Euthanasia Guidelines at the time of Jose's death

In the Netherlands there is an unusual situation. Although euthanasia is illegal there, doctors are not prosecuted if they follow special euthanasia guidelines.

These guidelines were made as the result 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 right thing. However, under the law, the court had no choice: it had to find the doctor guilty. She was given a suspended sentence of one week in prison.

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.

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

• must completely understand what will happen;
• must know about all other kinds of treatment;
• must freely repeat their wish to die over a period of time;
• must be suffering from something that will not stop or go away.

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

In addition:

• A second doctor, (not the doctor who will perform the euthanasia) must agree that euthanasia is acceptable in that particular case.
• After the patient has died, the doctor who performed the euthanasia must complete a long questionnaire.
• When the patient is dead, a coroner must look at the body and check the facts of the case.

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

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.