Photo: Jan Dijkstra via Wikimedia Commons |
A doctor who performed
euthanasia on a woman with severe dementia has been given a formal reprimand by
the Dutch medical complaints board.
The case centres on a 74-year-old woman,
who was diagnosed with dementia five years ago. At the time she completed a
living will, saying she did not want to go into a home and that she wished to
die when she considered the time was right.
After her condition deteriorated,
she was placed in a nursing home where she became fearful and angry and took to
wandering through the corridors at night. The nursing home doctor reviewed her
case and decided that the woman was suffering unbearably, which would justify
her wish to die.
The doctor put a drug designed to make her sleep into her
coffee which is against the rules. She also pressed ahead with inserting a drip
into the woman’s arm despite her protests and asked her family to hold her
down, according to the official report on the death. This too contravenes the
guidelines.
The medical complaints committee said the doctor was at fault for
not trying to discuss the decision with the patient. The doctor has already
been given a formal reprimand by the euthanasia complaints council for breaking
the guidelines and the public prosecution department is also investigating the
case.
Once the public prosecution department has finished its investigation it
will decide whether or not the doctor, a specialist in geriatric medicine,
should face criminal charges.The doctor has since retired.
Legislation
In 2016,
the justice and health ministries relaxed the guidelines for performing
euthanasia on people with severe dementia a little so that patients can be helped
to die even if they incapable of making their current feelings known.
However,
they do have to have signed a euthanasia declaration with their family doctor
before they become too seriously ill to be considered for help in dying.
Euthanasia is legal in the Netherlands under strict conditions. For example,
the patient must be suffering unbearable pain and the doctor must be convinced
the patient is making an informed choice. The opinion of a second doctor is
also required.
Since the legislation was introduced in 2002, there have been a
number of controversial cases, including a woman suffering severe tinnitus and
a serious alcoholic.
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