Church leaders record struggle against euthanasia - World - Brief Article

National Catholic Reporter, May 3, 2002 by Gill Donovan

NETHERLANDS: Church leaders here have compiled into a book documents detailing their struggle against euthanasia, which became legal April 1.

A church spokesman said the collection was put together and sent out at the request of Catholic bishops abroad to provide "data and arguments" for church campaigns in other countries.

"Although we're the first country to legalize euthanasia, the debate has been going on here since 1983," said Peter van Zoesp, spokesman for the Dutch bishops' conference (NCR, Oct. 19). "Having often been asked by church colleagues abroad, we had to do something to make clear what's happening here to the outside world -- and what we've done to prevent it."

He said the Dutch church's "philosophical: anthropological, ethical and theological arguments" had been "received sympathetically" by society and could help provide a model for similar debates elsewhere.

"In the end, these didn't help -- our government wanted this law to pass," van Zoesp said April 19.

The April 1 law allows "mercy killings" and doctor-assisted suicides, but also requires patients requesting euthanasia to be mentally alert and to have asked to die repeatedly while considering other options. While it obliges doctors to obtain consent from a medical council, the legislation permits them to use discretion when patients become incapable of deciding for themselves.

Although supported by most of the country's 16 million citizens, the law was condemned in a joint petition by Catholics, Muslims and Jews, as well as by 35 Protestant, Pentecostal and Orthodox churches.