The Netherlands has nothing on US.

It would appear that even in the Netherlands, a country that has been under the microscope from conservative groups in this country for what was heretofore considered its ultra-liberal policy on euthanasia, Terri Schiavo would be alive right now with feeding tube intact:

...Dutch Penal Code Articles 293 and 294 make both euthanasia and assisted suicide illegal, even today. However, as the result of various court cases, doctors who directly kill patients or help patients kill themselves will not be prosecuted as long as they follow certain guidelines. In addition to the current requirements that physicians report every euthanasia/assisted-suicide death to the local prosecutor and that the patient's death request must be enduring (carefully considered and requested on more than one occasion), the Rotterdam court in 1981 established the following guidelines:

The patient must be experiencing unbearable pain.

The patient must be conscious.

The death request must be voluntary.

The patient must have been given alternatives to euthanasia and time to consider these alternatives.

There must be no other reasonable solutions to the problem.

The patient's death cannot inflict unnecessary suffering on others.

There must be more than one person involved in the euthanasia decision.

Only a doctor can euthanize a patient.

Great care must be taken in actually making the death decision.

Let's go down the list, shall we?

1. The patient must be experiencing unbearable pain.
(Uhh... nope. At least as far as anybody can tell.)

2. The patient must be conscious.
(Uhh.. according to Michael Schiavo, not since 1992).

3. The death request must be voluntary.
(Well, according to one person, from a conversation a long, long time ago. Although there appears to be no doubt regarding his penchant for wishful thinking).

4. The patient must have been given alternatives to euthanasia and time to consider these alternatives. (Something tells me this conversation never took place with Terri. At least not between Terri and her husband. Her family has, however, provided a viable alternative).

5. There must be no other reasonable solutions to the problem. (see point #4)

6. The patient's death cannot inflict unnecessary suffering on others.
(One needs only to look at these faces to see unnecessarily inflicted suffering:


7. There must be more than one person involved in the euthanasia decision.
Unless Michael Schiavo has cloned himself, this again is a NO.

8. Only a doctor can euthanize a patient.
I don't know if a doctor pulled the feeding tube or not. I do know that whomever pulled it had help from the Florida and Federal judiciaries.

9. Great care must be taken in actually making the death decision.
The merits of this final point are up for argument, as there have been conflicting medical views regarding Terri's condition.

There is a member of my forum community who hails from the Netherlands. A number of months ago, some of our forum membership (myself included) were giving him a hard time due to his country's stand on euthanasia. Looks like we owe him an apology. In just this one instance, our Culture of Death has made an end-around the Netherlands in so quick a manner that the Dutch now look like a bunch of nuns working for Operation Rescue.