Legalizing euthanasia.

Amsterdam--The Dutch government announced on July 5, 1999, that it had given legal recognition to same-sex "marriage", a move vigorously criticized by the Vatican, who called it "an insult to reason". The recognition includes adoption of children, and provision for the birth of their "own" children with the assistance of a third party (LifeSite, July 5).

One week later, the government also recommended the so-called "decriminalization of mercy-killing." It is, said justice ministry spokesman Wijnand Stevens, "the next logical step of the policy we have had so far." And so it is.

Since 1993 the Netherlands has pretended that the killing of the sick and elderly can be tolerated under "strict" guidelines, while remaining voluntary and restricted to cases in the final stages of illness. But recent medical reports show otherwise. The practice often proceeds with no authorization from the family, or a lack of consultation with fellow physicians, and often lack of grave reasons.

The news report from Associated Press claims a 92 per cent "popular approval" for the proposed action (Toronto Star, July 13). How true this is, remains to be seen. A growing number of people carry a card in their wallet stating they do not wish to be euthanized under any circumstances when they must stay overnight at a hospital. What a reversal in a country where, during the Second World War, the entire medical profession refused to have anything to do with euthanasia policies proposed by the Nazi occupiers.

Britain--Meanwhile, the Vatican has protested the decision of the British Medical Association to allow doctors to decide when a patient should die. The ruling gives a doctor the authority to order a halt to feeding a patient, if he regards the patient's condition as hopeless, or if he judges treatment to be too costly. In a June 27 editorial in L'Osservatore Romano, moral theologian Fr. Gino Concetti called the BMA decision "disconcerting" and warned that it would lead to abuses, putting sick people at the mercy of "doctors lacking in competence, prudence, and solidarity" with their patients.