The Netherlands Might Allow Assisted Suicide For Healthy People Who Feel Their ‘Life is Complete’

In 2002, the Netherlands became the first country to legalize assisted suicide, allowing those suffering unbearable pain to choose death over continuing to live in such a state.

Now, the Dutch government plans to draft a law that would allow people who feel like they’ve “completed life” to opt for assisted suicide, regardless of whether or not they’re terminally ill.

Perhaps they’ll call it the Hunter S. Thompson Law.

Health and justice ministers in the Netherlands penned a letter to parliament yesterday that argued that “[people who] have a well-considered opinion that their life is complete, must, under strict and careful criteria, be allowed to finish that life in a manner dignified for them.”

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The Netherlands already has a considerably relaxed euthanasia policy.

Some with mental illnesses and dementia have been allowed to opt for assisted suicide in addition to those who are terminally ill – so loosening regulations further is bound to stir controversy. Euthanasia accounted for 5,516 deaths in 2015 (3.9% of all deaths nationwide).

Though the country’s health minister, Edith Schippers, said a revised system would apply primarily to the elderly, she did not specify an age threshold. It will, of course, include comprehensive safety mechanisms, careful guidance, and rigorous expert consultation to prevent choices of such magnitude to be made in haste.

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