Mercy or Murder ?

September 2000 – 6’59”

00:02 Ever since she was a young girl, Elisabeth Both (PRON: Boat) has known that her parents- like many others in The Netherlands - were in favour of euthanasia. So when her mother, Jo, was incurably ill with asbestosis - a disease she'd battled against for 10 years, and which would eventually have suffocated her – the family was prepared for the moment when she asked to be allowed to die with dignity. It was an agonising request for Elisabeth to hear - but one the family and Jo's doctor honoured.

00:30 ELISABETH BOTH

``She decided one day that it was enough and fortunately, the doctor was able to help her. And the last day was very nice – yea, nice. We had a very quiet morning and the whole family was there. We had bought a huge bouquet of roses so we had that all around her bed.’’

1:02 But Bert Dorenbos doesn't think any doctor has the right to help people like Jo Both to die. A campaigner with the Cry for Life group, every week he hands out leaflets and canvasses young and old across the Netherlands, insisting euthanasia must remain a crime. He's horrified at the current government proposal to make it legal.

1:23 BERT DORENBOS, CRY FOR LIFE

``The issue is if we as a society start to kill each other and we have the right to kill each other then society is at stake and that’s what our government is doing now. They are proposing I say are death proposals.’’

1:37 But the majority of Dutch people are in favour of the bill. Opinion polls show support ranging anywhere from 50 to 90 per cent of the population. Around 3,500 cases of euthanasia are reported each year. The doctors involved are rarely prosecuted and never punished, even so without the new bill they are breaking the law.

1:56 Here at the headquarters of the NVVE - the Dutch Voluntary Euthanasia Society - over one hundred people ring in every day for information about euthanasia. The Society has been campaigning for 27 years to make it legal and remove the threat from doctors.

2:14 ROB JONQUIERE, DIRECTOR, NVVE

``As long as he has been acting according to all the rules, he will not be getting any punishment. Still, this feeling until the moment the officials say `alright, we will not prosecute you,’ until that moment he has always the chance of being prosecuted. The family has the chance that the police will come inside and ask questions – what has the doctor been doing, things like this.’’

2:42 Those against euthanasia say the government is moving too quickly. Their opponents say current reported levels of euthanasia don’t give a true picture. They’re way too low. Academics believe nearly a thousand people are helped to die each year without any official notice.

2:59 Researchers here at the Lindeboom Institute for Medical Ethics oppose the bill and have submitted evidence to parliament in support of their case.

3:10 DR. HENK JOCHEMSEN, LINDEBOOM INSTITUTE FOR MEDICAL ETHICS

``It is not controlled and I think no measure whatever would bring it completely under effective control. Because physicians - once you accept that it is a legally, or at least a morally, acceptable way of behaving, of acting – they don’t feel the need to report it, to be controlled by the legal authorities.’’

3:35 UPSOT

3:40 The debate has focussed attention on the care of the elderly in Holland. The Dutch cradle-to-grave health system is widely envied. But now it's claimed the BEST care for the most weak and sick isn't available across the board. And it's suggested euthanasia could become an easy way out. Many patients may have already drawn up a living will – spelling out what they'd like to have happen to them if they become seriously ill, injured or fall into a coma. Some of those who work with the elderly fear relatives could seek to enforce living wills - even though the patients could no longer speak for themselves.

4:20 Here in Amsterdam at the Tabitha (pron Ta- BEET - a) home for those with dementia, doctors and nurses say legalising euthanasia would be disastrous. They say their job is to keep people alive.

Tabitha's Nursing Manager Rob Abraham says he simply couldn't carry on if

the law is changed.

4:38 ROB ABRAHAM, NURSING MANAGER

``My goal is to take care of people and give them a comfortable and dignified end to their life and not to shorten their life and I think if somebody were to – if the law was to change and it was to go against my own grain, my own philosophy I think I’d stop the job as nurse.’’

5:08 Members of the religious right in the Netherlands are active opponents of euthanasia as well as abortion. But theirs is a vocal minority while the majority supports the option of allowing doctors to help their patients die.

Most euthanasia occurs at home. The GP usually has known the patient for many years. The doctor has to prove the patient is suffering enormously and must also consult a colleague.

The proposed change in the law has the Dutch grappling anew with a sensitive issue.

5:33 THREE UNIDENTIFIED PEOPLE IN THE STREET - VOX POPS:

``I think everyone has the right to choose about his own life and I agree with that and if they – if people think otherwise then I don’t agree.’’

``It depends on case to case. But I think it’s a good option, I think, this option to make it legal but not in a case that if somebody thinks let’s stop living but there should be a good medical reason for it.’’

``Sometimes people live a life they think is not worth living anymore and I think then you have to make your own decisions.’’

6:06 The plan has got the Dutch talking about a subject which is taboo in many countries. The bill is currently in the report stage and is expected to come before parliament later this month. A controversial clause allowing children as young as 12 to request euthanasia - against their parents' wishes – has been dropped..

Those closest to the subject deny euthanasia is an easy way out. Elisabeth Both for instance says, though painful, her mother's choice is a basic right.

6:39 ELISABETH BOTH

``If you don’t respect somebody’s wishes because you don’t want the person to go – it’s fairly selfish.’’

6:49 It seems the majority of Dutch citizens feel the same. Legalised euthanasia looks set to be a reality for the people of Holland and generations to come.

6:59 ENDS

CREDITS:

Field Producer: Kim Barnes

Camera: Mark Bayley

Picture Editor: Steven Pollock

Producer: Jessica Baldwin