The Dutch government intends to draft a law that would legalise assisted suicide for people who feel they have "completed life" but are not necessarily terminally ill.

 

荷兰政府计划起草一项法案，让那些感到“人生完整”但不一定处在绝症晚期的人可以合法进行安乐死。

 

The Netherlands was the first country to legalise euthanasia, in 2002, but only for patients who were considered to be suffering unbearable¹ pain with no hope of a cure.

 

But in a letter to parliament on Wednesday, the health and justice ministers said that people who "have a well-considered opinion that their life is complete, must, under strict and careful criteria², be allowed to finish that life in a manner dignified³ for them".

 

The proposal is likely to provoke critics who say the scope of Dutch euthanasia policy has already expanded beyond its original boundaries, with "unbearable suffering" not only applying to people with terminal diseases but also to some with mental illnesses and dementia.

 

The euthanasia policy has widespread backing in Dutch society, and cases have risen by double digits⁴ every year for more than a decade as more patients request it and more doctors are willing to carry it out. Euthanasia accounted for 5,516 deaths in the Netherlands in 2015, or 3.9% of all deaths nationwide.

 

Edith Schippers, the health minister, wrote in the letter that "because the wish for a self-chosen end of life primarily occurs in the elderly, the new system will be limited to" them.

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