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For a preview of what their country might look like if Lord Falconer and his ilk have their way, Britons need only look across the sea to Holland. That pioneer in the field of euthanasia is exploring new and innovative ways to dispatch even more of its elderly, frail inhabitants.
 
The latest bright idea is to introduce mobile euthanasia teams that can kill people in their own homes. This would also get around the problem of pesky doctors who refuse to kill their patients. The proposal is being given active consideration by the Dutch government. The teams would be sent out from a clinic following a referral from a doctor.
 
The proposals were disclosed by Edith Schippers, the Dutch health minister. In a written answer to questions from Christian Union MPs she said that mobile units “for patients who meet the criteria for euthanasia but whose doctors are unwilling to carry it out” was worthy of consideration. “If the patient thinks it desirable, the doctor can refer him or her to a mobile team or clinic”, the minister wrote.<!--break-->
 
The minister suggested that “extra expertise” could be summoned in complicated cases involving mental health problems or an inability to consent to euthanasia because of dementia.
 
Despite claims that the law includes safeguards, Dutch medics have been accused of practising euthanasia on demand. A total of 21 people diagnosed as having early-stage dementia died at the hands of their doctors in 2010, according to the annual report on euthanasia. The figures also showed another year-on-year rise in cases with about 2,700 people choosing death by injection compared to 2,636 the year before.
 
Dr Elst Horst, the former health minister under whom the Dutch euthanasia law was passed, has admitted that the law has led to the almost complete disappearance of the hospice movement. In the city of Amsterdam, for example, there are now only two small hospices serving a population of over two million.
 
Even so, the government continues to insist that euthanasia is carried out only within the law’s supposedly strict limitations, that is, only on an “explicit request” from those who are suffering unbearably with no hope of improvement. A constant flow of anecdotal evidence suggests that the opposite is happening, as many doctors now consider euthanasia a routine procedure. That’s what happens when you turn doctors into killers.
 
As usual, the campaigners, busy preparing the ground for an expansion of the law, are agitating for people who are just tired of living or just lonely to have the “right to die”. The requirement for “unbearable and lasting suffering” would seem to constitute a barrier to further relaxation of the law—until you remember how abortion, introduced with strict limitations and careful safeguards, is now justified for any reason or request.