- guardian.co.uk, Tuesday April 10 2001 17.15 BST
A protest outside Dutch government buildings in the Hague, where the upper house has begun debating whether to legalise euthanasia
The Dutch upper house is due to vote tonight on whether to give final approval to a bill allowing doctors to help patients end their lives.
The Netherlands government has argued that the new legislation will hardly change the current practice of mercy killings. The justice minister, Benk Korthals, said the bill formalises guidelines adopted in 1993, under which doctors have been assisting suicides with tacit approval.
Under the strict limitations of the new law, a patient would have to be undergoing irremediable and unbearable suffering, be aware of all other medical options and have sought a second professional opinion.
The request would have to be made voluntarily, persistently and independently while the patient is of sound mind. Doctors are not supposed to suggest it as an option.
The new law also would allow patients to leave a written request for euthanasia, giving doctors the right to use their own discretion when patients become too physically or mentally ill to decide for themselves. Cases would be reviewed by an independent commission to ensure the guidelines were followed.
After 30 years of public debate on euthanasia, the lower house passed the bill in November by a vote of 104-40. The new legislation is expected to be passed by the senate, albeit with a narrower margin.
The bill has faced opposition from anti-euthanasia groups both in the Netherlands and elsewhere. Protesters gathered outside government offices today as the 75-seat senate reconvened ahead of this evening's vote. The upper house has been swamped with more than 60,000 letters in the weeks preceding the debate, most of them urging the legislators to vote against the bill.
Germany's justice minister, Hertha Daeubler-Gmelin, has questioned the idea of mercy killings, saying it involves "the decision of a third person on the death of a human being".
Speaking in favour of the bill when the debate began yesterday, Diana de Wolff, of the Greens party, said the law will "codify a practice which has a very broad consensus", claiming that the Netherlands would "even remain on the conservative side of that consensus".
Related articles
08.04.2001: Floating clinic will offer the sick offshore euthanasia
06.03.2001, feature: 'Take your life in your own hands, that's my philosophy'
12.02.2000: MP's life and death struggle
Useful links
Euthanasia.com
International taskforce on euthanasia and assisted suicide
Dutch justice department factsheet on assisted suicide
