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In Holland, "Extreme" Ringing in the Ears Is Grounds for Euthanasia

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Now, in the Netherlands, a woman was lethally injected because of severe tinnitus. From the DutchNews.nl story:

A special clinic in The Hague, set up to help people whose doctors do not support euthanasia, has been reprimanded for helping a 47-year-old woman with chronic tinnitus to die, broadcaster Nos says on Monday. The independent commission charged with monitoring how Dutch euthanasia rules are applied recognises that extreme tinnitus could be a reason for mercy killing but said Gaby Olthuis should have undergone further psychiatric research.

The story mentions a potential prosecution. That threat has no teeth. I recall one case in which a doctor killed a disabled baby — murder under Netherlander law — and received a three-week suspended sentence. Ditto a doctor who euthanized an anorexia patient — and the medical association was up in arms.

I have moderate tinnitus. It ain’t fun. And I am sure louder ringing than I currently experience would be very disturbing. But killed for it?

Euthanasia is a voracious beast, its hunger never assuaged.

Image credit: takomabibelot/Flickr.

Wesley J. Smith

Chair and Senior Fellow, Center on Human Exceptionalism
Wesley J. Smith is Chair and Senior Fellow at the Discovery Institute’s Center on Human Exceptionalism. Wesley is a contributor to National Review and is the author of 14 books, in recent years focusing on human dignity, liberty, and equality. Wesley has been recognized as one of America’s premier public intellectuals on bioethics by National Journal and has been honored by the Human Life Foundation as a “Great Defender of Life” for his work against suicide and euthanasia. Wesley’s most recent book is Culture of Death: The Age of “Do Harm” Medicine, a warning about the dangers to patients of the modern bioethics movement.

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