{"id":225984,"date":"2020-06-23T12:45:31","date_gmt":"2020-06-23T17:45:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.liveaction.org\/news\/?p=225984"},"modified":"2020-06-22T18:22:18","modified_gmt":"2020-06-22T23:22:18","slug":"dutch-doctor-killed-patient-family-held-comes-forward","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/dutch-doctor-killed-patient-family-held-comes-forward\/","title":{"rendered":"Dutch doctor who killed elderly patient as family held her down comes forward"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>

The Dutch doctor who forcibly euthanized an elderly patient<\/a>\u00a0in 2017 as the patient fought for her life is speaking out. Marinou Arends, who until now had remained anonymous, instructed the woman’s family to hold her down as she resisted euthanasia, and now has come forward to defend her decision, which caused international controversy.<\/p>\n

Arends, a retired geriatric physician, spoke to Dutch news outlet Niewsuur<\/a> about how and why she killed the elderly woman. Arends admitted that the patient said she didn’t want to die multiple times<\/em>, yet she still believes killing her against her will was the right course of action.<\/p>\n

In the patient’s advance directive<\/a>, she said she wanted to be euthanized if she was admitted to a nursing home due to dementia, and<\/em>\u00a0if she thought the time was right. But Arends ignored the patient’s repeated insistence that she wasn’t ready to die.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is good to get the confirmation: \u2018do it, just do it\u2019,\u201d Arends said in the interview<\/a>. \u201cShe said twenty times a day that she wanted to die, but if you asked her: \u2018What would you think if I helped you to die?\u2019 she would look at me, bewildered and say: \u2018That\u2019s going a bit far.\u2019\u201d Arends said she asked three times, and got a refusal each time — but instead of respecting the woman’s wishes, she decided that she must be mentally incompetent, and moved forward with euthanasia anyway, with the patient’s husband’s permission.<\/p>\n

READ:\u00a0Dutch court expands euthanasia law to include patients with advanced dementia<\/a><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cIt was tremendously difficult, but for the best,” Arends said. “I believed I was working within the boundaries of the law. I believed that her suffering was awful, and I knew that it could last a long time.” When Arends committed the euthanasia, she didn’t tell the patient what she was about to do; instead, she put a sedative in the woman’s coffee first. When the patient refused the drink it, and struggled against the procedure, Arends instructed the woman’s family to physically hold her down as she resisted.<\/p>\n

A Dutch panel initially cleared Arends<\/a> of any wrongdoing, though she did eventually face charges<\/a>. Yet she was acquitted by Judge Marriette Renckens, and the people in the courtroom applauded<\/a> when the verdict was announced.<\/p>\n

That Arends doesn’t believe she’s done anything wrong is a disturbing sign of how far the Netherlands has fallen in regards to euthanasia. The number of people with mental illness, psychiatric disorders, and disabilities euthanized in the Netherlands has been steadily rising<\/a>. As Arends showed, it’s become acceptable for doctors to make their own value judgments about whether or not someone’s life is worth living. And if they decide their lives aren’t<\/em> worth living, then their patients can be killed with no consequences or repercussions.<\/p>\n

