By a 46-28 vote Tuesday evening, the Dutch Senate enacted a law that made the Netherlands the first country to legalize mercy killings and assisted suicides for patients suffering unbearably with no hope of relief. It was the final legislative act in a 30-year public discussion over euthanasia, and brings into the open what has been discreetly practiced and tolerated for years. The bill passed through the lower house by an even larger margin last November. It becomes law after it is signed by Queen Beatrix and published in legal documents, probably within a few weeks. Before the bill was adopted, doctors conducted an estimated 5,000 mercy killings a year in the Netherlands, but only a handful have prosecuted in recent years for misconduct.
Surveys show that doctors refuse far more requests to assist suicides than they accept.
As the upper house debated the bill, about 10,000 anti-euthanasia activists gathered outside the legislature in a final show of dissent. Despite the unusually large protest, the bill elicited little comment in Dutch newspapers Wednesday. An editorial in the Amsterdam daily Trouw said public opinion was still too divided to speak of a consensus. But the national daily Volkskrant said the law sanctioned common practice and eliminated a legal gray area. Before the vote, Health Minister Els Borst reassured legislators the bill could not be abused by doctors because of careful supervisory provisions.