The violent death of a 74-year-old woman by lethal injection in 2016 is one of five euthanasia cases being probed by Dutch authorities, who have been investigating whether doctors may have committed crimes.
In March this year, Dutch prosecutors announced they were examining four other cases, including the death of another Alzheimer’s patient who ‘lacked the capacity to express her own will’.
A spokesperson said that specific criminal charges, if any, would be determined only after the investigations are finished.
However, several legal experts said that if doctors were found to have killed patients without their explicit request, they could potentially be charged with murder.
The investigations highlight the difficulties doctors in the Netherlands face in handling euthanasia requests for those who later develop dementia.
Mental decline can eventually make patients unable to understand the significance of their earlier demand to be killed, and as their brain changes, so can their personality and desires.
‘If you made a living will when you were competent and asked for euthanasia, do we attach more weight to a decision you made when you were competent, or to your present situation where you’re no longer yourself and are no longer asking to die?’ said Johan Legemaate, a professor of health law at the University of Amsterdam.
Since 2002, more than 55,000 patients have been lawfully killed by a doctor.
About 6,500 cases were reported last year, of which 166 involved people with dementia.
In the vast majority of these cases, the patients were still in the early stages of the disease and were competent to make a request for euthanasia.
Some physicians have said it is problematic to kill people with late-stage dementia because it’s hard to know what their wishes truly are.
The probe into the 74-year-old woman’s death has divided opinion even among those who support assisted dying.
‘This case is appalling,’ said Dr Boudewijn Chabot, a euthanasia advocate who was involved in a historic case at the Supreme Court that helped set the legal conditions for the procedure.
He said the euthanasia of the Alzheimer’s patient ‘goes beyond the law as we understand it.’
Ghislaine van Thiel, a medical ethicist at Utrecht University Medical School, said she would be surprised if Dutch prosecutors don’t take the 2016 Alzheimer’s case to trial.
‘We are definitely crossing a line if we’re overruling the wishes of incompetent patients to live, because a will to live is your basic, fundamental right,’ she said.
‘This is such a big discussion that we need the consideration of the courts to set standards on how the law views the rights of people with dementia and how we should consider their wishes.’
Source: Associated Press