Dutch woman euthanatised because she was going blind

Doctors in the Netherlands have killed a woman by lethal injection because she could not cope with becoming blind.

In one of the first cases of euthanasia for a disability, the 70-year-old was deemed by doctors to be ‘suffering unbearably’. They granted her wish to die after she had previously tried to commit suicide several times.

Pro-life campaigners said the case showed how euthanasia and assisted suicide for more trivial reasons can soon become the ‘norm’ in countries where it is legal, The Daily Mail reports.

They insisted it was medical negligence for the doctors in Holland to have gone along with the woman’s suicidal ideas and said they should have found a way to manage her psychological problems.

The unnamed woman had been born with poor eyesight which had deteriorated into blindness as she entered old age. She had lived alone since her husband died.

Health specialist Lia Bruin told a Dutch newspaper that the case was ‘exceptional’.

‘She was, for example, obsessed by cleanliness and could not stand being unable to see spots on her clothes,’ Bruin said.

In neighbouring Belgium, deaf twins Marc and Eddy Verbessem, 45, were granted their wish to be killed last December after they learned they were likely to become blind.

Anthony Ozimic of anti-euthanasia lobbyists SPUC Pro-Life, said the cases illustrated the dangers that would threaten vulnerable people in Britain if Lord Falconer’s assisted suicide bill became law.

‘Wherever euthanasia or assisted suicide has been allowed, so-called “exceptional circumstances” are quickly becoming the norm and the criteria for death are expanding,’ he said.

Last year, Belgium, where euthanasia came into force in 2003, saw a 25 per cent increase in such deaths, leaping to 1,432 – a figure representing about two per cent of all deaths in the country.

This week the Belgian parliament will discuss proposals to extend euthanasia to children, dementia sufferers and people with long-term illnesses.

Assisted suicide – where a doctor will help a patient kill themselves – is also on the rise in countries where it is allowed.

In the Netherlands, two doctors must first decide that the patient is afflicted by ‘unbearable suffering’ from which he or she has no realistic prospect of recovery.

The patient must also be able to make a conscious and autonomous decision about ending their lives by lethal injection.

The woman’s death comes just weeks after it emerged that deaths by euthanasia have hit record highs in Holland, with nearly one in seven now dying at the hands of their doctors.

Euthanasia cases soared by 13 per cent in 2012 to 4,188 – meaning that it accounts for about one in 30 of all deaths.

However, the figures did not take account of deaths by ‘terminal sedation’, by which patients are deliberately sedated before they are dehydrated and starved to death, an act often referred to as ‘euthanasia by omission’.

This practice accounts for more than 12 per cent of all deaths, lifting the overall euthanasia rate to 15 per cent – about one in seven of all deaths.

The overall figure may even by higher if an accepted phenomenon of underreporting is also taken into consideration.

Dr Peter Saunders of the Christian Medical Fellowship said: ‘Euthanasia in the Netherlands is way out of control.

‘The House of Lords calculated in 2005 that with a Dutch-type law in Britain we would be seeing over 13,000 cases of euthanasia per year.

‘On the basis of how Dutch euthanasia deaths have risen since this may prove to be a gross underestimate.’

In Washington State in America, assisted suicides increased by 17 per cent in 2012 to 83 cases.

Switzerland, which first relaxed prohibitions on assisted suicide in 1942, has seen a steady rise of assisted suicides of Swiss nationals from 43 in 1998 to 297 in 2009.