{"id":67925,"date":"2023-04-20T17:14:30","date_gmt":"2023-04-20T21:14:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/world.edu\/?p=67925"},"modified":"2023-04-20T17:14:30","modified_gmt":"2023-04-20T21:14:30","slug":"dutch-government-to-expand-euthanasia-law-to-include-children-aged-one-to-12-an-ethicists-view","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/world.edu\/dutch-government-to-expand-euthanasia-law-to-include-children-aged-one-to-12-an-ethicists-view\/","title":{"rendered":"Dutch government to expand euthanasia law to include children aged one to 12 \u2013 an ethicist\u2019s view"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/p>\n

Ernst Kuipers, the Dutch health minister, recently\u00a0announced<\/a>\u00a0that regulations were being modified to allow doctors to actively end the lives of children aged one to 12 years who were terminally ill and suffering unbearably.<\/p>\n

Previously, assisted dying was an option in the Netherlands in rare cases in younger children (under one year) and in some older teenagers who requested voluntary euthanasia. Until now,\u00a0Belgium was the only country<\/a>\u00a0in the world to allow assisted dying in children under 12.<\/p>\n

Under the proposal, it will remain against the law for doctors in the Netherlands to actively end the life of a child under the age of 12. However, a\u00a0force majeure<\/a>\u00a0clause gives prosecutors the discretion not to prosecute in exceptional circumstances.<\/p>\n

In 2005, Dutch doctors and legal experts\u00a0published guidelines<\/a>\u00a0(the so-called \u201cGroningen protocol\u201d) elaborating when these exceptional circumstances would apply for infants under the age of one year. That included certainty about diagnosis and prognosis, \u201chopeless and unbearable suffering\u201d, the support of both parents and appropriateness confirmed by an independent doctor.<\/p>\n

The new regulations\u00a0would allow the same principles<\/a>\u00a0to apply to children between one and 12 years of age.<\/p>\n

What type of cases would this apply to?<\/strong><\/h4>\n

In a\u00a0study<\/a>\u00a0commissioned by the Dutch health ministry and released in 2019,\u00a0researchers investigated<\/a>\u00a0the deaths of a large number of children who had died four years earlier. They did not identify any cases where doctors had deliberately hastened death.<\/p>\n

However, Dutch paediatricians and parents had\u00a0reported<\/a>\u00a0that in a small number of cases, children and families were experiencing distressing suffering at the end of life despite being provided with palliative care.<\/p>\n

That included, for example, children with untreatable brain tumours who developed relentless vomiting, screaming, and seizures in their dying phase. Or children with epilepsy resistant to all treatment with tens to hundreds of seizures a day.<\/p>\n

The study recommended improvements in access to palliative care for children, as well as altering regulation to provide the option of assisted dying in these extreme cases.<\/p>\n

It has been suggested that\u00a0five to ten children a year<\/a>\u00a0might be eligible for this option in the Netherlands.<\/p>\n

The Dutch proposal is different to\u00a0the law in Belgium<\/a>. In 2014, Belgium removed a lower age limit for accessing voluntary euthanasia.<\/p>\n

This means that, in theory, Belgian children under the age of 12 years can request assisted dying in strictly limited circumstances, including that they have a terminal illness, have severe suffering that cannot be eased, can understand their circumstances, and their parents agree.<\/p>\n

This would not apply to the children covered by the Dutch regulation who are too young or too unwell to make decisions for themselves. Since the Belgian law was passed,\u00a0only four cases<\/a>\u00a0of assisted dying in minors (under the age of 18) have been reported.<\/p>\n

Is this evidence of a slippery slope?<\/strong><\/h4>\n

The expansion of assisted dying to children in the Netherlands will probably be viewed, by those who are opposed to assisted dying, as further evidence of the so-called \u201cslippery slope<\/a>\u201d. This is the argument that allowing assisted dying in initially limited cases will lead to progressive liberalisation and to much more problematic cases.<\/p>\n

The Groningen protocol for young infants was\u00a0also claimed<\/a>\u00a0to be a clear example of the slippery slope. However, reports from the Netherlands suggest that rather than leading to an increase, there has been a significant\u00a0reduction over time<\/a>.<\/p>\n

According to the Dutch health minister, only\u00a0two cases<\/a>\u00a0in children under one year have been reported since 2007.<\/p>\n

The important ethical question is what our society wants doctors to do when faced with the thankfully rare but heartbreaking situation of a child suffering severely at the end of their life.<\/p>\n

Should doctors try sedating the child heavily until they are unconscious and wait for the inevitable end? Should doctors do the best they can, but accept that suffering is not always avoidable? Or should they take steps to hasten the child\u2019s death?<\/p>\n

In most countries, the last is not a lawful option even if both parents and doctors think that would be kindest for the child. However, in the Netherlands, it appears that this will be available as a last resort, once the new regulations have been approved. Hopefully, it will rarely be needed.<\/p>\n

>Author Bio:<\/strong> Dominic Wilkinson is a Consultant Neonatologist and Professor of Ethics at the University of Oxford<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Ernst Kuipers, the Dutch health minister, recently\u00a0announced\u00a0that regulations were being modified to allow doctors to actively end the lives of children aged one to 12 years who were terminally ill and suffering unbearably. Previously, assisted dying was an option in the Netherlands in rare cases in younger children (under one year) and in some older […]\n… learn more→<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[85],"tags":[434400],"coauthors":[11733],"class_list":["post-67925","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-social-change","tag-euthanasia"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nDutch government to expand euthanasia law to include children aged one to 12 \u2013 an ethicist\u2019s view - World leading higher education information and services<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/world.edu\/dutch-government-to-expand-euthanasia-law-to-include-children-aged-one-to-12-an-ethicists-view\/\" class=\"yoast-seo-meta-tag\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" class=\"yoast-seo-meta-tag\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" class=\"yoast-seo-meta-tag\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Dutch government to expand euthanasia law to include children aged one to 12 \u2013 an ethicist\u2019s view - World leading higher education information and services\" class=\"yoast-seo-meta-tag\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Ernst Kuipers, the Dutch health minister, recently\u00a0announced\u00a0that regulations were being modified to allow doctors to actively end the lives of children aged one to 12 years who were terminally ill and suffering unbearably. 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