And Rightly So!

After I read this I got pretty damn angry. Up until now, this policy in the Netherlands, called the
Groningen Protocol, was just that…a set of guildlines doctors could use when determining whether a child with birth defects of any age should be “allowed” to die. To be put down. To be euthanized. So far this year, 64 helpless children have been killed.

Now it is legal in the Netherlands. Appearently the recent “studies” over there have proven their weight in gold.
Not only is it legal, but now the outright killing of babies born with defects will become expected. And since I work with so many children and young adults who have many of these so called disabilities, I know what is truly an extreme handicap, what diseases cause extreme pain and disfigurement. These people over there don’t fool me, and if you’re a medical person it should not fool you either.

Amsterdam, Netherlands (LifeNews.com) — The Dutch government is preparing to expand its euthanasia law to include children under new rules drafted by doctors at a Dutch hospital that is aggressively ending the life of children they feel or too sick to help with medical care.
Under the guidelines, two agreeing doctors may also kill newborn babies with the consent of parents in cases where the infants are severely disabled or unlikely to live long.

The Dutch government submitted a letter to the European nation’s parliament outlining the proposed changes. Dutch Health Ministry spokeswoman Annette Dijkstra told the Associated Press that the changes don’t need approval from parliament and are set to take effect in mid-October.

The only difference I see between the Protocol and the LAW is that doctors must have parental permission now.
I have no problem with using hospice type services for anyone who is terminally ill, and that includes babies and children who truly have those illnesses that will kill them. No one wants to see another human being in such pain and discomfort. But this is beyond that. This is outright slaughter of babies who DO have a chance of life, and with the proper treatments and therapies and care, they could live a life without pain and the deformities can be corrected. I have to wonder if any of these doctors have ever heard of rehabilitation medicine…

Pro-life groups and disability rights organizations have strongly condemned the guidelines, known as the Groningen Protocol because they were drafted by physicians at Groningen University Medical Center.

The guidelines are also important because they will direct decisions on other patients who are unable to say for themselves whether they want lifesaving medical treatment. That would adversely affect mentally disabled patients, the elderly, and those suffering from psychological problems.

So it isn’t just the babies and children who stand to loose out here. Those with mental illnesses, the old and frail and demented are now on the chopping block as well. I hate to use that term, but it is what it is. It’s so Nazi like:
Let’s pick and choose those whose life looks worthy and the hell with the rest.

Johannes Verheijden, a spokesman for the group BOSK, who helps parents of children with disabilities, condemned the proposal.

“There is no need for a doctor to play an active role in death, the focus should be on easing pain,” he told AP. “There always has to be some doubt in these cases, and the benefit of doubt should be on the side of life.”

Holland plans to establish a commission to make sure the protocol are followed in each euthanasia case.

According to the commission for adult euthanasia, about 2,000 people die from the grisly practice each year in a nation of 16 million. However, other reports and studies suggest the number is significantly higher.

What a profound statement. “the benefit of doubt should be on the side of life.” Let them live. Do everything you can to make that life worth living. We can and do make the conditions right for those with severe disabilities to live their lives as independently as possible. I work with kids who have NO ribs and very little SPINE…yet they drive wheelchairs and use computers to talk. They smile and laugh and direct their own care. Yet when they were born, their parents were told: “Your child won’t live long and she will be in a lot of pain.” Her parents chose life and it’s a good thing. I also work with young adults who have severe brain injuries. They too can lead a life that is productive and worthwhile. We could have given up on them and just allowed them to die…but it’s not what we do here in America.

Speaking about the babies killed at Groningen, Dr. Eduard Verhagen, of the hospital’s pediatric clinic, told NPR that the babies who had been euthanized were born with incurable conditions so serious “(we) felt that the most humane course would be to allow the child to die and even actively assist them with their death.”

“They are very rare cases of extreme suffering. In these cases, the diagnosis was extreme spina bifada,” Verhagen added.
However, spina bifada can be diagnosed during pregnancy and some unborn children have had surgery to correct the damage the condition causes.

Holland was the first country to legalize the practice of euthanasia — allowing doctors to end the life of a patient, with their consent, who is suffering from a terminal illness or incurable condition.

Approved in 2002, Dutch law allows adult patients suffering from incurable diseases to request assisted suicide. Teenagers under the age of 16 must have their parents approval, but the newly proposed measure would drop that to 12 years of age.

The proposal has prompted Belgium to consider a similar law. Belgian lawmakers are putting forward a measure that would expand the country’s legal euthanasia law to allow doctors to end the lives of children without parental permission.

Extreme spina bifida eh? DON’T tell me that. I work with patients who have this DX and it’s absurd that this doctor even made that statement. And we see that other “modern” European states are considering simliar laws. This is a disease, this protocol-of-death, and it’s spreading. I believe there is a lot more to this than the Dutch are saying; I think these laws have more to do with keeping the socialist money makers happy; and those who are “draining” the money machine should be taken out of the system, literally.

But that’s just my opinion.
Read Kender’s thoughts about this too.