Speaking to Christianity Today, Alistair Thompson of the English group Care Not Killing said the Dutch system in which Marcel Langedijk ended his life “echoes the research done in the state of Oregon which found that very, very few people wanted to end their lives because of the medical condition and its symptoms.” These programs “do not work,” he said.
In ‘Terrifying’ Holland, Doctors Euthanized a Man Who Wasn’t Dying
Mark Langedijk was tired of suffering from his alcoholism.
Mark Langedijk was an alcoholic who didn’t like the man he’d become. According to an article written by his brother Marcel on November 15 , he asked a doctor to end his life under Holland’s euthanasia law. (Marcel’s article is in Dutch.)
A doctor did just that, on July 14, 2016, in front of Mark’s family and friends.
An Alcoholic’s Struggle
“My parents especially have done everything humanly possible to save Mark, Marcel wrote. (The quotes are taken from The Daily Mail and The Independent) “They adopted his two children, they took him in when his marriage finally collapsed, they helped him find accommodation, they arranged rehab, they gave him money, support and unconditional love. Through eight gruelling years and 21 hospital and rehab admissions they continued to believe in a happy ending.”
Eventually, Langedijk decided he wanted to die, something the family took “with a grain of salt,” writes Marcel. “Euthanasia was for people with cancer, people suffering unbearably, people for whom death was imminent. Euthanasia was certainly not for alcoholics.”
Marcel persisted and his request for euthanasia was approved by Support and Consultation on Euthanasia in the Netherlands, the Holland medical body organized to advise on assisted suicide.
Mark Langedijk wrote about his brother’s last day: “We cried, told each other that we loved each other, that it would be all right, that we would care for each other, that we would see each other again, we held each other. If it was not so terrible, it would have been nice.”
Responding to critics, he told The Independent that his brother’s condition was an incurable disease. “He did not take an easy way out. Just a humane one. … Alcoholism and depression are illnesses, just like cancer. People who suffer from it need a humane way out.”
The Dutch Practice
Holland approved the practice 16 years ago, and over 5,500 people used it to end their lives last year. Originally designed to be for people in intense suffering, euthanasia is now used for people suffering from “social isolation and loneliness,” according to The Daily Mail.
The Holland’s government’s website outlining the standards for euthanasia explains that “patients have no absolute right to euthanasia and doctors no absolute duty to perform it.” The requests, it says,
often come from patients experiencing unbearable suffering with no prospect of improvement. Their request must be made earnestly and with full conviction. They see euthanasia as the only escape from the situation.
A document published by the Netherlands’ Ministry of Foreign Affairs claims that “Two thirds of the requests for euthanasia that are put to doctors are refused” and “Doctors are not obliged to comply with requests for euthanasia.”
A National Institute of Health study of people in Holland with psychiatric problems who requested euthanasia questioned whether the Dutch system provides enough protections. Approving requests for euthanasia, says the report’s abstract, “appears to involve considerable physician judgment,” but the doctors don’t always agree and do not always include an independent psychiatrist.
The review committees “generally defer to the judgments of the physicians performing the EAS [euthanasia].” The study found one case out of the 66 it studied that “failed to meet legal due care criteria.”
Christianity Today reported that 37 of the 66 people who chose euthanasia gave “social isolation” as a major reason. Over half had turned down a treatment for their illness, half of those saying they had refused because of “lack of motivation.”
Reactions
Holland, said a Labour party member of Parliament responding to Langedijk’s suicide, is “a dangerous place to have any physical or mental illness, to be struggling with any life challenges, or just to differ from what they might call normal. The state-authorised killing of their citizens is out of control and is, quite frankly, terrifying.”
