The media are usually clueless and hopeless when it comes to reporting stories about euthanasia, cloning, stem cell research, Terri Schiavo, and the like, accurately. They either misstate facts or omit information that is crucial to understanding the story. Sometimes, I think it is bias. Sometimes, I think it is ignorance. This AP story seems to be in the latter category.
The story is about Dutch infanticide. It claims that euthanasia is restricted to the terminally ill, which has never been true. It claims that patients are supposed to repeatedly ask for euthanasia, which is true, without mentioning that this requirement is routinely ignored without consequence. Thus, repeated government studies demonstrate that between 900-1000 patients are killed by doctors who have not requested euthanasia each year. It even has a name; “termination without request or consent.”
And, it states that infanticide is just coming into the discussion, which is pure manure since Dutch medical associations have advocated it for years and the practice has even been featured in Dutch Government documentaries from more than ten years ago!
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