The number of Dutch citizens killed by euthanasia has increased by 13 per cent in 2012 compared to the previous year, official statistics have revealed.
3,695 deaths were caused by euthanasia in 2011, with the figure increasing to 4,188 in 2012.
More than doubled
The rates of euthanasia in Holland have more than doubled over the last decade, with one in thirty deaths in the country now caused by the procedure.
Last year, the country launched mobile units to perform euthanasia on patients in their homes where doctors refused to do so on “ethical grounds”.
Physician assisted suicide, where a doctor ends the life of a patient by administering a lethal injection, was introduced for terminally ill patients in Holland in 2002.
Concerns
The 2012 statistics include 42 people with dementia and 13 with severe psychiatric problems, with concerns being raised over the capacity of the patients to consent to the procedure.
Medical review committees found that patients failed to meet the legal requirements for euthanasia including informed consent in at least 10 cases, with two involving patients who were suffering from severe dementia.
It is unclear whether the doctors involved in the cases are facing prosecution.
Warnings
Commenting on the figures, Elspeth Chowdharay-Best, the honorary secretary of Alert, said: “It is what we expected and I do hope that people will pay more attention now to the warnings that have been made about introducing euthanasia to this country.
“The Dutch experience shows that euthanasia becomes routine,’ she added. ‘It traps more and more people into thinking they ought to leave this world prematurely.”
Underreporting
Dr Peter Saunders of Care Not Killing warned that the Dutch figure may be higher since there is evidence to suggest that not all euthanasia deaths in the country are reported.
"Although official euthanasia deaths are rising year by year in the Netherlands, these deaths represent only a fraction of the total number of deaths resulting from Dutch doctors intentionally ending their patients’ lives through deliberate morphine overdose, withdrawal of hydration and sedation", he said.
"What we are seeing in the Netherlands is more accurately termed 'incremental extension', the steady intentional escalation of numbers with a gradual widening of the categories of patients to be included."
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