New York’s pro-death community must have celebrated Wednesday when the state’s Medical Aid in Dying law kicked in.
But for a horrifying, real-life illustration of the slippery slope such laws face, look no further than the Netherlands.
There, activists — many in the medical professions — have become part of a pernicious death cult, roaming almost at will through homes, nursing facilities and, increasingly, hospices with their macabre mantra: Death on demand, anywhere, anytime, for anyone, for any reason.
It was difficult to imagine such a state of affairs getting worse, but it did when the country breached the final remaining taboo against assisted suicide and euthanasia and OK’d the medicalized killing of children between 1 and 12 years old.
Until two years ago, such paths were only available to patients 12 years and older.
For 12- to 16-year-olds, parental permission was required. Anyone over 18 was fair game.
Infants from birth to a year old were also previously covered under statute.
But two years ago, the Netherlands moved to close that age gap, authorizing the administered death of children between 1 and 12.
Tragically, it didn’t take long for a child to be medically killed.
Late last year, in a case just now being revealed in a government report, doctors euthanized a child under the age of 12 for the first time.
Details from the Dutch health minister were sketchy, hidden behind bureaucratic mumblings about “confidentiality” and “statistics.”
In the drab parlance of a bean-counting apparatchik, the minister reported that the child was “incurably ill” — a glib toady describing the case as if it were per-capita consumption of potatoes: a nameless child, nameless parents, nameless bureaucrats, nameless medical professionals, a nameless illness.
These are strange omissions when the Dutch pro-deathers bang on endlessly about transparency, honesty and “guardrails.”
Yet the notion of medical confidentiality rings hollow. Confidentiality could well be maintained while still providing information about the child’s illness and prognosis, at the least.
Without this information, we are left to trust what the Dutch government tells us with no ability to verify whether the reporting is accurate or a macabre charade.
But there are some things we do know.
First, the child’s parents had to give permission for this to happen. Dutch law is clear: Children and adolescents under 16 must have parental permission to be killed.
Second, government policy stipulates the “doctor will involve the child, insofar as they are capable, in the decision and must be satisfied that the child’s life is not being ended against their will.”
Let’s suppose this child was 10. How were the parents (and child) convinced death was the only option?
Were they offered medical interventions aside from death? What information were they given about the dire medical circumstances?
Was that information biased in favor of euthanasia? Were the parents bullied into the death decision by ghoulish doctors who enthusiastically cheer on euthanasia for kids?
Furthermore, how could the medical professionals and parents conclude with absolute certainty that the child understood the full consequences of ending his or her own life?
The idea that a 10-year-old possesses the maturity and judgment necessary to make such an irreversible decision is difficult to take seriously.
More likely, doctors convinced the parents, and the parents convinced the child, that the best medical treatment was death.
Now, a child in dire need of supportive medical care, comfort and love is no more.
Of course, right on cue, all the useless government excuses came tumbling out: This is a very rare case, there was no other possible solution, the euthanasia doctor’s actions will be strictly reviewed, on and on.
The truth is no Dutch medical professional has ever gotten more that the mildest slap on the wrist related to “improper” euthanasia, which almost always means a minor slip in filing the euthanasia paperwork.
Bottom line: Anyone can now be euthanized in the Netherlands at any time of life — from birth to old age, with doctors medically killing even children because of what they say is a “medical necessity.”
It’s cold and heartless — regarded as a mere administrative duty to be reported in anodyne, inscrutable language in some annual report.
Weep for this little child and for the many other children who will surely follow him or her to their early graves in the Netherlands.
And maybe soon in New York, too.
Mark P. Mostert, Ph.D., is senior researcher at Able Americans, the National Center for Public Policy Research’s project to support Americans living with disabilities.
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