Death Helped by White Coats Is Bleeding the Netherlands Dry

The numbers published by The Guardian on January 18, 2019, are based on the statistics of the year 2017 that counted nearly 6,600 cases of euthanasia, 1,900 cases of suicide, and some 32,000 people who died of “palliative sedation”, a practice that at least borders on euthanasia in many cases.

Christopher de Bellaigue explained in the columns of the British newspaper that in 2019, “euthanasia is now counted as a basic health service, covered by the monthly premium that every citizen pays to his or her insurance company.” 

The right to conscientious objection remains, but an agency known as the Levenseindekliniek provides a network to put doctors who practice euthanasia in contact with patients seeking to end their lives. In 2017, the Levenseindekliniek was responsible for the deaths of 750 people.

Wesley J. Smith, an American legal expert known for his anti-euthanasia positions, commented cynically in National Review:

Does this mean the Dutch are horrible, ghoulish people? Absolutely not. But they are logical. Once the population widely accepted the premise that killing is an acceptable answer to suffering, the country took that belief precisely where it leads.

And Wesley J. Smith concluded: “Such horrors will happen here (in the United States) too if we allow ourselves to be similarly seduced by euthanasia consciousness. Those with eyes to see, let them see.”