A Dutch doctor has appeared in court after performing euthanasia on a patient suffering with severe dementia.<\/p>\n
Prosecutors say the doctor did not do enough to verify consent. It is the first such case since the Netherlands legalised euthanasia in 2002.<\/p>\n
The 74-year-old patient was suffering from Alzheimer’s disease when she died in 2016.<\/p>\n
The doctor allegedly sedated the woman and asked her family to hold her down as she administered a lethal drug.<\/p>\n
Prosecutors say the patient showed resistance during the process. The doctor, who has not been named, says she acted cautiously.<\/p>\n
Prosecutors say they are not seeking a prison sentence for the retired female doctor, but want to clarify how the euthanasia law applies to patients suffering from dementia.<\/p>\n
Family members of the patient have backed the doctor.<\/p>\n
The Netherlands was the first country in the world to legalise euthanasia, but it is only permitted under strict rules set down in law.<\/p>\n
After being diagnosed with Alzheimer’s four years before she died, the patient wrote a statement saying that she wanted to be euthanised before entering a care home, prosecutors said.<\/p>\n
But the woman also added: “I want to be able to decide (when to die) while still in my senses and when I think the time is right,” public broadcaster NOS said.<\/p>\n
Before she was taken into care, a doctor decided that assisted suicide should be administered based on her prior statement. This was confirmed by two separate doctors independently.<\/p>\n
When the day came to end the woman’s life, a sedative was put in her coffee and she lost consciousness.<\/p>\n
But the woman then woke up and had to be held down by her daughter and husband while the process was finished.<\/p>\n
At the centre of the case is the question of the woman’s ability to consent to ending her life despite her previous statement.<\/p>\n
“A crucial question to this case is how long a doctor should continue consulting a patient with dementia, if the patient in an earlier stage already requested euthanasia,” prosecution service spokeswoman Sanna van der Harg said.<\/p>\n
“We do not doubt the doctor’s honest intentions,” she said.<\/p>\n
“A more intensive discussion with the demented patient” could have taken place before the decision to end her life, she added.<\/p>\n
However, the daughter of the deceased woman thanked the doctor.<\/p>\n
“The doctor freed my mother from the mental prison which she ended up in,” she said in a statement.<\/p>\n
A verdict is expected in two weeks<\/p>\n
Source: bbc.co.uk<\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"