Subject: Dutch Law Allowing Mercy Killings Now in Effect
Source: British Broadcasting Corporation; January 1, 2002

Dutch Law Allowing Mercy Killings Now in Effect

The Hague, Netherlands -- The Netherlands has become the first country in
the world to legalize a form of euthanasia. The new law means that doctors
no longer face prosecution for carrying out mercy killings if they are
performed with due care.

The upper house of the Dutch parliament approved the legislation last
April and on January 1st it became effective.

Strict conditions apply, with regional review committees made up of legal,
medical, and ethical experts carefully judging each patient's request. A
second medical opinion will be needed, and the suffering of the patient
must be deemed to be unbearable.

Only where there is doubt will the case be referred to the public
prosecutor.

Euthanasia has been tolerated for decades in the Netherlands, although
last month a court found a doctor guilty of malpractice for helping an
86-year-old former senator to die because he was tired of living. However,
the doctor was neither sentenced nor fined by the court.

The BBC's Geraldine Coughlan, in The Hague, says the case inflamed public
debate over whether a person who is not physically ill should have the
right to die.

The debate is now moving a step further, deciding whether elderly people
should be prescribed a suicide pill when they feel the time is right.