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If doctors take a cautious approach, they can still grant euthanasia to patients with disabilities, such as people with dementia. A sleep aid can also be used, according to a new evaluation of the Regional Euthanasia Review Committees
Trouw writes on the case that the committee considered earlier this year. A general practitioner administered euthanasia to a woman in her 60s with Alzheimer 's disease. She lived in a retirement home. In advance, the woman who was unable to communicate was sedated.
Euthanasia was based on the woman's wishes, which she regularly updated and verbally confirmed for as long as possible. She never clearly stated that the time was up for euthanasia, but it was clear to her family and doctor that she was suffering in an unbearable way. The woman was constantly anxious, no one recognized her and was agitated and sad.
Fascinations
In July, a retirement home doctor was reprimanded for being euthanized in a seventy-four-year-old woman. The woman had made a declaration of euthanasia, stating that she herself wanted to determine the time of her death. When she became more and more confused, she expressed reservations about this assertion.
Finally, her doctor performed euthanasia in 2016, without the woman being informed. She had a sedative in her coffee but woke up and came back when the doctor gave her the lethal medication. Her family held her back and tried to calm her down.
The Regional Euthanasia Review Committees had previously found that this physician had acted negligently and should not have resorted to euthanasia, as the woman's statement was clear and contradictory . The prosecution has also opened a criminal investigation into the doctor.
Helder
According to Jakob Kohnstamm, chairman of the regional control committees, the two cases are "totally different". In Trouw, he says that in the new case, there was a clear statement of will. According to him, each step was also considered "improbably prudent" by the general practitioner.
According to Kohnstamm, this also applies to sedative administration. This was to prevent the woman from getting hurt during the insertion of the infusion. It is not clear if the doctor told the patient what he was going to do and, according to Kohnstamm, it is "irrelevant".
According to the law on euthanasia, it has long been allowed to perform euthanasia in dementia. It almost never happens, despite statements of will. For a doctor, it is difficult to determine when there is unbearable and hopeless suffering. It also happens that a patient no longer remembers the content of the statement of intent or no longer wishes to euthanize.
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