Dutch media are framing the latest survey of medical professionals somewhat differently than I have in the headline here. Radio Netherlands titles their story “Dutch doctors wary of euthanasia for dementia,” while DutchNews.nl features the title “Doctors reluctant to help patients with dementia die.”
Both news entitities take pains to minimize the percentage of doctors willing to euthanize patients in an early stage of dementia: Radio Netherlands refers to those willing as “Just 33 percent of Dutch doctors” while DutchNews.nl refers to “Only one third of Dutch doctors” (Emphasis added.) They seem… what? Relieved? Reassured?
Or is it the rest of the world that they are trying to reassure? That one-third is really a very small and insignificant percentage of doctors?
To me, the fact that one out of three doctors seems like an awful lot of doctors in the Netherlands are willing to go ahead and perform euthanasia on this (allegedly) new group of “eligibles” is kind of alarming, especially since the other two-thirds are just described as “wary” or “reluctant” – a far cry from “opposed.”
Question – do members of the Dutch media feel it’s their duty to help “spin” stories in certain ways that cast their country in a more positive light?
Here’s the info from the Radio Netherlands story:
Just 33 percent of Dutch doctors are willing to use euthanasia in cases of early dementia, a national survey conducted by three university hospitals shows.The poll was carried out by the university hospitals of Utrecht, Groningen and Rotterdam, a television programme reported on Saturday.
People with dementia are only able to give their consent to euthanasia in the early stages of the disease. In the later stages, patients are too disoriented to make informed decisions.
The number of people with dementia who have resorted to euthanasia has risen from three in 2006 to 21 in 2010. The overall number of cases of euthanasia has also risen: in 2006 the body responsible for the judicial review of euthanasia cases was informed of 1,900 cases, compared with 2,700 in 2010.
I think it’s probably likely the number of these particular medical killings have been underreported, since it’s fairly new territory. Look for the numbers to go up every year for this group of people.
The fact that a majority of physicians are uncomfortable with this practice won’t matter. Back in 2009, I wrote about a discussion of Dutch euthanasia practices with physician Bert Keizer on a Radio Netherlands broadcast.
During that discussion, Dr. Keizer admitted to being very disturbed by the growing acceptance of legalizing the killing of disabled infants. But, as also came out in the discussion, it didn’t matter what Dr. Keizer felt was unacceptable as long as there was another doctor willing to do it.
If anything, the situation is even worse when it comes to dementia in the Netherlands? If your regular doctor refuses to consider complying with that kind of request, it won’t be hard to find someone from the one-third of physicians who are perfectly OK with it.
I’m waiting for the next press release from a “right to die” organization that says there’s no evidence of a “slippery slope” in the Netherlands. I can hardly wait to see what sort of mangled reasoning supports that particular claim. –Stephen Drake
I had the same reaction: scarey. When you realize how the popular culture in the European and North America “worlds” and the press (and the history of what’s already been legalized),present “euthanasia”/”assited suicide” (murder), it’s not that surprising.
One third is such an interesting number: as, one third of people in the British colonies (here)during the American Revolution supported England…
Please see my blog post inspired by this entry at Bad Cripple.
sanda – I am still struck by how both news agencies chose to use a qualifier in front of the one-third, implying it was a small percentage.
Bill – I’ve sent you email and apologized for the delay. I’ll be linking to the blog post in the next day or so. –Stephen