He Was Considered the Patron Saint of Euthanasia. Now He’s Having Second Thoughts – LifeNews.com

There are red flags. And then there are really big red flags.

Dr. Boudewijn Chabot is considered the patron saint of euthanasia in the Netherlands, which he still supports. But hes now sounding the alarm that the killing has gone too far.

This should be a glaring wakeup call for Americans who are complacent about physician-assisted suicide or euthanasia, or actually support it.

In 1991, Chabot, a geriatric psychiatrist, thumbed his nose at Dutch law and admittedly euthanized a physically healthy 52-year-old social worker. The High Court found him guilty without punishment. Until recently, he had celebrated the sea change ushered in by his deadly action.

He is now singing a different tune after research revealed how many individuals with dementia are being euthanized. The numbers are skyrocketing among this segment of society that has been the central focus of his professional career. Chabot also is alarmed with whos euthanizing them and the process being circumvented to carry it out.

In the past, advocates of euthanasia have touted three important safeguards governing Hollands euthanasia law: 1) a voluntary and deliberate request: 2) an individual with unbearable suffering without the prospect of improvements; and 3) no reasonable alternative to euthanasia is available.

According to Chabot, these so-called safeguards are quickly falling by the wayside. Silently, the very foundation of the law is being eroded, he said.

He offers evidence to prove his point.

Safeguard No. 1 requires that the person who wants to be euthanized provides a verbal, deliberate request. That has now been substituted with a written a letter of intent which can easily be forged or manipulated to represent the patients wishes. The law also doesnt require that the physician administering euthanasia have a therapeutic relationship with the patient, which makes it difficult at best to know if it is a genuine request. Regardless, Chabot doesnt believe a person in the advanced stages of dementia can authentically request euthanasia when they are unaware of what will actually be happening.

Chabot was further concerned to find out that sometimes when permission isnt given, its not needed. If necessary, physical force is used. He cited a doctor who started the euthanasia process by sneaking a sedative into the patients coffee. The patient resisted the lethal injection and family members held her down as he killed her. In the end, the physician still called her a cooperative participant.

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Safeguard No. 2 was scrapped in 2012 when the Review Committee stopped questioning doctors who said their euthanasia patients experienced unbearable suffering without a prospect of improvement. Responding to objections, the committee replied, Who are we to question the doctors? Professionals say it is already difficult to effectively judge unbearable suffering with advanced dementia, and nearly impossible without a therapeutic relationship with the patient.

Safeguard No. 3 was summarily discarded when doctors began to allow patients to reject any available alternatives and still qualify for euthanasia.

Chabot points out that the use of nice-sounding euphemisms had been an effective tool to introduce euthanasia in the Netherlands. He compares the process to how the first abortion law was introduced by saying a woman had to be in an emergency situation to get one. It didnt take long before every woman got a requested abortion if she rejected any other solution. Self-determination around the end of life is for many people as important as in the context of abortion, Chabot observed.

Chabots red flags should be an obvious concern for Americans. He writes, One can easily predict that all of this could cause a skyrocketing increase in the number of euthanasia cases and attributes it to the financial dismantling of care.

We have experienced a similar dismantling in the US, particularly in the wake of Obamacare.

Within the jungle of healthcare, insurance companies are at the top of the food chain. In the midst of the jungle, patients struggle to get through the thick vegetation of obstacles planted by insurance providers, when its the patients who should be the priority in the healthcare process.

Individuals living in states that have passed physician assisted suicide laws are most vulnerable. Insurance companies have rejected patients needs for expensive life-saving treatment, while offering to cover the cost of toxic drugs to end their lives.

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In the Netherlands, End of Life Clinic Foundation is the Planned Parenthood of the euthanasia industry. They kill patients who have been turned down by their own doctors, many of them suffering from dementia. By 2016 they performed 75 percent of all euthanasia cases involving chronic psychiatric patients. The foundation views euthanasia as virtuous labor. This sounds eerily familiar to Planned Parenthoods Care. No matter what.

The evolution of euthanasia in the Netherlands has caused Chabot to ask, What happens to doctors for whom a deadly injection becomes a monthly routine?

In summary, Chabot asks another question, Where did the euthanasia law go off the tracks? He then provides a clear cut, three-part answer.

1) When the existence of a treatment relationship was no longer required.

2) When patients with dementia were no longer required to make a definitive verbal request.

3) And particularly when the Review Committee concealed the fact that incapacitated people were being surreptitiously killed.

The former full-throated euthanasia activist doesnt see how they can get the genie back into the bottle. But, he says, It would mean a lot if wed acknowledge hes out.

America beware. It didnt take the Netherlands long to advance to their extreme euthanasia policies.

We are already quick on their heels.

Nursing Times magazine reports one in four nurses admits to injecting terminal patients with drugs to speed their dying. Two-thirds want to legalize euthanasia.

The Oregon State Senate recently approved amending their advance directive to in some cases allow withholding food and water from patients with dementia and mental illness against their will. The insurance industry was a chief advocate.

Charles D. Blanke, MD, participates in Oregons physician assisted suicide program. Yet he is surprised by how few of his colleagues (5 percent), first refer patients to psychiatrists. Depression often disqualifies an individual from receiving the lethal drugs.

He is also concerned only 17 percent of these physicians are present during an assisted suicide. Blanke offers himself to all of his patients and 100 percent of them have said yes.

Evidence shows that like abortion, the patient isnt the top priority during the killing process. The question is, can America learn from our friends across the pond before its too late?

LifeNews.com Note: Bradley Mattes is the executive director of Life Issues Institute.

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He Was Considered the Patron Saint of Euthanasia. Now He's Having Second Thoughts - LifeNews.com