Q: What is the lesson of the Netherlands on assisted suicide?
A: For years Dutch courts have allowed physicians to practice euthanasia and assisted suicide with impunity, supposedly only in cases where desperately ill patients have unbearable suffering. In a few years, however, Dutch policy and practice have expanded to allow the killing of people with disabilities or even physically healthy people with psychological distress; thousands of patients have been killed by their doctors without their request. The Dutch example teaches us that the "slippery slope" is very real.