Pro-life advocates are strongly opposing a proposal from a paediatricians' group in The Netherlands to remove the age limit for euthanasia in the country.
Bioethicist Wesley Smith fears that giving children under 12 years old the authority to ask to die will open the floodgates to the expansion of euthanasia, even for unwarranted circumstances.
"There is no limit to the culture of death once it is fully off the leash. Dutch law allows euthanasia for children age 12 and over. But now a prominent paediatrician wants the age limits erased," Smith said.
"And don't think the 'terminal illness' restriction would last two weeks. Dutch law does not require that people be dying to be euthanized. Think that will never happen? It's already the law in Belgium," he added.
The bioethicist is particularly criticising the Dutch Paediatric Association's proposal to remove the age limit for doctor-assisted deaths. Under Dutch law, only children 12 years old and above can ask for euthanasia, with the consent of their parents.
The paediatricians' group argues that the current restriction to the law on euthanasia discriminate against children.
"We feel that an arbitrary age limit such as 12 should be changed and that each child's ability to ask to die should be evaluated on a case-by-case basis. If a child under 12 satisfies the same conditions, paediatricians are currently powerless. It's time to address this problem," paediatrics professor Eduard Verhagen, a member of the Dutch Paediatric Association, said.
Verhagen cited the 2004 Groningen Protocol, which allows physicians to administer euthanasia to children below 12 years old provided the following conditions are met: hopeless and unbearable suffering, consent from parents, sufficient medical consultation, and careful execution of the termination.
Alex Schadenberg, a member of the Euthanasia Prevention Coalition, however, said such a move may lead to "euthanasia insanity," which will allow people even with psychological cases to ask for doctor-administered deaths.
"Euthanasia for psychological reasons is done when a psychiatrist agrees that the psychological pain that a person is experiencing cannot be relieved in a way that the individual finds acceptable," Schadenberg said.
