Photo Gallery Mobile Suicide Teams in the Netherlands
The Netherlands legalized euthanasia 10 years ago. However, there are a number of legal requirements that need to be met for its approval. Dutch physicians performed euthanasia over 3,000 times in 2010. Roughly three times as many patients had requested that their lives be put to an end, but many primary care physicians turned down these appeals.
Petra de Jong is a physician who directs Right to Die-NL, which calls itslef the world's largest association advocating voluntary euthanasia. In early March, the NVVE opened the world's first euthanasia clinic. It's called the Levenseindekliniek, the "end of life clinic." It serves as a point of contact for all Dutch people who want to die but don't have a primary care physician prepared to help them do so.
In addition to the clinic, seen here at The Hague, the organization has also formed mobile euthanasia teams, each of which includes a doctor and a nurse who visit homes and inject lethal drugs into patients wishing to die. But the largest professional medical organization in the Netherlands, the Royal Dutch Medical Association (KNMG), believes that the introduction of mobile euthanasia takes things a step too far.
