Dutch Doctors Can Now Secretly Place Sedatives in Food before Euthanizing Alzheimer's Patients
In a decision that is drawing widespread criticism from ethicists, a Netherlands medical committee has changed its code of practice to allow doctors to slip sedatives into the food or drink of patients with dementia before they are euthanized so as to prevent them from becoming “disturbed, agitated or aggressive.”
The change in rules by the Netherlands review committee for euthanasia comes after the country’s Supreme Court ruled in April that a doctor who carried out assisted suicide on a 74-year-old patient with Alzheimer’s did not commit murder by placing a sedative into the patient’s coffee.
The patient woke up and had to be held down by her daughter and husband, the BBC reported. The patient previously had written a statement saying she “wanted to be euthanized before entering a care home, but adding that she wanted to decide ‘while still in my senses and when I think the time is right,’”...
