A recent report by a specialist in pain treatment, claimed that pain can no longer be seen as causing unbearable and hopeless suffering and thus as justification for euthanasia. Government Ministers Ross and Donner specifically deny that (legally speaking) Terminal Sedation (TS) or palliative care is to be considered as a real alternative to euthanasia.
The NVVE argued that pain is seldom the reason for requests for euthanasia as shown by the research results of Van der Wal and Van der Maas.
An opinion poll showed that 84% of Dutch people did not agree with the statement that now TS is possible, euthanasia should be forbidden.