Anne Calitz

‘Assisted Dying’ Committee: Dutch expert reveals the emerging horrors of Euthanasia and Assisted Suicide in his country. Sometimes a short news video clip might not capture the nuance of discussion at Oireachtas Committee hearings. The RTE News coverage of Tuesday's hearing is a case in point. Prof Theo Boer had a lot to say about ‘Assisted Dying’ and Euthanasia in his own country. The big takeaway is that Euthanasia becomes the last resort for people afflicted by loneliness and fear: ‘In the past 20 years, the numbers have quadrupled and… the increase seems to accelerate rather than slow down. In some neighbourhoods assisted deaths account for between 15% and 20% of all deaths.’ ‘The second development we have seen is an expansion of the pathologies - the reasons underlying a request to die … we see a shift to patients who fear years or decades of loneliness, alienation and care dependency… This expansion is motivated - this is important for the committee, as Members of Parliament, to take into account - by a logic of justice, the question as to why euthanasia is provided only for terminal patients, for example?... After all, a person can suffer very much for non-medical reasons as well.’ ‘That is why we have now a law in parliament that legalises Euthanasia for all people over 74 years, with or without an illness…Their age is the only reason they can have 'Assisted Dying'. That in turn is why we now have a regulation that allows parents to request Euthanasia for their young children aged from zero to 11 years old. I am convinced it is only a matter of time before we take the next hurdle, namely, allowing children of dementia patients to request Euthanasia for their demented parents.’ ‘There is a saying that people can live 30 days without eating, three days without drinking, three minutes without oxygen but not three seconds without hope. Sometimes it is the total absence of hope, either in the persons themselves or in their surroundings, that contributes to their suffering.’ For those who are involved in suicide prevention work, or in keeping hope alive for elderly people, or who are committed to caring professions which are built on hope, I recommend you pay attention to these Oireachtas hearings  (see oireachtas.ie) Attached is a short clip of my own engagement with Prof Boer at the Committee on Tuesday. To legalise ‘Assisted Dying’ is to hinder hope and drive despair.