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Dutch media blast Santorum comments on euthanasia

Political Notebook

THIS STORY APPEARED IN

February 23, 2012

Republican presidential candidate, former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum… (AP )

Comments that Rick Santorum made about euthanasia in the Netherlands have caused a stir in the Dutch media, largely because the figures Santorum used appear to be either exaggerated or outdated and other allegations he makes about the practice are not backed by evidence.

Earlier this month, the presidential candidate and former senator from Pennsylvania brought up the subject at the American Heartland Forum with conservative leader James Dobson. “They have voluntary euthanasia in the Netherlands, but half the people who are euthanized every year, and it’s 10 percent of all deaths, half of those people are euthanized involuntarily in hospitals, because they are older and sick,’’ Santorum said. “So elderly people in the Netherlands don’t go to the hospital. They go to another country. Because they’re afraid because of budget purposes they will not come out of that hospital if they go in with sickness.’’

He said the Dutch wear bracelets saying “Don’t euthanize me.’’

Dutch news sources have picked up the story and reacted with outrage. “Rick Santorum Thinks He Knows the Netherlands: Murder of the Elderly on a Grand Scale,’’ read a headline in the daily newspaper NRC Handelsblad.

The Santorum campaign did not respond to a request for documentation of Santorum’s claims. But independent sources show the number of euthanasia cases appears to be much lower than Santorum suggested.

Euthanasia and physician-assisted suicide became legal in the Netherlands in 2002, in cases of “unbearable suffering.’’ (In euthanasia, a doctor gives a patient a life-ending medicine; in physician-assisted suicide, a patient takes the medication himself.)

The New England Journal of Medicine published an article in 2007 studying the impact of the new law. It found that in 2005, 1.7 percent of all deaths in the Netherlands were by euthanasia, and 0.1 percent were by physician-assisted suicide. Of all deaths, 0.4 percent were lives ended without an explicit request by the patient. (In most cases, the decision was made after talking to family members and/or medical colleagues.)

The study found that the new law actually led to a slight decrease in the number of euthanasia deaths, which had accounted for 2.6 percent of all deaths in 2001. In 2001, 0.7 percent of all deaths were from euthanasia done without an explicit request from the patient.

One Dutch news site cited statistics showing that around 2.3 percent of deaths in 2010 were by euthanasia. By law, doctors must report all euthanasia deaths to a review committee.