[Euthanasia in The Netherlands: slippery slope?]

Of all medical procedures euthanasia is surely the most fearful, involving as it does the deliberate ending of a human life. Yet after 1975 there was growing unease about the medical treatment of dying patients, resulting in requests to stop useless treatments and end a patient's life as a way out of unbearable suffering. The actual practice of euthanasia went through many stages. The slippery slope question is very astute: over the years new groups of suffering persons emerged who considered themselves eligible. Next to terminal patients came patients with chronic diseases, psychiatric patients, people suffering from dementia in the early stages, and dementia in the later stages. In spite of many misgivings, there is the fact that for the first time in history people have the possibility to leave life when it has become unbearable, in open communication with their loved ones.