Monday, January 24, 2005
The Pope has urged doctors and authorities in the Netherlands to think again about their increasingly far-reaching decisions on euthanasia.
He issued his appeal as it emerged that a group of senior Dutch doctors had formally reported themselves for killing 22 terminally ill newborn babies. Their admissions were intended to force the authorities to agree to regulate the practice.
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Pope John Paul II said on Saturday: "I urge the authorities and medical personnel and all those who exercise an educative role to weigh the gravity of these questions."
A study published the same day in the Dutch Journal of Medicine said that at least 22 newborn babies had been put to death since 1997, based on the doctors' own reports to public prosecutors.
The true number is likely to be far higher. The author of the report, Dr Eduard Verhagen, the head of paediatrics at Groningen university hospital, said that doctors put to death between 10 and 15 infants a year.
No action was taken over any of the deaths, although euthanasia is technically legal in Holland only for patients aged over 12.
Rest of the Story - UK Telegraph
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