ABSTRACT
THERE IS ONLY one country in which euthanasia is officially condoned and widely practised: the Netherlands. Although euthanasia is proscribed by the Dutch Penal Code, the Dutch Supreme Court held in 1984 that a doctor who kills a patient may in certain circumstances successfully invoke the defence of necessity, also contained in the Code, to justify the killing. In the same year, the Royal Dutch Medical Association (KNMG) issued its members with guidelines for euthanasia. Since that time the lives of thousands of Dutch patients have been intentionally shortened by their doctors.
