There has been a new but entirely predictable development in the practice of euthanasia in Holland, as this magazine reports. A woman suffering from dementia has been executed by lethal injection, having first been sedated with drugged coffee, and then having been held down by her relatives when she attempted to struggle.
It is very hard to see how anyone can justify this sort of behaviour, which not only goes against the law of God, which commands us to respect all life, but even goes against the usual practices of those who support euthanasia, who generally stress its voluntary nature. There was nothing voluntary here. All the victim’s actions indicated that she was not co-operating with those trying to kill her; and as a demented person, she was not capable of making an informed choice to die. It is true that she had expressed a preference for euthanasia four years previously, but in the meantime she might well have changed her mind.
