How euthanasia came to Europe
by Joe Carter, Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission:
“I will give no deadly medicine to any one if asked, nor suggest any such counsel.”
For centuries, the Hippocratic Oath, which included this admonition against assisted suicide and euthanasia formed the core of Western medical ethics. Over the past few decades, though, the Hippocratic ideal has been eroding. Euthanasia—both voluntary and involuntary—and physician-assisted suicide have become increasingly common in Europe.
North America has been following the lead of European nations. Canada recently legalized physician-assisted suicide, as have five states in the U.S.—California, Oregon, New Mexico, Washington, and Vermont. Currently, one in six Americans lives in a state where a doctor can prescribe a lethal dose of drugs to a patient. That may soon increase, though, since nine other states have pending PAS legislation: Kansas, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, New York, New Jersey, North Carolina, Oklahoma, and Pennsylvania.
The fact that the death ways of Europe soon become accepted here in the states has some medical professionals concerned. The American Psychiatric Association, in concert with the American Medical Association, recently issued an official position statement that a “psychiatrist should not prescribe or administer any intervention to a non-terminally ill person for the purpose of causing death.”
What seems to have U.S. psychiatrists concerned is the first documented case of a doctor in the Netherlands performing euthanasia on a patient who suffered from chronic alcoholism.
While this case is unique, it’s the logical extension of the Dutch policy of allowing euthanasia for “treatment” of mental illnesses, including severe depression.
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