Pia Dijkstra, Member of the D66, presented on Friday 17 July a bill to allow elderly people, who are at least 75 years old and who feel they have reached the end of their life, to ask, under strict conditions, euthanasia.

Pia Dijkstra specifies the bill doesn’t give the right to ask for euthanasia, rather the right to die of euthanasia.

To those who contest that, if the bill is approved, it would soon be discriminatory to deny death by euthanasia to a 74-year-old or a 44-year-old who meets the criteria, Dykstra responds by reassuring that the law only affects a small group of people since the applicant must be 75.

An end-of-life counselor will also discuss with the person about his or her desire to die, not whether it is possible or not, but where that desire for death comes from.

The Christian parties CDA and ChristenUnie, in a coalition with VVD and D66 now at risk, are firmly opposed to this bill.

ChristenUnie leader Gert-Jan Segers is outraged by the bill: “I find it extremely painful that at a time when older people feel extra vulnerable, D66 is submitting a proposal that we know will lead to increased anxiety in many older people,” Segers said to the Telegraaf. “If corona has made anything clear to us, it is that real attention and good care make the difference in a human life.”

CDA parliamentarian Harry van der Molen says: “As far as the CDA is concerned, there will be no completed life law, but we will tackle the causes of loneliness. Especially when people feel alone, abandoned or lost, they need attention or care.”

Considering that only on April 21 the Netherlands Supreme Court approved the euthanasia death of a woman with dementia who resisted, no less, and that now it is wished to be extended to healthy people with a ridiculous age limit, we are very concerned about the speed with which this euthanasic drift is taking hold in the Netherlands. It is now clear how to legislate on life and death, with the hypocrisy of setting boundaries, will inevitably lead to the elimination of those boundaries at all.

Emmanuele Di Leo

Steadfast onlus