A court in The Hague has acquitted a female doctor after her active euthanasia of a seriously ill woman with dementia. The doctor had acted carefully and in accordance with the law.
It was the first criminal case for active euthanasia after legalization in the Netherlands in 2002. The ruling is considered an important signal for cases of patients with dementia.
The case was about a 74-year-old woman. She was diagnosed with Alzheimer's in 2012. She had then signed a living will saying that she wanted euthanasia in case of severe dementia. Several times, the family doctor and relatives had testified, the woman had confirmed her request for euthanasia. In early 2016, the family doctor then discovered that the elderly woman no longer knew what euthanasia actually was.
In the nursing home, the doctor had been confronted with the living will. She had spoken to the patient several times, but she had given very different signals. The doctor had also consulted colleagues. Psychologists had watched the woman. "It created the image of a deeply demented woman who had undergone a tremendous loss of her personality and was still going through," said the court.
The doctor decided in April 2016 in agreement with the husband and daughter to end the life of the woman. First, she gave the patient coffee with a sedative. Then she injected her with the lethal injection, although she seemed to resist.
The central question in the process was: Is a living will sufficient even for patients with severe dementia? "The court judges that the doctor did not have to verify the current death wish," it says in the verdict. "The patient was deeply demented and completely unable to express her will."
(Read more about the case here).
The prosecution had demanded a guilty verdict for murder - but without prosecuting the retired doctor. She accused the doctor of having not questioned the 74-year-old again intensively.
The prosecutor now wants to examine the verdict and then decide on a possible appeal. Advocates of active euthanasia welcomed the verdict. Concerns came from Christian parties. The Dutch Medical Association is currently working on a guideline for dealing with patients who can no longer express their wishes.
The Netherlands was the first country in the world to have provided active euthanasia under certain conditions. Thereafter, a patient must suffer unbearably and hopelessly, he must have specifically asked for euthanasia and a second doctor must be consulted. More than 60,000 people have since sought euthanasia. In Germany, business suicide assistance is prohibited.