In 1987, about two years before the discovery of the practice of NVE, the Royal Netherlands Medical Association stated in the preamble to its euthanasia guidelines: “If there is no request from the patient, then the end of his life is legally a matter of murder or homicide and not euthanasia.” When it became clear that this practice was already practised, the authorities never directly condemned the practice, nor did they take direct action to prohibit it. Official references to this phenomenon deviated from the 1987 opening to now imply that NVE was only a variant of EVs in certain circumstances, without any particular moral or legal differentiation. In 2012, the association “NVVE” (Association for the Voluntary End of Life) set up “mobile teams” to take care of people whose family doctors refuse euthanasia. Consisting of a doctor and a nurse, there are 30 travel teams. The association intends to perform 1,000 euthanasia cases per year and has also opened a “death clinic” in The Hague specializing in euthanasia. In 2015, KNMG conducted a survey of 500 doctors on their opinion on euthanasia. Doctors denounced the act as trivialized and complained that more and more patients wanted to resort to euthanasia instead of natural death. The survey showed that 60% felt “pushed to euthanasia by their patients or family” and 90% felt that the burden placed on physicians in the practice of euthanasia was underestimated. You can order a DNR medallion from the Dutch patient association Patiëntenfederatie Nederland. DNR medallions issued by NVVE (a Dutch organisation providing information and advice on euthanasia and assisted suicide) before 7 June 2017 are still valid. It has been known since 1973 that euthanasia is regularly practised in the Netherlands, although article 293 of the Criminal Code provides that a person who takes the life of another person at the “express and serious” request of the latter is liable to imprisonment for up to 12 years or a fine. To justify an admittedly criminal offence, the Dutch courts may decide that it is acceptable for a doctor faced with alternatives to leave a patient in pain or to relieve by taking life, to choose the “compassionate” option, known as “force majeure” or necessity by ending life, provided that the required euthanasia guidelines have been followed. This has been done on a regular basis.
In October 2016, the Dutch government presented a bill to allow new legal guidelines for assisted suicide of the elderly [2], even if they are not suffering, and argued that they had “completed or completed their lives (voltooid leven). The guiding principle would not be to alleviate suffering, but to respect the autonomy of the individual. According to the government, these people “no longer see any way to give value and meaning to their lives, struggle to cope with their loss of independence and feel alone”. Euthanasia and assisted suicide have been legal in the Netherlands since 2002, followed a few months later by neighbouring Belgium. On February 16, 2017, a petition signed by 350 doctors condemned the euthanasia of people with dementia and the increase in “borderline cases”. “How can you give a lethal injection to a patient with advanced dementia, simply on the basis of a living will? How can you give a lethal injection to someone who can`t confirm they want to die? We refuse to do so.