Dutch activists sue government over assisted suicide
Campaigners calling for the decriminalization of assisted suicide in the Netherlands have taken the Dutch government to court arguing that its ban on helping a person end their life breaches human rights norms
THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) — Campaigners calling for the decriminalization of assisted suicide in the Netherlands took the Dutch government to court Monday, arguing that its ban on helping a person end their life breaches human rights norms.
The case at The Hague District Court is the latest legal battle in a long-running debate around end-of-life issues in the country that in 2002 became the first in the world to pass a law that decriminalized euthanasia.
A group called Cooperative Last Will asked the court to declare that the Dutch state is “acting unlawfully by denying its citizens the right to die with dignity under their own control.”
Euthanasia involves doctors — under strict conditions — actively killing patients with an injection of drugs. In assisted dying, patients are provided with a lethal substance that they take themselves.
