Euthanasia expert issues warnings
‘‘The patient does not suffer but I can tell you the family suffers.’’ Not Necessarily Terminal founder Professor Jan Bernheim
A Belgian euthanasia expert has warned New Zealand against placing too many safeguards in any legislation over assisted suicides.
Professor Jan Bernheim founded palliative care group Not Necessarily Terminal, which pressed for a law change in Belgium that, in 2002, saw euthanasia legalised.
He spoke to a group in Palmerston North at St Peter’s Anglican Church on Tuesday night.
‘‘If you are going to legalise euthanasia in New Zealand, don’t make it too complicated.
‘‘There is a tendency to build in many, many safeguards – redundant safeguards.’’
He cited a satirical cartoon where a dying man’s friend had to wait behind a line of bureaucrats – and the Grim Reaper – to see his dying friend.
Bernheim said Belgium was ahead of many other countries in euthanasia, but New Zealand was a pioneering country itself.
He cited the Whanganui River being given the rights of a person as an example of the country’s progressive approaches.
Bernheim said there were plenty of birth controls, but fewer controls over death.
‘‘We are increasingly in control of the beginning of life, by the means of contraception, abortion and assisted procreation,’’ he said. Bernheim went over the Belgian law. This included the requirement that a person have an irreversible condition, that they make repeated requests to end their life with no external pressure, and that they are a ‘‘competent adult’’.
Patients must also be informed of all alternatives, the procedure must be carried out by a medical professional and it must be reported to a federal commission.
Bernheim said the law ‘‘did not say this is wrong and this is right’’.
But rather ‘‘if you follow this procedure then the decision you make with the patient will be ethical and to the benefit of the patient’’.
Alternatives such as continued deep sedation – putting patients in comas and ‘‘waiting for nature’’ – were not suitable.
If patients were still given fluids, it could take weeks for them to die.
‘‘The patient does not suffer but I can tell you the family suffers.’’
Bernheim said 4 per cent of the world population lived in a place where it was legal to have an assisted death and between 2007 and 2013 the number of requests for assisted death had doubled.
Though euthanasia was legal in Belgium, he acknowledged that not all agreed it was the right approach.
Critics often cited religious reasons for not wanting euthanasia, but it allowed people more preparation for death, he said.
‘‘There is much more spiritual care than in conventional death.’’
Bernheim said palliative care and euthanasia were ‘‘synergistic’’ in Belgium and noted that euthanasia was Greek for ‘‘good death’’.