The law would permit medically assisted death for children in this age range when there is "unbearable and hopeless physical suffering" in cases that treatment will not help.

The term "euthanasia" has been used by the media, but legally it will be something else: the application of an "end-of-life" protocol decided by medical professionals in agreement with the parents. In ordinary language, however, the term "euthanasia" corresponds to what is being put in place.

Under Dutch law, euthanasia necessarily follows a request from the patient, whether it is a recent request or from advance directives.

The media campaign that preceded this initiative for more than a year – and the complicity of the Dutch press for the most part based on the "relief" of parents, who are portrayed as powerless while facing the ordeal of a child's illness – are what have made this new transgression possible. It is a slippery slope toward more barbarism and sets aside the natural law inscribed in the heart of every man (but sometimes quite obscured… ) that forbids the killing of the innocent.

The slippery slope of euthanasia

The limits on killing those who suffer (euthanasia) or of those who show up at the wrong time (abortion) has been breached apparently once and for all in the Netherlands.

Dutch laws led to 1-in-20 deaths in the country being considered euthanasia-related in 2022. Cases justifying euthanasia include psychological suffering; worsening cognitive illness; multiple complaints (none of which are fatal), dementia accompanied by a previous request for euthanasia; and euthanasia for couples. The euthanasia of minors (from ages 12 to 16 with parental consent, then up to 18 years of age without such consent, although parents must be involved in the discussion) has been possible since the Dutch euthanasia law, the first in the world, came into force in 2002.

For babies under a year old, deliberate medical killing has been possible in the Netherlands since 2004 under the Groningen Protocol set up by pediatricians and court officers in that city to address cases where "the only way to end the pain" or suffering of the child would be to "let the patient die according to careful procedures" without incurring a murder charge.

The Groningen Protocol for minors of 12 years and less

However, the expression Groningen Protocol merely seeks to distinguish the practice from euthanasia, which is performed at the request of the patient. In reality, the Groningen Protocol allows for killing or "letting die" through lack of care without being subject to the requirements of the euthanasia law itself.

In practice, in the 20 years or so that this protocol has existed, between 20 and 100 children under a year old have been driven to death with the consent of their parents. It is not known whether these statistics are exhaustive, as this is not "euthanasia" in the legal sense. These acts escape the vigilance of the regional commissions responsible for evaluating every effective case of euthanasia, as the doctor is not obliged to report them. The (relatively) small number is also explained by the possibility of late abortions, which are performed on the basis of prenatal examinations and eliminate unborn children suffering from severe physical or mental handicaps.

The Groningen Protocol provides several ways for ending a baby's life during its first year: from refusal of life-sustaining care – by far the most frequent case, which could be called slow euthanasia – to so-called "active" killing by the administration of a lethal substance...Subscribe for free to Breaking Christian News here

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