Previously, because euthanasia was prohibited in the Penal Code, the physician had to prove that he/she had fulfilled the requirements. Under the new arrangements, the Public Prosecutor has to prove that the physician has not fulfilled the requirements, in order to start prosecution. This is a significant shift.

Euthanasia in the Netherlands has gone from requiring terminal illness to no physical illness at all, from physical suffering to depression only, from conscious patients to unconscious, from those who can consent to those who cannot, and from being a measure of last resort to one of early intervention.

Advocates of legalised euthanasia almost always insist that they only want voluntary euthanasia (VE) a they say they are as opposed to the taking of life without the subjects knowledge or consent, that is, non-voluntary euthanasia (NVE), as anyone else.

Here is an explanation of common terms used during end-of-life discussions.

The most effective weapons in the pro-assisted-suicide arsenal are fear-mongering, distortion, euphemism, half-truths, and lies, all deployed to the drumbeat of choice. False arguments are gladly spread by the contemporary media, which avoid depth and context, preferring 30-second sound bites, tabloidism, and soap-opera shallowness.

In reflecting on physician-assisted suicide, the first lesson for our lawmakers is that any killing motivated by a distorted sense of mercyno matter how many reasonable and honeyed words endorse itleads to killing that has nothing at all to do with the best interests of those killed.

Throughout the U.S.and Canada, hospitals and medical associations are quietly adopting formal "futile care" policies which are nothing less than the modern equivalent of exposing unwanted infants on hills and abandoning the infirm and elderly by the side of the trail.

This is a clear summary of the dangers involved in the legalization of assisted suicide.