Most papers reported on the case: a 64 year-old woman suffering from severe senile dementia was given euthanasia. It was the first case of its kind in the country. Some facts and figures about euthanasia in the Netherlands.

What is the law?
The possibility of a recourse to euthanasia (Greek for ‘the good death’) has been formulated in the 2002 law Toetsing levensbeëindiging op verzoek en hulp bij zelfdoding (Criteria for the evaluation of requests for life ending actions and assisted suicide). It came into being after years of political and judicial wrangling in a divided parliament. According to law sociologist Helena Wyers, it was exactly the Dutch ‘polder model’ of continual mutual consultation and discussion which made for a ‘meticulously worded law.’
Who can have euthanasia?
There are 6 criteria which have to be in place before euthanasia can take place. A regional committee decides whether or not a doctor acted according to the rules. Infringement of the law carries a sentence of up to 12 years for euthanasia and a sentence of up to 3 for assisted suicide. Anyone who can convince a doctor that his request is ‘considered and voluntary’ and that there is ‘protracted and unbearable suffering’ can have euthanasia.
The doctor who acted in the case of the 64 year-old woman suffering from severe senile dementia also followed the rules. The law states that a living will in which a person indicates that he or she wants euthanasia in case of dementia at a later stage in life also counts as a request for euthanasia. In this case, the doctor considered the request to be legitimate. It is unusual in that up until now euthanasia has only been given to patients with the beginnings of dementia or Alzheimer.
How many cases of euthanasia have been reported?
The regional committees, set up to monitor the medical and judicial circumstances in which euthanasia takes place, publish the annual number of euthanasia cases. In 2010, the total number of reported euthanasia cases was 3,163, 19% up from the year before. 87% of the people suffered from cancer. The cause of the increase is not known but will be subject to an evaluation of the law expected to be ready in 2012.
How many cases go unreported?
We don’t know. According to the Dutch medical magazine Nederlands Tijdschrift voor Geneeskunde, around 20% of cases could go unreported.
Has euthanasia become a more accepted way of dying in Dutch society?
The large majority of the Dutch population is in favour of euthanasia, 95% according to a survey conducted this year by three major teaching hospitals, writes Elsevier.
As far as the doctors are concerned, the chairman of the federation of physicians KNVG Arie Nieuwenhuijzen Kruseman was recently quoted as saying that many doctors dread the moment they will be faced with a patient requesting euthanasia and that many are reluctant to acquiesce. ‘We have failed our patients. Doctors are getting less frightened of prosecution now, however, but we still need to be more open-minded about euthanasia’, he said.
Euthanasia is not accepted by the church although when a priest refused to preside over the funeral of a man who died by euthanasia, he was criticised by his church board. ‘Closing the door on a parishioner is not the catholic way’, it said.