may prompt them to request euthanasia”. “Terminal sedation” is admissible, on condition that the dose be limited to suppressing consciousness and goes no further”. “Euthanasia is incompatible with the fundamental value of human life and with the duty, no less fundamental, of providing treatment” concludes the bishops’ statement.
