WP: Europeans See Issue As Strictly Medical

[kskiska]

PARIS, March 31 -- In European countries that have struggled through their own end-of-life debates in recent years, the case of Terri Schiavo has sparked widespread interest and befuddlement at how politics and faith intervened in what most Europeans view as a strictly medical decision.

In the Netherlands, where euthanasia has been legal since April 2002, the struggle over whether to remove Schiavo's feeding tube would not have happened because "here it's more accepted that the doctors make those decisions," said Rob Jonquiere, head of the pro-euthanasia group NVVE.

"It's terrible, this type of judicial fighting over a person who can't do anything about it," Jonquiere said in a telephone interview from his home in Amsterdam shortly after Schiavo's death. "In the Netherlands, the doctors are making these decisions. The feeding tube and the hydration are considered medical treatments, and if they are determined to be futile, they can be stopped."

Nico Mensing van Charante, a Dutch physician who is often called to provide a second opinion in end-of-life cases, called the Schiavo case "a circus" and said the decision to remove her feeding tube would have been clear-cut in the Netherlands. "It's the end of a treatment that doesn't make any sense -- it's not euthanasia or assisted suicide," he said. "If you stop the feeding, it's a medical decision, so it's a natural death -- nothing to declare or notify."

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http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A17001-2005Mar31.html

[CottonBear]

1. "It's the end of a treatment that doesn't make any sense --

it's not euthanasia or assisted suicide," he said. "If you stop the feeding, it's a medical decision, so it's a natural death -- nothing to declare or notify."

I wish that we had the type of cultural mindset and religious and social values that would allow each individual and family and their doctors to make these personal decisions in private.

[Gloria]

2. Nice to hear some sane talk. Now, where is the AMA on this?

Or are they also emasculated by the freak crowd, both on the outside and inside?

[DeepModem Mom]

3. kick