The slide down the euthanasia slippery slope continues: The Netherlands
The Netherlands has been a leader in this particular trend. Here’s the latest:
Zoraya ter Beek is one of a growing number of people across the West choosing to end their lives rather than live in pain. Pain that in many cases can be treated.
In 2022, euthanasia comprised 5% of deaths in the Netherlands. Read @rupasubramanya’s investigation:… pic.twitter.com/YHh2Sk6DbN
— The Free Press (@TheFP) April 2, 2024
This young woman is not dying of anything, nor is she in intractable physical pain. Apparently her psychiatrist told her that her depression was incurable and there was no hope for her, which is when she decided she would ask for assisted suicide. Needless to say, no psychiatrist should ever tell a patient such a thing; it is extreme malpractice, IMHO.
Assisted suicide seems to have actually become trendy among a certain set:
… [P]eople like Zoraya ter Beek … critics argue, have been tacitly encouraged to kill themselves by laws that destigmatize suicide, a social media culture that glamorizes it, and radical right-to-die activists who insist we should be free to kill ourselves whenever our lives are “complete.”
They have fallen victim, in critics’ eyes, to a kind of suicide contagion.
Statistics suggest these critics have a point.
In 2001, the Netherlands became the first country in the world to make euthanasia legal. Since then, the number of people who increasingly choose to die is startling.
You can find a chart here showing the trend. I am unable to embed it, but if you click on the link it is readily apparent that the growth is in a relatively steady line upward.
I would also bet that, just as with the trans epidemic, a disproportionate number of people who don’t have a terminal illness and yet ask for assisted suicide have a diagnosis that puts them somewhere on the autism spectrum.
I have family in Canada, so I read articles about the assisted suicide policy there. It really sounds to me, based on reading newspapers, as if the government is encouraging suicide as an alternative to long waitlists for medical care. Somehow that doesn’t seem right.
OTOH, if there is such a thing as suicide contagion, I have one question: how do we spread it to Democrats and other liberals?
Assisted suicide is the government answer to increased medical costs of universal care. I’m fairly convinced COVID was pushed for similar reasons. Why else was putting COVID patients in nursing homes pushed so hard? 65+ age group was by far the hardest hit cohort as far as COVID deaths went.
“Assisted suicide seems to have actually become trendy among a certain set”
It seems likely that a very high percentage of those assisted suicides are white. They are the victims of a century+ long campaign by the left to inculcate within the public the deep seated, implicit meme that the only way that the Caucasian race can ‘atone’ for its ‘ancestral sins’ is through racial suicide.
Take away God….there you go.
Well, at least she gets the starring role in her very own drama of tragic oppression and brave resistance against a cruel and pitiless and uncaring reality.
Just because there is no God does not mean that there is not great emotional satisfaction to be found in hurling your own existence back in His face, fictive though that face may be.
Say what you will about the pathology of social media, 20 years of Internet freedom and unhindered self-expression has revealed more about the innate vanity, narcissism, self-worship, malice, hedonic nihilism and psychological dysfunction of a substantial portion of the human – particularly female, to our surprise and mortification – population, than a hundred years of psychiatric research ever could have teased out of disclosure resistant patients whose stories were covered by doctor patient confidentiality, and viewed with suspicion by a skeptical public.
Actually, a rather uneven novel, Perelanda, part of C.S. Lewis’ space trilogy is brought to mind. In it, so far as I remember, the “Eve” character of the planet Venus, is tempted to embrace rebellion and the resultant fall into mortality and ultimate death as part of a great drama. That is what tempts her: the great drama of tragic victimhood and death.
Whether Lewis was expressing a valid insight into the psychology of some portion of the human female population or not, I cannot judge, but only guess.
The women in my life, no. But as far as the crazy moral alien woke gurls of both sexes go, I’d be tempted to answer “yes”.
Sad story, but the Marxists will have replacements for her so they don’t care.
Tom Watson Jr, longtime head of IBM, said in his memoir that he suffered episodes of severe depression from ages 13-19. Said that unless you’ve experienced it personally, you can’t imagine what it was like.