\u201cLike\u201d Live Action News on Facebook<\/a>\u00a0for more pro-life news and commentary!<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Dutch doctor who forcibly euthanized an elderly patient\u00a0in 2017 as the patient fought for her life is speaking out. Marinou Arends, who until now had remained anonymous, instructed the woman’s family to hold her down as she resisted euthanasia, and now has come forward to defend her decision, which caused international controversy. Arends, a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":225985,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false},"categories":[5,4,3473],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\nDutch doctor who killed elderly patient as family held her down comes forward<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The Dutch doctor who forcibly euthanized an elderly patient\u00a0in 2017 as the patient fought for her life is now speaking out.\" \/>\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-doctor-killed-patient-family-held-comes-forward\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Dutch doctor who killed elderly patient as family held her down comes forward\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The Dutch doctor who forcibly euthanized an elderly patient\u00a0in 2017 as the patient fought for her life is now speaking out.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/dutch-doctor-killed-patient-family-held-comes-forward\/\" \/>\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=\"2020-06-23T17:45:31+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2020-06-22T23:22:18+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/Screenshot-from-YouTube.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1100\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"600\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Cassy Cooke\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@liveaction\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@liveaction\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Cassy Cooke\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/dutch-doctor-killed-patient-family-held-comes-forward\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/dutch-doctor-killed-patient-family-held-comes-forward\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Cassy Cooke\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/16622da192101346f516b7444d125392\"},\"headline\":\"Dutch doctor who killed elderly patient as family held her down comes forward\",\"datePublished\":\"2020-06-23T17:45:31+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2020-06-22T23:22:18+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/dutch-doctor-killed-patient-family-held-comes-forward\/\"},\"wordCount\":487,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/#organization\"},\"articleSection\":[\"International\",\"Issues\",\"Newsbreak\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/dutch-doctor-killed-patient-family-held-comes-forward\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/dutch-doctor-killed-patient-family-held-comes-forward\/\",\"name\":\"Dutch doctor who killed elderly patient as family held her down comes forward\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2020-06-23T17:45:31+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2020-06-22T23:22:18+00:00\",\"description\":\"The Dutch doctor who forcibly euthanized an elderly patient\u00a0in 2017 as the patient fought for her life is now speaking out.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/dutch-doctor-killed-patient-family-held-comes-forward\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/dutch-doctor-killed-patient-family-held-comes-forward\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/dutch-doctor-killed-patient-family-held-comes-forward\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Dutch doctor who killed elderly patient as family held her down comes forward\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/\",\"name\":\"Live Action News\",\"description\":\"Covering Human Rights, Abortion, & Pro-Life Issues\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/#organization\",\"name\":\"Live Action\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/Live-Action-Logo-Black.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/Live-Action-Logo-Black.png\",\"width\":701,\"height\":710,\"caption\":\"Live Action\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/liveaction\",\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/liveaction\",\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/liveactionorg\/\",\"https:\/\/www.pinterest.com\/LiveActionFilms\/\",\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/user\/LiveActionFilms\"]},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/16622da192101346f516b7444d125392\",\"name\":\"Cassy Cooke\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/8b602f8210f1a7d948ca1c0dcab11fad?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/8b602f8210f1a7d948ca1c0dcab11fad?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Cassy Cooke\"},\"description\":\"Cassy has over 20 years of experience as a writer and editor, most of which have been spent covering pro-life issues like abortion, disability rights, euthanasia, and more.\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/author\/cassy-fiano\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Dutch doctor who killed elderly patient as family held her down comes forward","description":"The Dutch doctor who forcibly euthanized an elderly patient\u00a0in 2017 as the patient fought for her life is now speaking out.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/dutch-doctor-killed-patient-family-held-comes-forward\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Dutch doctor who killed elderly patient as family held her down comes forward","og_description":"The Dutch doctor who forcibly euthanized an elderly patient\u00a0in 2017 as the patient fought for her life is now speaking out.","og_url":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/dutch-doctor-killed-patient-family-held-comes-forward\/","og_site_name":"Live Action News","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/liveaction","article_published_time":"2020-06-23T17:45:31+00:00","article_modified_time":"2020-06-22T23:22:18+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1100,"height":600,"url":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/Screenshot-from-YouTube.png","type":"image\/png"}],"author":"Cassy Cooke","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@liveaction","twitter_site":"@liveaction","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Cassy Cooke","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/dutch-doctor-killed-patient-family-held-comes-forward\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/dutch-doctor-killed-patient-family-held-comes-forward\/"},"author":{"name":"Cassy Cooke","@id":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/16622da192101346f516b7444d125392"},"headline":"Dutch doctor who killed elderly patient as family held her down comes forward","datePublished":"2020-06-23T17:45:31+00:00","dateModified":"2020-06-22T23:22:18+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/dutch-doctor-killed-patient-family-held-comes-forward\/"},"wordCount":487,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/#organization"},"articleSection":["International","Issues","Newsbreak"],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/dutch-doctor-killed-patient-family-held-comes-forward\/","url":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/dutch-doctor-killed-patient-family-held-comes-forward\/","name":"Dutch doctor who killed elderly patient as family held her down comes forward","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/#website"},"datePublished":"2020-06-23T17:45:31+00:00","dateModified":"2020-06-22T23:22:18+00:00","description":"The Dutch doctor who forcibly euthanized an elderly patient\u00a0in 2017 as the patient fought for her life is now speaking out.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/dutch-doctor-killed-patient-family-held-comes-forward\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/dutch-doctor-killed-patient-family-held-comes-forward\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/dutch-doctor-killed-patient-family-held-comes-forward\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Dutch doctor who killed elderly patient as family held her down comes forward"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/#website","url":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/","name":"Live Action News","description":"Covering Human Rights, Abortion, & Pro-Life Issues","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/#organization","name":"Live Action","url":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/Live-Action-Logo-Black.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/Live-Action-Logo-Black.png","width":701,"height":710,"caption":"Live Action"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/liveaction","https:\/\/twitter.com\/liveaction","https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/liveactionorg\/","https:\/\/www.pinterest.com\/LiveActionFilms\/","https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/user\/LiveActionFilms"]},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/16622da192101346f516b7444d125392","name":"Cassy Cooke","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/8b602f8210f1a7d948ca1c0dcab11fad?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/8b602f8210f1a7d948ca1c0dcab11fad?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Cassy Cooke"},"description":"Cassy has over 20 years of experience as a writer and editor, most of which have been spent covering pro-life issues like abortion, disability rights, euthanasia, and more.","url":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/author\/cassy-fiano\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/225984"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=225984"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/225984\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":226041,"href":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/225984\/revisions\/226041"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/225985"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=225984"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=225984"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=225984"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}