Doctor charged with murder faces no punishment

A Dutch doctor who was charged with murder after carrying out euthanasia on one of her patients will not face a punishment. 

 

The 68-year-old retired nursing home doctor carried out euthanasia on a 74-year-old woman with Alzheimers in April 2016. The doctor gave the patient a sedative in her coffee whilst family members held the 74-year-old down as she appeared to struggle whilst dying. 

 

The retired doctor, named as Catharina A, was charged last week with murder however the public prosecutor is not asking for a punishment.

 

The case has attracted controversy as euthanasia has been legal in the Netherlands since 2002. Citizens are able to request euthanasia if they are experiencing unbearable suffering with no prospect of improvement, and their doctor fulfils statutory care criteria.

 

However it has been unclear how this affects patients who are suffering from psychiatric problems or dementia which represented 6,000 cases last year.

 

Prosecutors said that they brought this case to court as they wanted to "contribute to more clarity about euthanasia" stressing that they need to protect the lives of those who are incapacitated to make a decision themselves. 

 

In this case, the public prosecutor argued that the doctor had not done enough to establish if the patient really wanted to be euthanised. 

 

The court heard that the patient had previously stated that she wanted euthanasia if her dementia became so severe that she needed to be put in a nursing home. It was also reported that she was not capable of expressing herself clearly, sometimes saying she wanted to die but also expressing a desire to live. 

 

But the woman's daughter said that she supported the doctor's actions. "Nobody can be denied the right to escape this tormenting disease," she said. "She released my mother's spirit from a prison where she absolutely did not want to be."

 

Agnes Wolbert, chairman of the NVVE pro-euthanasia organisation, argued that the case should never have come to court. "The woman was clearly suffering, and the doctor had already been lightly censured by the medical ethics board. That is where it should have stopped."

 

Mandy Peters Solicitors 

Lewisham