{"id":218757,"date":"2020-02-20T08:37:20","date_gmt":"2020-02-20T14:37:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.liveaction.org\/news\/?p=218757"},"modified":"2020-02-18T14:46:13","modified_gmt":"2020-02-18T20:46:13","slug":"dutch-patient-angry-euthanasia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/dutch-patient-angry-euthanasia\/","title":{"rendered":"Dutch mental patient \u2018angry\u2019 doctors proposed euthanasia to her"},"content":{"rendered":"
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(LifeSiteNews<\/a>) \u201cWhat about asking for euthanasia?\u201d <\/p>\n

When Manon, a Dutch patient, heard those words six or seven years ago coming from the mouth of her umpteenth new psychiatrist, she couldn\u2019t believe her ears. It was her first consultation with a new doctor.<\/p>\n

She was hoping to find help for post-traumatic stress disorder, a condition she has been fighting for years. She certainly didn\u2019t expect to be encouraged to end her life.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was tired of living and tired of fighting,\u201d she told local media in Zwolle, in northern Netherlands.<\/p>\n

What she wanted was treatment, help and, if possible, healing. What the doctor said to her was quite the opposite. He even gave her what he considered to be good reasons for giving up. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe arguments were that he could see I was tired out, that I had gone through too much to go on like I was, that I had done everything humanly possible to treat my condition. \u2018I can write out a referral (for euthanasia) just like that. You meet the criteria,\u2019\u201d Manon said he told her, according to an article published last week by zwolle.nieuws.nl<\/a>. <\/p>\n

\u201cI was overwhelmed and angry. I couldn\u2019t believe it. I had come to see this man to get help,\u201d she explained. \u201cI was suicidal, but I was looking for the help that I had actually never obtained \u2013 help for the core of my deepest pain and sorrow, my trauma, my post-traumatic stress disorder. I had lost all belief in myself, that I wanted that back.\u201d<\/p>\n

Manon still recalls how she felt at the time. The psychiatrist\u2019s words made her ask herself if she didn\u2019t \u201cdeserve\u201d to go on living.<\/p>\n

READ: Physically healthy 23-year-old woman seeks euthanasia for mental illness<\/a><\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cIs he giving up on me, just like that?\u201d she thought: \u201cYes, I\u2019m broken, but I want to become whole again. I\u2019m asking for help to get better, not for death!\u201d<\/p>\n

This was six or seven years ago, at a time in the Netherlands when it was not yet so obvious in the medical profession that mental disorders should be \u201ctreated\u201d by euthanasia \u2013 even though unbearable mental suffering without hope of improvement is one of the accepted conditions for legal euthanasia.<\/p>\n

Apparently, at least one psychiatrist at the time \u2013 hers \u2013 was prepared to anticipate a euthanasia request that didn\u2019t even exist. Or to put it more precisely, he was willing, even eager to create that demand and to present a suicidal woman with all the \u201cgood\u201d reasons for her to choose that final solution.<\/p>\n

Manon\u2019s story is one of despair over the Dutch medical system\u2019s incapacity to offer therapeutic options.<\/p>\n

Some three years later, she told her local newspaper, she was \u201call but dead.\u201d Her post-traumatic stress disorder was not responding to standard treatment. Her psychiatrist wanted her to try ECT (electroconvulsive therapy, administered under anesthesia), something she had refused six years before because she didn\u2019t \u201cdare\u201d face this quite invasive method.<\/p>\n

This time, she was placed in a no-choice situation by her psychiatrist, who was also the head of the clinic where she was being treated. She would receive ECT. And if that didn\u2019t help? Then \u201cyou may\/will go into a euthanasia trajectory,\u201d she was told.<\/p>\n

Manon received 80 ECTs. It did not put an end to her problem and eventually had to be stopped because of digestive and liver problems linked to frequent sedation. Her depression only got marginally better.<\/p>\n

\u201cNot all that strange. ECT does no more than combat symptoms; it certainly won\u2019t help you tackle the core problem,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

What Manon wanted above all was healing, and despite her profound depression, she was prepared to go on fighting. She started a writing therapy course, and that helped. Unfortunately, her therapist left town, and for the last 16 months, she has received no therapy at all.<\/p>\n

Now, Manon is desperately \u201cshopping around,\u201d trying to find someone who will take her case. The answer is always the same. Her problem is \u201ctoo complex;\u201d she has \u201cgone through too much.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s inhuman,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

Now, this sad and suffering woman who doesn\u2019t \u201cwant to die for the moment\u201d has decided to keep the euthanasia option in the back of her mind. She is personally \u201cfor\u201d euthanasia in a general way, she told zwolle.nieuws.nl, but it needs to be \u201cwell-informed,\u201d which means not pushed on people when they are down, as happened to her.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy last hope is pinned on a trauma center with a slightly different approach,\u201d she said. \u201cIf that doesn\u2019t work, (euthanasia) will be my choice.<\/p>\n

\u201cEspecially as in the last 15 years I\u2019ve lost about 40 people through suicide, eating disorders and a few to euthanasia. Insanely many. For a few, that last option was luckily available. But it\u2019s a long trajectory. Mental suffering is extremely heavy to bear and lonely, and I hope that these waiting lists will also get shorter.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cBut I really want to live,\u201d she repeated. \u201cHow crooked the world seems to be.\u201d<\/p>\n

Her story is somewhat of a cautionary tale. It shows how the seeds of euthanasia were planted in her mind at a time when she hadn\u2019t even thought of it.<\/p>\n

Her death wish seems anything but authentic. On the contrary, Manon seems to have shown a rare fighting spirit amid all of her problems. Perhaps the psychiatrists were tired of her, instead of her being tired of living.<\/p>\n

And that is also one of the many negative sides of euthanasia. It is killing, but it also marks the death of compassion and inventiveness where the worst affected patients are concerned.<\/p>\n

In the Netherlands and Belgium, where euthanasia for psychiatric reasons is deemed legal, the list is slowly growing long of otherwise healthy men and women \u2013 especially women \u2013 who are given a fatal shot as an easy way out.<\/p>\n

Editor’s Note: This article was published at Life Site News<\/a> and is reprinted here with permission.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cLike\u201d Live Action News on Facebook<\/a> for more pro-life news and commentary!<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

(LifeSiteNews) \u201cWhat about asking for euthanasia?\u201d When Manon, a Dutch patient, heard those words six or seven years ago coming from the mouth of her umpteenth new psychiatrist, she couldn\u2019t believe her ears. It was her first consultation with a new doctor. She was hoping to find help for post-traumatic stress disorder, a condition she […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":626,"featured_media":187827,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false},"categories":[7077,5],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\nDutch mental patient 'angry' doctors proposed euthanasia to her<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Euthanasia was the option given to a Dutch woman suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder, instead of the help she was asking for.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/dutch-patient-angry-euthanasia\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Dutch mental patient 'angry' doctors proposed euthanasia to her\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Euthanasia was the option given to a Dutch woman suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder, instead of the help she was asking for.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/dutch-patient-angry-euthanasia\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Live Action News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/liveaction\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2020-02-20T14:37:20+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2020-02-18T20:46:13+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/shutterstock_1119730154-sad-woman-depressed-3.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"650\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" 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