I can’t imagine the suffering of going through a bout of clinical depression, but I do find plenty of institutional failures in this story. How can a clinician tell a patient that they have exhausted all alternatives, that there is no hope, for an emotional condition? What worse thing could be said to a victim of depression? Hope is the most important human condition to keep alive ! And yet here we have a medical professional, apparently not laying out any alternatives, e.g. meditative, behavioral, or Eastern holistic practices as ‘worth looking into’, no, let’s try suicide ! What could go wrong?
I’m sad for the young woman and hope she finds a way to not go through with such an unnecessary and nihilistic choice. There is something very wrong with her enthusiasm. And as others mention, regarding state-assisted suicide, there is an unsavory, administrative, cost-associated miasma when considering the proactive nature of assisted suicide with the Netherlands and Canadian socialized medical schemes: ‘Have you tried suicide?’
Why go to a doctor? Isn’t rope cheap enough?
The “Culture of Death” sounded like an exaggeration or a political slogan, but here it is.
The lady needs a friend — and also to stop thinking that people who spent their formative years cutting up corpses are likely to be very good at dealing with people and their problems.
This very sad. The young woman has lost hope. However, now she won’t add to the gene pool. Vicious I know.
Clinical Depression seems to have a large genetic component. From 30k feet, this looks like, systemically, a good thing. Back when we were fur covered critters on the pampas, someone born with one limb missing never got a chance to pass on that genetic mistake.
She hasn’t reproduced, and she’s removing her genes from the pool.
OTOH, we’re closing in on serious gene therapies, and she may be carrying some excellent genes such that it, probabalistically, it’s a wash. Which brings us to the moral issue.
The system is monstrous, and any physician – or any one involved, is a monster.
“Authority is not given to you, Steward of Gondor, to order the hour of your death,” answered Gandalf. “And only the heathen kings, under the domination of the Dark Power, did thus, slaying themselves in pride and despair, murdering their kin to ease their own death.”
My mother and father were clinically depressed and eventually committed suicide, separately.
In their ways they both fought. They didn’t want to kill themselves and they didn’t want to saddle their children with such a loss. But they were in terrible pain and they succumbed.
My mother had a string of psychiatrists who weren’t all that useful, but none of those doctors were helping her to the Exit.
Without cultural and medical support I don’t believe this Dutch woman would have chosen suicide.
I curse everyone and everything which helped her to do so.
”I’m sad for the young woman and hope she finds a way to not go through with such an unnecessary and nihilistic choice. There is something very wrong with her enthusiasm.”
People used to scoff at me when I said that the movie “Zardoz” was the natural end state of Western leftism. Sigh.
Maybe in the long run it’s for the best. She’ll be saving her friends and family from years and years of pointless psychodrama.
“… the only way…”
Really, now?
One might have thought that the innovative people of Haiti have shown us, if only inadvertently, an EVEN BETTER, more altruistic, far less selfish—truly caring, truly giving—way….
…Such that the concerned and tender-hearted—extraordinarily HUMANE—governments of, say, Canada and the Netherlands, e.g., WILL NO DOUBT SOON BE ORGANIZING—with the unwavering support of the WHO—all-expenses-paid, “Feed the Needy” tours of Western Hispaniola (one-way-only, of course, which would make it economically feasible…and therefore far less open to objection on the part of the grievously-always-put-upon taxpayer)….
And so, “Win-Win-Win”…
Count on it.
File under: Modestly trending.
I honestly don’t approve of any of this, but think it may well result in an improvement in the gene pool, regardless.
Any animal that is unable to, or unwilling to, fight to live — particularly when there is little justification for not living — is not a very valuable member of the species. Particularly when the thing causing them to not want to live is not a direct conditional aspect of their intelligence, creativity, or other positive abilities — yes, many creative people are fraught with psychological tendencies towards self-destruction, but this is not an example of what I speak.
I speak more of the average person with average contributions to society. Members of the herd. Any of them who aren’t inclined to fight to live? I don’t know that there’s any benefit to denying them their inclination. :-/
Heartless? Perhaps. Rational. Practical. Also applicable.
Related? (as in, “Part of the scam”?…but that—THAT!—would be far, far too cynical…even for some of us…hardened cynners…)
“CDC Releases Hidden Trove Of COVID-19 Vaccine Injury Reports”—
https://www.zerohedge.com/medical/cdc-releases-hidden-trove-covid-19-vaccine-injury-reports
Key phrase:
“…struggling with suicidal thoughts…”
Well, all those altruistic governments out there will no doubt be able to help us out should “suicidal thoughts” ever crop up…
I can’t help but notice the smugness. The arrogance. Look at me!
