There can be few issues which touch the twin human rights issues of the rule of law and the right to life more deeply than euthanasia. And yet, in a leading European Union country which vaunts its own commitment to the principle of human rights, euthanasia is widely and openly practiced, even though it is against the law.
Introduction
The Dutch seat of government, the Hague, was the place where the first steps were made towards establishing a system of international criminal law: the first attempt at creating a supranational security system was made at the International Peace Conference in the Hague, while a series of conventions on the laws of war were signed at the Hague between 1904 and 1907, marking the preliminary building-blocks for a supranational legal system. Now, the Dutch city is once again in the vanguard of international criminal law, as it hosts the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, the court which is expected to give rise, in time, to the International Criminal Court with universal jurisdiction.
Despite this, there are serious grounds for concern that the internationally famous Dutch toleration of euthanasia contradicts the very principles to which the Dutch have proclaimed themselves attached for a century. The Dutch parliament is currently considering a bill to bring the law into line with a quarter of a century of official toleration of euthanasia. However, even this regularization of the legal situation leaves open the more fundamental issues of the right to life and its potential infringement.
A history of Dutch euthanasia
The Netherlands is one of the most self-consciously secular and progressive countries in the world. It is notorious for having pushed back the boundaries of accepted morality on matters like drugs and sex, and its largest city, Amsterdam, is famous the world over for its live sex theatres and for the open consumption of cannabis. The same attitude applies to euthanasia and to the related question of assisted suicide. The Dutch often argue that they are prepared to debate matters which are elsewhere taboo “even though euthanasia and assisted suicide are very often discussed in other countries, only with the result that most countries come to the opposite conclusion from the Dutch.
A landmark in the euthanasia debate came in 1969, with the publication of "Medical Power and Medical Ethics" by J. H. van den Berg. The author argued in favour of voluntary and involuntary euthanasia: he also said that society should shake off the shackles of old morality and embrace new moral values instead. Van den Berg did not flinch from pushing his theories to the limit, such as when he called for the killing of elderly demented people. (Such theories were not advanced in the Netherlands alone: similar moral arguments were advanced in an article in California Medicine from 1970, reprinted below.)
The book sparked a lively debate which has continued ever since, with the proponents of euthanasia demanding, and obtaining, ever greater concessions. In 1973, a doctor put an end to her mother's life and was given a one week suspendedentence: ever since then, the practice of euthanasia has been officially tolerated in the Netherlands, albeit within a legal grey area.
In 1982, a State Committee on euthanasia was created. Composed of medical and legal experts, it laid down guidelines for euthanasia and assisted suicide. The following year, the first attempt was made to remove the criminal provisions against euthanasia and assisted suicide from the Dutch legal code. Attempts were made again in 1986. Like previous attempts, they failed but the practice continued along the guidelines laid down by the State Committee. Tens of thousands of people have been given euthanasia in this period.
Now, for the first time in decades, the majority coalition in the Dutch parliament contains no Christian Democrats. The government is therefore moving to pass legislation which would bring the legal position into line with the practice. It is therefore expected that, by this autumn, the Netherlands may be the first country in the world formally to legalize euthanasia.