A man in the Netherlands was euthanized because he was an alcoholic.
The story excerpted and linked after the jump gives a vivid and tragic description of what happened.
The Netherlands changed the law to allow for physician assisted suicide in cases not just of terminal illness but of “unbearable suffering,” which includes personal and psychological unhappiness. In another recent case, the victim of sexual abuse was euthanized because of her trauma.
So the hurting are assisted in killing themselves rather than giving them help and support.
From Man in the Netherlands euthanised due to his alcohol addiction | The Independent:
A man in the Netherlands has been allowed to die because he could no longer carry on living as an alcoholic.
Mark Langedijk chose the day of his death and was telling jokes, drinking beer and eating ham sandwiches with his family hours before he passed away.
He was killed by lethal injection at his parents’ home on 14 July, according to an account of the ordeal written by his brother and published in the magazine Linda.
The Netherlands introduced a euthanasia law 16 years ago, which is available to people in “unbearable suffering” with no prospect of improvement. . . .
On the day of his death, he “laughed, drank, smoked, ate ham and cheese sandwiches and soup with meatballs” until his doctor arrived at his parents’ home at 3.15pm.
His doctor explained the procedure, before telling Mr Landedijk to get into bed and to stay calm.
At this point, they all “started crying, my parents, everyone actually, even Mark”.
“We cried, told each other that we loved each other, that it would be all right, that we would care for each other, that we would see each other again, we held each other,” he said. “If it was not so terrible, it would have been nice.
“Mark’s eyes turned away, he sighed deeply. His last. Dr Marijke injected the third syringe. His face changed, lost color. My little brother was dead.”
More than 5,500 people ended their life using Holland’s euthanasia laws last year. One of those who died was a sex abuse victim who suffered severe anorexia, chronic depression and hallucinations.
Photo: Wikipedia Commons, public domain
