Blind Dutch woman granted euthanasia: SPUC's Anthony Ozimic comments for Daily Mail

A euthanasia kit

The Daily Mail and other news-outlets have reported that a blind Dutch woman has been granted her request for euthanasia in The Netherlands. From the report by Simon Caldwell:

"Medics have killed a woman by lethal injection because she could not cope with becoming blind.

In one of the first cases of euthanasia for a disability, the 70-year-old was deemed by doctors to be ‘suffering unbearably’.

They granted her wish to die after she had previously tried to commit suicide several times."
...
"The unnamed woman had been born with poor eyesight which had deteriorated into blindness as she entered old age.

She had lived alone since her husband died.

Health specialist Lia Bruin told a Dutch newspaper that the case was ‘exceptional’.

‘She was, for example, obsessed by cleanliness and could not stand being unable to see spots on her clothes,’ Bruin said."

Anthony Ozimic told the Mail:

"It is medical negligence of a high order for the doctors in this case to have gone along with her suicidal ideas, rather than find effective means of managing whatever psychological issues may have been causing her to consider suicide. The Netherlands is a wealthy country which can  support people with blindness. Wherever euthanasia or assisted suicide has been allowed, so-called 'exceptional circumstances' are quickly becoming the norm and the criteria for death are expanding. Millions of people around the world are blind, yet these doctors in their callous arrogance have deemed that at least some blind people should be killed rather than treated. This is what is in store for the UK if Lord Falconer and Margo Macdonald get their bills through parliament."

Comments on this blog? Email them to johnsmeaton@spuc.org.uk
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