Dutch physician K.F. Gunning for years has been resisting the increasingly public and routine practice of euthanasia in the hospitals of his country. The practice became legal in Holland only in late November 2000. Dr. Gunning wrote about the situation on Dec. 1, before the law took effect.

"This week our parliament reversed the law that forbids killing patients deliberately. That is contrary to Art. 2 of the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights which says: 'Everyone's right to life shall be protected by law.' The new law allows doctors to kill a patient under certain conditions. Only killing at the patient's explicit request is allowed by the new law. The euthanizing doctor must make a report stating that all the conditions were met. That report is sent to a committee that must judge whether the doctor acted correctly, and on the basis of this report the committee must judge. But the author of the report is the doctor himself. Can we be sure that the report is truthful? According to Dutch jurisdiction no one can be expected to accuse himself. If the doctor has killed a patient against his will, that point will not be mentioned in the report. How can the committee discover that the report is false? The chief witness, the patient, is dead....

"In 1995 and 2000 [Remmelink Committee] research has been done regarding the extent of what the Dutch government calls euthanasia: intentional life-ending treatment at the patient's request. According to this definition there were 3,663 cases of euthanasia and assisted suicide. That is 2.7% of all deaths in the year 1995....

"If all cases in which a patient died after a decision by the doctor to hasten the end of his life are counted together (assuming that the numbers given approximately represent reality), then we get the following picture: on a total mortality of nearly 136,000 in Holland in 1995 in over 26,000 cases, that is in almost 20% of all deaths, a doctor took the decision to shorten the patient's life. In many cases there was no request by the patient....

"I think the Dutch example will show too clearly that it is impossible to allow killing patients who want to be killed without taking away the protection of patients who don't want to be killed."

Dutch pastor Henk Reitsema, regards the legalization of euthanasia in Holland as a significant moment in western history. "I am sure that there will come a time in our lifetimes," he said, "when many of us will look back and wonder 'What were we thinking when we let people decide that it was okay to actively take part in killing people with our medical and legal apparatus involved, while the individuals had committed no crimes?'"

Although euthanasia has been technically illegal until now, lethal injection has been practiced in the Netherlands for nearly 25 years killing more than 3,000 people each year.

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