Strafbaarstelling van euthanasie
With the Dutch euthanasia law in 2002, the doctor was given a statutory ground for criminal exclusion regarding euthanasia. In principle, a doctor cannot be criminally prosecuted if the Regional Euthanasia Review Committee judges that the doctor has met the due care criteria. The first two requirements carry the most weight in criminal law: an explicit and well-considered request from the patient and the existence of hopeless and unbearable suffering. If the doctor does not meet these criteria, prosecution is conceivable. However, it rarely came to that. Does this mean that criminal law has nothing more to say in this matter and euthanasia should be legalised? That question is examined from various perspectives: the Dutch historical and legal perspective, the international human rights perspective, the criminal law enforcement perspective and a normative perspective inspired by the philosophy of Emmanuel Levinas. This thesis advocates the application of proportional criminal law and a normative framework. It becomes clear that even the legislature in 2002 used normative principles and drew boundaries. However, under the influence of the normalisation of euthanasia and the interpretation of open norms, these boundaries seem to be out of the picture, which poses risks for a careful euthanasia practice. This thesis, to be used as a handbook for professionals, outlines a way forward for this: organising supervision of the review practice, application of the safety principle and the reappraisal of criminal law enforcement for the two most important due care criteria. After this, criminal law can be moderated for the remaining criteria.