A World Medical Association resolution condemning euthanasia as “unethical” and urging all doctors and medical associations to refrain from the practice has prompted the Royal Dutch Medical Association to call for an “honest debate on rational grounds.”
The resolution, which is set to be adopted by next week's annual assembly in Washington, DC, highlights the Netherlands as the only country where national laws have been passed decriminalising mercy killing under certain conditions.
The resolution was approved during a heated debate last year in the association's 18 member council, with the Netherlands the only member voting against it. The council's chairman, Randolph Smoak, noted that it was “very clear that nations around the world represented here are unequivocally opposed to euthanasia ‘with one exception.’”
Reports suggest that the council meeting was an “unpleasant experience” for Dr Ruud Hagenouw, the president of the Royal Dutch Medical Association, with Dutch policy being compared to “practices from the Third Reich.” A World Medical Association spokesman said the Dutch were “very upset” by the “tone of the debate.” The Dutch, however, are resolved not to leave the association but to return to debate “this very important issue.”
The new resolution confirms previous positions that voluntary euthanasia is contrary to “basic ethical principles of medical practice” and “must be condemned by the medical profession.” Then noting the adoption last year of legislation in the Netherlands, it “strongly encourages” all doctors and medical associations not to participate in euthanasia “even if national law allows it.”
The Royal Dutch Medical Association, whose 30000 members represent most of the doctors in the Netherlands, has, since the 1980s, cooperated with developing a policy towards decriminalising voluntary euthanasia under strict criteria. Dr Hagenouw explained that the Dutch medical association shifted its thinking because Dutch society wanted an open debate on this issue.
“People asked for it. Politicians asked for it. If euthanasia was to happen in practice then rules were needed to make it transparent, otherwise it was not honest for the doctor, the patients, or their families,” he said.