Concerned Women for America - Life-or-Death Warning From Holland

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Life-or-Death Warning From Holland 10/17/2003
By Bert P. Dorenbos

Terri Schiavo case opens the door for euthanasia in the U.S.

Dr. Dorenbos is founder and president of Schreeuw om Leven (Cry for Life), Holland’s major pro-life organization, and a board member of International Right to Life. For more information on Terri Schiavo, listen to the Concerned Women Today program on this topic and read more about it.

Florida’s 6th Circuit Court Judge George Greer ordered the removal of Mrs. Terri Schindler-Schiavo’s feeding tube as of Wednesday, October 15 at 2 p.m. That tube provides her with essential nutrition and hydration.

Mrs. Schiavo’s husband Michael requested this decision. However, medical evidence and information from Mrs. Schiavo’s parents and other visitors prove that ending her life is a violation of Mrs. Schiavo’s human rights.

This decision of the 6th Circuit Court of Florida is more important than the Supreme Court Decision to ban euthanasia in the United States of America. This Florida Court decision opens the floodgate of subjective decision making in cases of life and death.

At the moment when, in the Dutch debate on euthanasia, a court ruled that withholding food and fluid is a permissible medical treatment, the road was paved for the euthanasia law currently in force in Holland. In the case of Mrs. Ineke Stinissen, who had been in coma for several years, a Dutch court ruled in 1990 that food and fluid could be withheld from her. Mrs. Stinissen died shortly afterward from starvation. The request to remove Mrs. Schiavo’s food and water came from her husband.

Since then, discussion about the termination of life is no longer based on the objective fact of a patient’s terminal illness, but more and more on a subjective approach to the quality of that patient’s life and the subjective view of professional and nonprofessional persons about the right to life or death.

National constitutions, the International Declaration on Human Rights and recent United Nations declarations are all based on the universal protection of life—whatever a person’s circumstances and without any form of discrimination. In medical circles it is still accepted that, based on the historical Hippocratic oath, a medical doctor will never apply his skill to kill a person.

It is not without reason that the United Nations Human Rights Commission has questioned the Dutch government on the subjective regulations in the Dutch euthanasia law, which allows a doctor to kill a patient. These questions are still not answered. In Holland the debate has not stopped with the introduction of the euthanasia law. It is even increasing, because doctors are not willing to report their euthanasia cases. Patients are not sure if the doctor helps to kill or to cure. The Dutch euthanasia law is a very dangerous example to follow.

Take Action: Send an e-mail alert to Terri Schiavo's governor, Jeb Bush of Florida, on her behalf.