A significant moment.
An alcoholic who felt he could no longer live with his condition has been allowed to die in the Netherlands under the country’s euthanasia laws.
The news first came to light in the magazine, Linda, when Marcel Langedijk wrote an emotive piece about his brother Mark’s decision to end his life following a long battle with alcohol addiction.
Mark had been struggling with his addiction for eight gruelling years and he said he wanted to end his life following 21 hospital and rehab admissions, insisting to his doctor: “I want to die, enough is enough.”
According to Marcel, Mark chose the day he wanted to die and was with his family at home when the doctor gave the lethal injection.
Under euthanasia laws in the Netherlands, euthanasia by doctors is only legal in cases of “hopeless and unbearable” suffering.
Marcel discussed the emotional moment his brother approached him about his choice.
“But, Mark said, he had to find a solution. And he had found [sic]. That’s why he wanted to speak to us again recently, he nevertheless sought contact. It was important, he said, and we needed to know. Because he wanted to die. That was the solution, its solution: euthanasia.
“As with everything he had said in recent years, we took it with a grain of salt. A hefty grain. Euthanasia was for people with cancer, people who unbearable members, for whom death was already imminent. Euthanasia was certainly not alcoholics.
“Only when I saw him sitting at our home on the couch, I knew it was serious. My mother held him. He fared pain, moaned, puking, shaking. The remedy proved a glass of vodka. And another one. An alcoholic who does not drink, get withdrawal symptoms that result in a seizure. To put it flat: Mark had to keep drinking. “This is no life,” he said. I stood there and cried some.”
In 2015, more than 5,500 people in the Netherlands ended their lives under the euthanasia laws.
The current law in The Netherlands states: Euthanasia and assisted suicide are legal only if the criteria laid down in the Dutch Termination of Life on Request and Assisted Suicide (Review Procedures) Act are fully observed. Only then is the physician concerned immune from criminal prosecution.
Requests for euthanasia often come from patients experiencing unbearable suffering with no prospect of improvement. Their request must be made earnestly and with full conviction. They see euthanasia as the only escape from the situation. However, patients have no absolute right to euthanasia and doctors no absolute duty to perform it.
LISTEN: You Must Be Jokin’ with Aideen McQueen – Faith healers, Coolock craic and Gigging as Gaeilge
