Among the conditions, patients must face a future of unbearable, interminable suffering and must make a voluntary, well-considered request to die.
Euthanasia is commonplace in the Netherlands, and the legal criteria are utterly subjective: "unbearable suffering," "due care" and, fuzziest of all, especially in cases of dementia or mental illness, a "voluntary, well-considered request". As bioethicists David Miller and Scott Kim of the National Institutes of Health note in a recent paper, "Dutch physicians. . .
A voluntary and well-considered request is considered a condition sine qua non for euthanasia.
Unbearable and hopeless suffering, no reasonable acceptable treatment alternative, a voluntary and well-considered request and consultation of an independent physician are among the compulsory criteria for EPAS [ 17].
Likewise, a clear distinction should be made between suicidality (in thoughts and behaviour), which is symptomatic of (and/or triggered by) a number of psychiatric disorders, and a well-considered euthanasia request, which includes a patient's statement that his or her suffering is entirely unbearable, and that available treatment and medical assistance has been found to be inadequate.
It is not a well-considered policy.
Its rootsy music speaks of a well-considered life.
Many people show up at meetings unable to offer a well-considered opinion.
But they are both probably useful for a person trying to live a well-considered life.
There is almost always an answer — a well-considered one, even — despite the loopy, freewheeling sensibility.
A cogent defense of his action — and one that shows a well-considered sense of justice.
