By Terry Vanderheyden
LAUSANNE, December 19, 2005 (LifeSiteNews.com) – A leading Swiss hospital has announced it will allow doctors to kill their patients beginning in the New Year.
University hospital in Lausanne said the hospital, the first to sanction active euthanasia since the practice was legalized, argues as the Dutch did before euthanasia became legal there, that suicide should be “strictly regulated.” Abuses are, of course, rampant in the Netherlands, while 70% of terminally-ill Swiss – at least those in Zurich – already succumb to either passive (when life-sustaining nutrition and hydration is denied) or active euthanasia.
Until now, patients desiring assisted suicide had to rely on private clinics such as the notorious Dignitas, which guarantees death within 24 hours to all comers. A doctor or a member of the Swiss voluntary euthanasia society, Exit, will now be allowed to kill terminally ill patients on request. Presumably allowing hospital-based suicides will mean the practice is also publicly-funded.
Seven Out of Ten Terminally Ill People Die by Euthanasia in Switzerland
https://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2003/jun/03061907.html
Inquest Opens into Couple’s Double Suicide Death at Swiss Dignitas Facility
https://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2004/jun/04062210.html
Euthanasia Doctor Commits Suicide after Finding Patient He Killed Was Not Terminally Ill
https://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2005/nov/05112103.html