GESTIÓN EN SALUD PÚBLICA: BioEdge: Dutch could open child euthanasia clinic soon

sábado, 24 de septiembre de 2016

BioEdge: Dutch could open child euthanasia clinic soon

Dutch could open child euthanasia clinic soon

by Michael Cook | 24 Sep 2016 |

A clinic for euthanasia for children could open in the Netherlands within the next 12 months, a leading paediatrician has predicted. Dr Eduard Verhagen told the newspaper AD that Dutch doctors are already investigating end-of-life decisions for children between the ages of 1 and 12.

Although Belgium passed a law last year which allowed people under the age of 18 to ask for euthanasia, involuntary euthanasia was already legal in the Netherlands for children under the age of one, and voluntary euthanasia for children over 12, as long as they had unbearable suffering.

It seems that 5 children between 12 and 18 were euthanized in the period 2002 to 2012. One was 12 years old and the other four were aged 16 and 17.

Under current Dutch legislation, children between the ages of 1 and 12 years are considered incapable of making such an important decision for themselves and are not eligible for euthanasia.

But Dr Verhagen, who was one of the architects of the Groningen Protocol for euthanizing infants, disagrees. “We think that some children under the age of 12 are well able to make such important decisions”, he said. He told AD that he would like to know how doctors in Belgium determined the mental competence of youngsters to request euthanasia.

- See more at: http://www.bioedge.org/bioethics/dutch-could-open-child-euthanasia-clinic-soon/12015#sthash.o2RiCvuz.dpuf

One of the recurring themes thrown up by assisted reproduction is the importance of genetic ties. Are we determined by our origins, or can we forge our own identity? Does it matter whether our nearest and dearest are our kith and kin or whether they are just the people we hang around with?

By chance I just stumbled across the astonishing story of a Hungarian politician whose life was transformed when he discovered his true genetic identity.

By the time Csanad Szegedi was 24, he was vice-president of Jobbik, a far-right, nationalist and virulently anti-Semitic party. He was elected to the European Parliament as a Jobbik MEP in 2009 and wrote a book, I Believe in Hungary’s Resurrection.

Then he learned his family’s deepest secret: he was a Jew. His grandfather and grandmother were actually Auschwitz survivors.

Szegedi’s life fell apart. He was forced to resign from Jobbik.

Suddenly he did a complete about-face. Under the tuition of a Lubavitch rabbi from New York who was living in Budapest he became an Orthodox, observant Jew; he had himself circumcised, adopted the name Dovid and burned a thousand copies of his book. Now he ismigrating to Israel with his wife and two children. He is interesting in joining the Knesset.

Szegedi is obviously a complex, intense man. He could even be a charlatan. But his astonishing journey does suggest that there is something to the idea that our personal identity is incomplete if it lacks the genetic heritage.