Dutch court allows euthanasia in advanced dementia cases

@maxdog,

maxdog wrote:

I fully agree . You ?

LOL as anyone with advanced dementia is not someone who should legally be able to made any important decisions let alone the ending of his own life so how would this work?

He write a binding legal statement long before his condition reach that point?

Or are we going to allow others such as family members to made that choice for him?

Hmm what would happen if when he was fully legal competency he declare at some given point in his decline his life should be ended but while he is now clearly incompetency he declare he no longer wish to end his life so which wish should we now honor?

The devil is in the details.

0 Replies

To me an interesting case was of a woman who had brain damage and was in a likely permanent coma.

Her husband made the choice to stop her being feed so she could pass on from lack of both water and food.

So far so good right however the woman whole blood family did not agree with this decision an fought him in the courts.

Now add to that while the husband was still legally her husband he had move on an not only was living in a relationship with another woman but he had started a family with her with two children.

If a miracle had occur an she had regain consciousness he would had been in no way able to assume the role of husband and to me he was no longer morally her husband and should had turn over the decision making task to her family.

As I said the devil is in the details.

1 Reply

@BillRM,

I understand you that with every law there is abuses but I always thought that the decision of using the euthanasia is coming from the one suffering with it .

1 Reply

@maxdog,

maxdog wrote:

I understand you that with every law there is abuses but I always thought that the decision of using the euthanasia is coming from the one suffering with it .

If someone have advanced dementia he or she no longer had the ability to made such decisions due to the disease robbing his or her of the adult functioning of the brain.

1 Reply

@BillRM,

If it is like that it s a whole different story, I saw people on dementia that they were smiling, at that point I don t think someone have to decide to put them at rest.

0 Replies

@maxdog,

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-52367644

Quote:

Doctors in the Netherlands can no longer be prosecuted for carrying out euthanasia on dementia patients who have previously given written consent.

Quote:

the patients must be enduring "unbearable and endless suffering", and that at least two doctors agree to the procedure.

If these conditions are met, doctors "may carry out a written request beforehand for euthanasia in people with advanced dementia," the court ruled on Tuesday.

Patients must also have made this request before their dementia was so advanced that they could "no long express their will".

makes a lot of sense to me.

Canada is in the process of making adjustments to the law to allow this

https://www.canada.ca/en/health-canada/services/medical-assistance-dying.html

Quote:

On February 24, 2020, the Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Canada introduced An Act to amend the Criminal Code (medical assistance in dying) in Parliament, which proposes changes to Canada’s law on medical assistance in dying.

covid19 got in the way of completing this

https://www.justice.gc.ca/eng/csj-sjc/pl/ad-am/index.html

Quote:

Response to Truchon v. Attorney General of Canada
On September 11, 2019, the Superior Court of Québec found the "reasonable foreseeability of natural death" eligibility criterion in the Criminal Code, as well as the "end-of-life" criterion from Quebec’s Act respecting end-of-life care, to be unconstitutional (Truchon v. Attorney General of Canada).

On March 2, 2020, the Superior Court of Québec granted the request of the Attorney General of Canada for a four-month extension, until July 11, 2020, of the Truchon decision rendered in September 2019. As a result, both criteria will no longer be applicable in the province of Quebec as of July 12, 2020, the date the court’s ruling comes into effect.

Quote:

Waiver of final consent
This Bill would allow waiver of final consent only for persons:

whose natural death is reasonably foreseeable
who have been assessed and approved to receive MAID
who made an arrangement with their practitioner for waiver of final consent because they were at risk losing decision-making capacity before their chosen date to receive MAID

The Bill would render this waiver of final consent invalid if the person, after having lost decision-making capacity, demonstrates refusal or resistance to the administration of MAID. Reflexes and other types of involuntary movements, such as response to touch or the insertion of a needle, would not constitute refusal or resistance.

Waiver of final consent in the context of self-administration
The Bill would also allow eligible persons who choose to pursue MAID through self-administration would also be allowed to make arrangements with their practitioner to waiver the need for final consent, to allow for a physician to follow through with providing MAID to the person should self-administration produce complications and cause the individual to lose decision-making capacity. This type of waiver of final consent would be available for all eligible persons, regardless of their prognosis.

1 Reply

@ehBeth,

I like this , you sign before you have the disease . It make sense , no one deserve living in pain , no one .

2 Replies

@maxdog,

maxdog wrote:

I like this , you sign before you have the disease . It make sense , no one deserve living in pain , no one .

Pain? As far as I know that disease does in it self normally cause no pain to anyone other then perhaps the caregivers and or those paying for the caregivers.

Next the disease is very slow acting so at what point in time can you sign to be put to death as it likely that the person is already have this condition in the early stages at least before the subject of signing even come up an what precautions will be in place to prevent family members from pressuring
the person to sign his or her own death warrant?

Next at what stage of this slow acting condition would trigger the person death?

Lot of reasons to assume that this will be used to end the suffering of family members/caregivers in most cases not the person with the disorder/condition.

1 Reply

@BillRM,

Of course they have pain, whi does not have some?

Caregivers have stress with patients not pain.

You can sign even right now that you are healthy, what s stopping you ?

1 Reply

@maxdog,

I don't think you can prepare the documents if you have no diagnosis (in Canada). On the flip side you can have a dnr done with no diagnosis.

Most of the folks I've personally known who were diagnosed with senile dementia were competent enough in the early years to sign the required documents and have them reviewed. The only exception I'm aware of was a friend's mother-in-law whose husband prevented the family from discovering the truth until it was too late to use any medication/treatment to slow the process. It also meant she could not manage her own end in a dignified way.

1 Reply

Taking care of grandpa is a huge drain on our time and money. Let's put him down for his own good.

1 Reply

@ehBeth,

So it s the same, if it s coming slowly. You can sign that if you come at the point you don t recognize your family members they give you the treatment.

0 Replies

@Brandon9000,

I think this was sarcastic, correct me if not.

1 Reply

@maxdog,

maxdog wrote:

Of course they have pain, whi does not have some?

Caregivers have stress with patients not pain.

You can sign even right now that you are healthy, what s stopping you ?

Have you ever taken care of a person in that stage of his or her life because I have done so.

Given people a way of legally murdering such a person is not the solution to me.

More support of all kinds given to the care givers is the way to go in my opinion.

0 Replies

@maxdog,

maxdog wrote:

I think this was sarcastic, correct me if not.

I was saying that some people will "euthanize" older relatives out of self-interest disguised as mercy. This is a very slippery slope.

1 Reply

@Brandon9000,

You re right that s another abuse of the system .

Every law have it s dark side or that someone will try to profit from it .

1 Reply

@maxdog,

maxdog wrote:

You re right that s another abuse of the system .

Every law have it s dark side or that someone will try to profit from it .

No reason to set up a system ,that you pretty well must know, will result in many cases of legalize murders.

In other word the solution is worst the the problem it was support to address.

0 Replies

@maxdog,

No.
I believe 'anyone' should have a right to die.

3 Replies

@mark noble,

mark noble wrote:

No.
I believe 'anyone' should have a right to die.

What if the person doing the dying isn't the one doing the deciding?

1 Reply

Dutch court allows euthanasia in advanced dementia cases

Quick Links

My Account

able2know