Netherlands: Pressure Builds For Euthanasia For Those Who Think They Have Lived Long Enough

The push to allow euthanasia for people in Holland who simply think they have lived long enough gains momentum.

Bill calling for “less strict” euthanasia

"The elderly are asking for the right to assisted suicide," says Dutch daily De Volksrant, as the parliament this Thursday discusses a bill presented through a citizens' initiative by an association called Uit Vrije Wil (“Their Free Will’”). The association supports the right to assisted suicide. In a four month period, Uit Vrije Wil gathered 120,000 signatures, including those of many political leaders, in support of a bill to allow assisted suicide for people over 70 years of age if they consider their lives as completed.  The association says that the current euthanasia law, passed ten years ago, is very strict and applies only to those "in unbearable pain and with no other outcome". more