This week – Tuesday April 26, 2016 – the Dutch Review Committee published their 2015 numbers. Main outcome is that the raise in numbers was 4% (in contrast to 2014 when the raise was 9% and 2013 when it was 13%). 5516 (2014: 5306) cases were reported. The number of euthanasia with dementia (2015: 109; 2014: 81) and psychiatry (2015: 56; 2014: 41) again rose. Jacob Kohnstamm (the new chair of the Review Committees) told the press when presenting the report: ” What catches the eye is that the death rate was sharply higher (147,000) than last year in 2014 (139,000). However, you can see that the number of euthanasia notifications has risen less than the number of deaths. Of the more than 5500 euthanasia are in 1 percent of cases to people with a psychiatric condition, 2 percent relates to dementia notifications. Based on the figures from this report you cannot draw the conclusion that we are, with our euthanasia practice, moving on a slippery slope.”
More details will be published on this site as soon as possible.
Neil Francis made for his newsblog a very clear report card. Read it here.