Dutch court upholds doctor's euthanasia conviction
The Dutch Supreme Court today upheld the conviction of a family doctor who helped a healthy 86-year-old man kill himself because he was ”tired of living”, saying it was clear euthanasia rules were never intended to cover such cases.
The ruling further refined long-established guidelines for euthanasia that were enshrined in law earlier this year, when the Netherlands became the first country to legalise doctor-assisted suicide.
Dr Philip Sutorius’s lower court acquittal was overturned by an Amsterdam district appeals court last year. He was convicted of malpractice for giving lethal pills to Edward Brongersma, who was not ill.
Brongersma, a former MP, asked Sutorius for help in 1998 because he was lonely and did not want to face a slow deterioration of his health that he believed would make life unbearable.
Sutorius was neither fined nor jailed, however. The appeals court ruled that his transgression was “so minor that any form of punishment would be inappropriate”.
In its decision today, the Supreme Court said there was a commonsense line between doctors treating sickness and suffering, and doctors acting where there is no sickness.
“Medical expertise, by its nature, does not extend to questions and complaints that do not have a sickness or ailment – mental or physical – as their source,” the court said.
If there is no illness, the doctor has no expertise with which to decide if his patient qualifies for legal euthanasia, the court said.
Under the law, patients must be suffering unbearably with no hope of recovery, and the doctor must obtain a second concurring medical opinion. Each case is reviewed by a commission comprised of at least one lawyer, one doctor and one expert on medical ethics.
Although the law came into effect only last April, it followed practices defined by Parliament in 1993 under which euthanasia remained illegal but was tolerated as long as it was administered under strict controls.
