The euthanasia is widely discussed subject in Lithuania as all over the World, but people barely know how it is performed in the country where this kind of practice has been done for more than 25 years: the Netherlands.

The Netherlands sometimes is considered to be the country of dreams, where everything is possible, everything is legal. Only in the Netherlands one can freely go to prostitutes, smoke drugs such as marihuana, hashish or eat drug mushrooms. In Holland one can die when he wants, when there is no more hope to live. These three are the main myths about wonderland called Netherlands, but none of them reflect the real problems of prostitution, legal drugs and euthanasia. The euthanasia is probably the mostly controversial phenomenon in Dutch society, not speaking about the rest of the world. The main discussion is of course about morality and eternal question: has a man right to take away the life of another man? There is no need to go deeper to this discussion, because every person can make their own decisions together with truths they believe in. But what is the truth about euthanasia? What is euthanasia? How it is done in the Netherlands? Firstly it is necessary to define the euthanasia. The ancient Greek word eu - thanatos means "a gentle and easy death", but by any means this is not a definition of modern euthanasia. Netherlands State Commission on Euthanasia gives a definition: "the intentional termination of life by another at the explicit request of the person who dies". This definition is more or less right while speaking about voluntarily euthanasia. This voluntarism separates euthanasia both from mercy killing or any form of killing, because the death act is performed on request of a patient. The other form of euthanasia is so called "assisted suicide" when doctor only helps or instruct the patient who is definitely going to die how to commit unpainful suicide. Basically these two terms refer to euthanasia without making too many differences between each other. Let’s see how all the procedure of euthanasia works in the Netherlands. Holland has a very well developed social security system and social welfare, so mostly all Dutch have their own practitioners or in other words family doctors, who are well acquainted with their patient’s decease history etc. If the person is ill and wants to commit euthanasia act, the firs person who decide is his or her doctor. The doctor meets a lot of requirements: the request must be well considered, the wish for death is durable, the patient is in unacceptable suffering, he or she has to consult a colleague who agrees the proposed course of action. It is not possible to perform euthanasia without the opinion of other doctor whether patient’s decease is truly incurable or there is no medicine, which could help at least to decrease pain. If one colleague does not agree that euthanasia is inevitable and the best way, the patients practitioner can ask another colleagues opinion. If patient is not capable of logical thinking and cannot express the wish "to die peacefully and in dignity" the opinion of two doctors is needed, one of them must be psychiatrist. If the patient’s practitioner is not approving the euthanasia as a patient’s choice, he or she can change the practitioner to one who is willing to help in performing the euthanasia. The euthanasia can be performed in several ways. One is lethal injection of poison, another - overdose of medicine, killing pain, let’s say morphine or antibiotics. If the patient is connected to artificial breathing apparatus, doctor can disconnect him; the same could be done with other life keeping apparatuses. The patient himself can commit assisted suicide, doctor just prescribes some poison and patient can inject himself or herself; the most popular way to commit assisted suicide is to put the plastic bag with carbon monoxide (CO) on mouth and breath until person dies. Doctor show how to press the bag that there always be only monoxide in the breathing organs. After committing euthanasia doctor has to report authorities about committing the euthanasia. He or she has to write the exhaustive history of patient’s decease and death. Afterward the doctor faces the examining commission, which decide whether all requirements were met: if patient requested to die in writing more than two times, if there certainly was not a medicine to cure or at least kill pain etc. Afterward the commission reports to local attorney. In the last phrase the doctor faces the most serious problem: did he or she do everything according to rules and if not is she or he going to prison, because euthanasia as other forms of taking away the person’s life, except suicide, is ILLEGAL in the Netherlands. Then the question arises how it can be practiced for more than 25 years? Here the Dutch tolerance policy (gedogen beleid) plays a huge role. In society a lot of things are accepted until they do not disturb ones life. That does not mean that everything is possible, because people have their own beliefs and moral codes and cannot accept everything what is happening around. For example one Dutch do not justify the euthanasia. He thinks, that only God has the right to take away the life, not doctor who is man, but he does nothing in order to stop it, he does not complain to somebody, because this man accepts the things, which are probably good for some groups of society, that means to the society as such. This argument is the main in legal circles, where so called "expediency principle" is applied. In the court the judge can decide whether prosecute the doctor who committed the euthanasia or not even though the Dutch penal code is clear and strict: 12 years in prison for taking away the life of person with or without his or her request. If euthanasia is performed according to all rules, the punishment is not applied and doctor can do his job after this. If doctor jeopardized a little bit, his or her doctor license can be taken away or suspended. In case of serious violations of rules doctor goes to prison. The firs case of euthanasia: In 1971, Drs. Geertruida Postma injected a patient, her mother, with morphine and curare, resulting in the patient’s death. The patient had suffered a brain hemorrhage, was partly deaf, had difficulty speaking, and had to be tied to a chair to avoid falling. On a number of occasions she asked her daughter to end her life. Drs. Postma was charged under Article 293 of the Dutch Penal Code. In 1973, the Leeuwarden criminal court found Drs. Postma guilty but only ordered a one-week suspended sentence and one year’s probation. The court indicated that it was possible to administer pain-relieving drugs leading to the death of the patient in certain circumstances provided the goal of treatment was the relief of physical or psychological pain arising from an incurable terminal illness. In this case, however, Drs. Postma’s primary goal was to cause the death of the patient. This case is alike to recent case of "euthanasia" in Lithuania where mother, being a medic, gave a lethal injection to her 90% burned son and afterwards tried to kill herself in the same way, but colleagues saved her and she was prosecuted as for a murder. It is clear that euthanasia is not very simple action to perform. It is not only lethal injection or disconnecting from life maintenance machines. It has to do with a huge bureaucratic apparatus and actually doctor is guilty for letting people die in peace and dignity surrounded by loving families. By the way Netherlands is not the only country where euthanasia is practiced legally. A few years ago something similar was introduced in one Australian state. Some US states has assisted suicide practices also. When is it coming to Lithuania?