Netherlands sees sharp increase in people choosing euthanasia due to

'mental health problems'

The Netherlands has seen a sharp increase in the number of people choosing to
end their own lives due to mental health problems such as trauma caused by sexual
abuse.
Whereas just two people had themselves euthanised in the country in 2010 due to an
"insufferable" mental illness, 56 people did so last year, a trend which sparked
concern among ethicists .
In one controversial case, a sexual abuse victim in her 20s was allowed to go ahead
with the procedure as she was suffering from "incurable" PTSD, according to the
Dutch Euthanasia Commission.
But a Dutch psychiatrist who has carried out euthanasia requests at the countrys End-of-Life
clinic said this week that psychiatrists are too hesitant about agreeing to euthanasia for
patients with psychiatric diseases.
Paulan Strcke, who will present her findings at the Euthanasia 2016 conference in
Amsterdam Thursday, told The Telegraph that even children as young as 12 who ask
to end their lives should be taken seriously.
Theres a giant misunderstanding, she said, euthanasia is a good death by the wish
of the person who dies and no-one else.
"It is an execution of the wish of a patient.
Her speech, entitled Condemned to live with unbearable psychiatric suffering, or
allowed to die? comes at a time of heated debate on euthanasia.
Other speakers at the conference will discuss euthanasia worldwide for terminally ill
children, and people who are tired of life".
In 2002, euthanasia was legalised in the Netherlands for those with unbearable
suffering with no prospect of improvement. There is a provision for children from 12
to 18 years.
Euthanasia cases rose 75% in the past five years, from 3,136 in 2010 to 5,516 last year.
Cases for psychiatric reasons grew from just two people (0.1% of the total) in 2010 to
56 people last year (1%). Dementia cases rose from 25 in 2010 (0.8%) to 109 cases
last year (2%).
These numbers are small in a population of 16.8 million, but experts worry how
unbearable suffering can be measured in patients with dementia or psychiatric
illnesses.
It comes as concerns were raised in the UK after the Dutch euthanasia
commission published an account of a Dutch sex abuse victim in her 20s with
conditions including therapy resistant anorexia and chronic depression, whose
request for euthanasia was granted.

Ms Strcke will also show films of two families of patients with psychiatric conditions
whose euthanasia she performed.
One is the son of an 84-year-old woman who had chronic depression. A second
features the parents of a woman with PTSS, chronic depression and a personality
disorder, who chose euthanasia aged 34, when her daughter was three years old.
You can prepare, you can say goodbye, you are present with someone, and it can be a
loving memory not only hurt, as suicide is only hurt.
I interviewed her parents the year after her death, says Strcke.
They expressed gratitude that her life could end this way and not in a violent one.
"The child was already lodged with her father, whom she had divorced.... The little
child was present at the funeral and stays with the grandparents every two weeks.
They were sure and I was as well that her mother would die by suicide if I didnt help
her die.
You can prepare for [euthanasia], you can say goodbye, you are present with
someone, and it can be a loving memory not only hurt, as suicide is only hurt.
I think there is a lot of unconscious resistance amongst psychiatrists against the idea
of euthanasia. Our patients deserve that we examine that before we make a stand.
Other ethicists disagree. Dr Erwin Kompanje, assistant professor of clinical ethics
at Erasmus MC University Medical Centre, was stunned, surprised and alarmed by
a television programme about the End-of-Life clinic in February.
He told The Telegraph: Many psychiatric cases revolve around how much suffering
the subject can bear. Some find their mental suffering so unbearable that they want to
die, while others find it bearable in a similar situation.
"That makes it difficult to judge: has everything has been tried in a therapeutic sense?
Unbearable suffering can no longer be measured in a patient with dementia. Anyone
can prepare a living will with a dementia clausebut the question is whether this
individual, now demented, experiences life as unbearable suffering.
"It is usually the relatives of the patient suffering seeing their loved one with
dementia.
But that is not a reason to terminate life, even if these relatives say that the demented
person would not have wanted this.
The conference's organisers, the Dutch foundation for voluntary ending-of-life
(NVVE) is also lobbying the Dutch government for trials of a suicide pill currently
used in Oregon.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/05/11/netherlands-sees-sharp-increase-in-peoplechoosing-euthanasia-du/