Abstract
In the last three decades, euthanasia has been a topic of continuous debate in the Netherlands and elsewhere. I is obvious that euthanasia has medical, moral and legal aspects, but it also has cultural, social and political dimensions. In the Netherlands, after three decades of debate and practical experience, euthanasia is since April 2002 regulated as a legitimized medical intervention under particular conditions. However, the legal regulation of euthanasia does not mean that the practice has lost its controversial and contentious character. In this presentation I will focus on four issues. First, the legalization of euthanasia in the Netherlands, identifying the characteristics of the new law. Second, rules and regulations in European countries will be compared, especially the laws in Belgium and the Netherlands. It is also clear that the medical practice of euthanasia varies significantly among European countries, contrary to the implicit assumption that physicians in the Netherlands practiced openly what was hidden in other countries. Third, the issue of legalization, and the various moral and pragmatic arguments pro and con legalizing euthanasia, will be analyzed. Finally, different approaches to death and dying seem to emerge from the euthanasia debate. Three approaches are distinguished: controlled death, preventive death, and palliated death. The increasing focus on the patients' quality of life is an opportunity for the emerging approach of 'palliated death', going beyond the images of 'controlled death' and 'preventive death'.
