A provision is to be included in the Netherlands Criminal Code whereby the termination of life on request and assistance with suicide would not be punishable if certain criteria of due care are fulfilled. The physician must notify his or her actions to the municipal coroner in accordance with the relevant provisions of the Burial and Cremation Act. As such, the general proposition that euthanasia and assistance with suicide are no longer punishable offences is not a correct representation of what the bill is designed to achieve. Present notification procedure Under the rules as they stand at present, termination of life on request is a criminal offence, but no prosecution is brought if certain criteria of due care have been fulfilled. The tests applied are that the patient should have made a voluntary, well-considered and lasting request, that the patient was faced with a future of unremitting and unbearable suffering, that a second physician was consulted and that the termination of life was carried out in a medically appropriate fashion.
Physicians are also under a duty to notify the authorities after a case of termination of life.
The actions of the physician are then assessed by a regional review committee to ensure that due care was observed. Finally, the opinion of the review committee is submitted to the Public Prosecutions Service, which accords great weight to it in deciding whether criminal proceedings should be brought. The new statutory rules will not make any substantive changes to the grounds on which life may be terminated on request or on which assistance with suicide are permitted. The requirements of due care have however been formulated in somewhat more detail. The five regional review committees will continue to exist under the new bill, but their role will be different.