I am not callous about life, and do not believe in suicide, but perhaps this type of mental illness IS best treated this way. At least if it is genetic it will be purged from the species….
Her psychiatrist’s mental problems are greater than hers. What he has done to her is not merely malpractice, not assisting in suicide, but acting as an accomplice in her murder.
You nailed that. Add footie pajamas, a little wine and chocolate, some scented candles …. the coffee is already planned on and she has the celebratory tattoo.
“So brave…” say her twitter supporters.
Well, that latter may be seen by some more metaphysically minded persons as a questionable assumption.
Slightly off topic but related.
The assisted suicide facilities that exist in Europe do not seem to have any problem ending a life.
It is apparently done painlessly and the entire procedure takes place within a very short period of time; at least it all goes as planned and you never hear of screw ups.
Contrast that with the application in the USA of the death penalty in those states that have a death penalty.
We keep reading about how the procedure goes off the tracks causing, I guess, unplanned suffering and dragging out the entire procedure and taking much more time than planned.
The last one I heard about was a death penalty that utilized nitrogen and apparently it did not go at all as planned.
Why the end of life procedures used in Europe cannot be used in death penalty applications in the USA totally escapes me.
Why do the enthusiansia rooms not have witnesses?
Dead men tell no tales.
Murderers and rapists don’t want to go.
Cui bono. The state (euthaniasua) is not your friend.
Shhh!
“Most Gender-Confused Children Grow Out Of It, Landmark 15-Year Study Concludes”—
https://blazingcatfur.ca/2024/04/04/most-gender-confused-children-grow-out-of-it-landmark-15-year-study-concludes/
OTOH, if they’re young enough—and might just happen to express “suicidal thoughts”—might the State then be able to decide they’d be better off if they were to be sent (by the State of course) to “a better place”…i.e., before they change their not-yet-fully-formed minds?
Yep, gotta get ’em while they’re still young…
huxley, so sorry about your parents!
Aggie, You presuppose that “here we have a medical professional, apparently not laying out any alternatives, e.g. meditative, behavioral, or Eastern holistic practices as ‘worth looking into’”
Is it not likely that said professional(s) have indeed offered all of those and more, including pharmaceutical treatments?
Is it just possible that the young woman has made only half efforts at those same alternatives and just quit them. Is it remotely possible that she enjoys her depression and the sympathy it brings to her? Is it further possible that her friends are just tired of her and her melodrama, and that she sees suicide as a way back at them for failing to take her calls or reading her Facebook posts? That’ll teach them! I wonder if she is simply a narcissistic bore. I guess we’ll find out in May, if anyone remembers to check up.
Not saying clinical depression isn’t a serious problem for those who suffer it. It is real and it can be fatal as Huxley shows us. I sympathize completely. Suicide has touched a few of my friends and I’ve seen the impact on them.
I went through a period of depression in my early ’20’s lasting several years. I was able to pull myself out of it, which perhaps is the difference between depression and clinical depression. In the end it made me stronger and more empathic. I’m kinda grateful that I went through it, and glad I got through it obviously. It may have made me a better person, not that I’m that good, just maybe not as miserable as before.
Does she know she will be going to Hell? She may not believe in God but He believes in her. I pray for her healing.
I guess euthanasia on demand is the next step once murdering innocent babies is socially acceptable behavior.
Slightly off topic, but extending DisGuested’s comment “the next step once murdering innocent babies…”
Of course we now have several states passing legislation that forbid abortions after some number of weeks of pregnancy, or evidence of a heart beat, or whatever. So the murdering of innocents is still being checked or prohibited in some corners.
But what I do not understand is in those states passing this legislation that they cannot provide language to allow doctors* to terminate a pregnancy under those (presumably now very ) rare cases where the life of the mother is at risk, or the fetus is clearly dying or will not live as a baby after birth. The doctors that might help in those rare cases shy from that duty because of poorly written laws that might put them and their professional assessment at legal risk. This ends up leading to ammunition for the pro-choice side, and should be an unnecessary result if someone is giving these laws the full attention for intended and unintended consequences that they deserve.
*Even if they are requiring more than one doctor to assess her health status to obtain the final decision, which is probably a good idea, too.