Balance over life and embryos

The government is satisfied with the operation of the Euthanasia Act (2002) and does not intend to change it. There will also be a survey to find out if there are people who are in good health but say that they find their life "complete". The government wants to know more about the size of this group and their motives for not wanting to live. This research must be completed by the end of 2019.

This concrete promise is made by Minister Hugo de Jonge (Public Health, CDA) in a letter on medical ethics that he sent to the Lower House on Friday afternoon. Medico-ethical issues are very sensitive in the current coalition, in which especially ChristenUnie and D66 are diametrically opposed. In the letter, De Jonge studies for the first time how the government wants to implement the coalition agreement in this area in the coming years.

There is no complete blockage in the medico-ethical field. This is already apparent from the coalition agreement and is partially confirmed in the letter. For example, it was already known that parents in an IVF trajectory have the opportunity to determine the sex of their unborn child if they are likely to transmit a very severe hereditary disease. Some hereditary diseases mainly affect boys or girls – the "selection of embryos" on the gender can rule out the transmission of the disorder

. The government is also proposing new concrete proposals to prevent repeat abortions. For example, an abortion clinic will be free to place an IUD for women who request it. For example, the government wants to prevent women from getting pregnant many times. There will also be more information on contraception.

Embryos and life completed

Here are the clearest proposals of the 32-page letter, which has been formulated very carefully. "The research" and the launch of a "social discussion" are the answer of this government to many difficult ethical questions, according to the letter. For example, the government does not yet want to make decisions about whether to grow human organs in animals or to create embryo-like structures for the purpose of conducting scientific research.

The Cabinet also wants first of all an ethical and social discussion on whether gender selection should also be allowed if the embryo is only drier than the hereditary disease. The baby does not necessarily get sick, but can transmit the disease.

See also: in Balkenende-IV, he almost went wrong with medical ethics

Research on "completed life" is included in this framework. D66 MEP Pia Dijkstra wants to submit an initiative law that allows people who are not sick but who find their lives "complete" euthanasia. At the request of Dijkstra, the study also looks at people with a "full life" who wish to die but do not want to euthanize immediately. Dijkstra points out in response that such a research on completed life is nowhere else in the world: "I am proud of the fact that we are going to start." Carla Dik-Faber, member of the Lower House, is "happy" that the firm "Work carefully and wants to enter into a conversation about medical ethics with society."