LONDON — In the Netherlands, a country vaunted for its liberalism, a proposal to legalize assisted suicide for older people who are generally healthy but feel they have led a full life has stirred up an ethical storm in some quarters.
In 2001, the Netherlands became the first country in the world to legalize euthanasia for patients who were suffering unbearable pain and had no prospects of a cure.
Now, some critics say the country has gone too far with a proposed law that would allow people who are not suffering from a medical condition to seek assisted suicide if they feel they have “completed life.” Proponents of the law counter that limiting assisted death to patients with terminal illnesses is no longer enough, and that older people have the right to end their lives with dignity, and when they so choose.
Edith Schippers, the health minister, read a letter to the Dutch Parliament on Tuesday defending the measure. It is needed, she said, to address the needs of “older people who do not have the possibility to continue life in a meaningful way, who are struggling with the loss of independence and reduced mobility, and who have a sense of loneliness, partly because of the loss of loved ones, and who are burdened by general fatigue, deterioration and loss of personal dignity.”
The letter said that the government of Prime Minister Mark Rutte hoped to draft the law by the end of 2017 in consultation with doctors and ethicists. It stressed that the law needed to be applied with great care, including careful vetting of potential applicants by a “death assistance provider” with a medical background.
While state-assisted suicide is deeply polarizing in many countries, including the United States, the practice has gained wide acceptance in the Netherlands. In 2015, euthanasia accounted for 5,516 deaths, or nearly 4 percent of all deaths in the country, a government agency says.
Nevertheless, there are opponents, and they say the latest proposal threatens to lead the country down a perilous moral and ethical path. They note that the proposal does not even cite a minimum age at which the law could be applied.
A populist politician, Geert Wilders, who has argued that Dutch tolerance on issues including immigration has gone too far, warned against the state acting as an enabler for the death of people who are lonely or depressed.
“We cannot allow people who are needy or lonely to be talked into dying,” he told de Volkskrant, a leading Dutch newspaper. “Combating loneliness — and investing in dignity and focusing on our elderly — is always the best option.”
Christian groups also lashed out against the proposed law, saying that it would encourage what they termed state-sanctioned murder.
“The myth is that it is purely individual choice, while it always also affects family, the community, health care providers and ultimately society,” Gert-Jan Segers, the leader of a Christian parliamentary party, told de Volkskrant.
Some analysts said they believed the proposal was too vague, and cited concerns that some healthy older people might elect to end their lives out of fears of being a burden to their families.
The proposed law still faces several hurdles, including national elections next year that could change the composition of the government.
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