Title: Dying Dutch: Euthanasia Spreads Across Europe
Headings: Dying Dutch: Euthanasia Spreads Across Europe
Newsweek Magazine
Dying Dutch: Euthanasia Spreads Across Europe
Give Me Liberty, Give Me Death
The Wrong Way to Die
Death Is Contagious
Doubts and Double Suicides
Who's Ready to Die?

Content: Since Maynard died on November 1, lawmakers in six states have proposed right-to-die laws, and politicians have promised to do so in eight others. A Gallup poll conducted last May showed that nearly seven in 10 Americans believe physicians should be able to "legally end a patient's life by some painless means." The figure has bounced between 65 and 75 percent since 1996, after a steady climb from 36 percent in 1950. The march toward euthanasia mirrors a trend spanning continents today: a growing number of countries are placing more value on individual freedom. This worries religious leaders, ethicists and disability advocates. Assisted suicide may ease suffering, they say, but it threatens our most vulnerable citizens—the elderly and the disabled, who already struggle to justify their lives. " I like autonomy very much," says Theo Boer, a professor of ethics at the Theological University Kampen in the Netherlands. " But it seems to have overruled other values, like solidarity, patience, making the best of things. The risk now is that people no longer search for a way to endure their suffering.