Thread: Belgian euthanasia nurses 'fail to get consent

Belgian euthanasia nurses 'fail to get consent
By Simon Caldwell, The Daily Telegraph

June 9, 2010


Almost half of deaths by euthanasia in Belgium have involved patients who have not explicitly requested their lives to be ended by a doctor, a study has suggested.


A fifth of nurses interviewed by researchers admitted that they had been involved in the euthanasia of a patient based on the "assumption" they would want to die. Nearly half of the nurses - 120 of 248 - admitted they had taken part in "terminations without request or consent".


Euthanasia has been legal in Belgium since 2002. It accounts for two per cent of all deaths annually. The law states that patient consent must be given and that doctors must carry out the procedure. But the study published in the Canadian Medical Association Journal shows that the rules are routinely flouted and shows how doctors often delegate the administering of fatal drugs to nurses.


The study states: "By administering the life-ending drugs in some of the cases of euthanasia, and in almost half of the cases without an explicit request from the patient, the nurses in our study operated beyond the legal margins of their profession."


Dr Peter Saunders, of the anti-euthanasia charity Care Not Killing, said: "We should take warning from this that wherever you draw the line people will go up to it and beyond it."

http://www.vancouversun.com/health/Belg ... z0qYIpC3x4

I have to wonder what nurse would open divulge Illegally murdering killing people? Anyone can make claims...