Euthanasia

The Guidelines in the Netherlands

Read the guidelines and complete the missing words/phrases.

In the Netherlands there is an unusual situation.

Although euthanasia is illegal there, doctors are not _________ if they follow special euthanasia guidelines.

These guidelines were made as _________ of a famous trial in 1973.

A doctor gave a fatal injection to her sick mother. The mother was in great pain and wanted to die. Many people believed that the doctor had done the _________ thing.

However, under the law, the court had no choice: it had to find the doctor _________.

She was given a suspended sentence of one week in prison.

The guidelines say that the person who is going to die:

must completely _________ what will happen;
must know about all other kinds of _________;
must freely repeat their _________ over a period of time;
must be _________ from something that will not stop or go away.

In addition: A second doctor, (not the doctor who will perform the euthanasia) must _________ that euthanasia is acceptable in that particular case.

After the patient has died, the doctor who _________ the euthanasia must complete a long questionnaire.

When the patient is dead, a coroner must _________ the body and check the facts of the case.

Finally, after all this has been done, the Ministry of Justice can decide to _________, if it is not satisfied.

PROSECUTE (v): officially charge with a crime.

FATAL (adj): leading to someone's death.

An INJECTION is a way of using a special needle to give somebody a drug.

A SENTENCE is the punishment decided by a court.

If a judge SUSPENDS a sentence, the judge decides that the person does not actually have to receive the punishment.

TREATMENT (n): a way of trying to make a sick person better.

QUESTIONNAIRE (n): a list of written questions for the purpose of gathering information.

The MINISTRY OF JUSTICE: In many countries, the part of government that deals with enforcing the laws.

This information comes from the article "A Careful Death" by Dinyar Godrej which appeared in the April 1997 issue of the New Internationalist. Copyright 1997, 1998: the New Internationalist

The New Internationalist in Easier English

Exercise contributed by Frankie Meehan