Professor Theo Boer:

The Deputy mentioned that the numbers in Switzerland are not skyrocketing. I would be interested in Mr. Luley's view on that. The numbers may be going up but they are not skyrocketing. I believe that is because it is assisted suicide, which is a form of suicide, and suicide is perhaps the single most difficult thing a person can ever do in his or her life, getting married being the second most difficult. The reason the numbers are skyrocketing in Belgium, the Netherlands and Canada - 7.5% of deaths in Quebec are now the result of euthanasia - is that, as soon as the doctor takes over the primary responsibility, it becomes a lot less hard. I believe this difference is down to it being suicide rather than euthanasia in Switzerland. The other question about my intuition is a very good one and I thank the Deputy.

Emotions have the wrong place in many of our debates because they seem to be decisive and we need a bit more common sense. However, in ethics, intuition is defined as a moral view that is pre-reflective. It is the gut feeling - the feeling that something may be wrong. In all ethical traditions, that has been a source of ethical value finding. It is a case of "this may be wrong because it feels wrong".

A question was asked about my intuition about prolonging life. This is not equally wrong but it is also wrong. The vast support for euthanasia in the Netherlands is based on the fact that there is too much over-treatment. Along with some colleagues from the US and the Netherlands, I am writing a book about over-treatment. This is an unpaid bill for society. Let me be clear. I have seen dozens of cases where a person ordered euthanasia, which was to take place in two or three weeks time, but he or she would still get flu shots and antibiotics when he or she had pneumonia and use all means to prolong his or her life. I have seen several cases where euthanasia took place because a person was absolutely mad that the doctors had ignored his or her advance directive not to be resuscitated in cases of stroke or heart failure. In the western world, we should all start by acknowledging that at a certain age and a certain stage in illness, we should be very reticent to treat and should instead accept that life is taking its natural course towards an end instead of endlessly prolonging it.