A sad choice born of a sad life. The Dutch Zoraya ter Beek, 28 years old, decided that he will die in May. She doesn't have terminal cancer, she doesn't suffer from neurodegenerative diseases like Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis, but she is depressed, sad to the point of death. A depression that goes hand in hand with traits of autism and borderline personality disorder. In love with her boyfriend, with a beautiful house, two cats, none of that was enough to fill a void that is so empty it has no name.
She talked about it with Free Press. What was the final straw? When his psychiatrist told him, “there is nothing more we can do for you. You will never get better.” This is the euthanasia of clinical hope, the code of ethics and also future scientific research. A condescending medicine. Zoraya tattooed a tree of life upside down: “It's losing its leaves, it's dying,” she said, “I don't see [minha morte] like the departure of my soul, but more like the liberation of myself from life.” The body as a prison for the soul.
She will die at home: “In most cases, a cup of coffee is first drunk to calm the nerves and create a soothing atmosphere. After [a médica] Ask me if I'm ready. I sit on the sofa. She will ask me again if I am sure, she will start the procedure and wish me a safe trip. Or, in my case, a good nap.” Note the persuasive narration to hide the tragedy and seriousness of the choice: the doctor who, like a mother, sings a lullaby to eternal sleep, giving him the medicine that will extinguish all his pain because it will extinguish his life; the set soft, almost as if the girl was lying on the couch for a massage; the house as a place of affection — in fact, she will die with her boyfriend and cats by her side. Nothing suggests a murder. But in reality, it is murder.
The girl added: “I'm a little scared of dying, because it's the last unknown. We don't really know what will happen next, or is there nothing? That’s the part that scares me.” Just think that there are Catholic psychologists who, with non-believing patients who are strongly tempted to commit suicide, as a last card, play the following: “What if the Church is right about suicides when it says that taking one's own life can be a mortal sin? What leads to hell? In this case, you would kill yourself to stop suffering, but you could get the opposite effect. In fact, you can go from hell to a much worse hell that will never end.” For some, this little speech proved to be a good deterrent.
After she dies, a review committee will assess whether the girl's death was in accordance with the protocol in force in the Netherlands. To the conditions Fundamental to access to euthanasia are that the choice to die must be free and that the person's suffering must be unbearable and with no prospect of improvement. Even psychological suffering, as in Zoraya's case. The only moral criterion left in euthanasia is bureaucracy.
The legal murder of a depressed person is the result of certain ideological-cultural premises.
The first: the idea that the quality of life prevails over the dignity of the person. If the first can deteriorate, the second always retains its preciousness, beyond pathologies, illness and suffering.
The second premise: the idea that personal freedom is the ultimate reference in moral choices. An idea that, in this case, shows all its emptiness: how free is a depressed person with autistic traits and borderline personality disorder? Who chose, Zoraya or her depression? Under the torture of pain and suffering of living, one is not free.
Third premise: the downhill slope. Theo Boer, professor of health ethics at the Protestant Theological University of Groningen, was a member of a euthanasia review committee in the Netherlands for a decade. “During these years”, he said, “I saw the Dutch practice of euthanasia evolve from death as a last resort to death as the default option.” Ultimately, he stepped down. Death is no longer an evil to be avoided, except in exceptional cases. The exception, as they say, becomes the rule, and therefore, staying alive or dying are both good choices.
Let us pray that the inverted tree tattooed on Zoraya's arm can, even at the last moment, bloom again.
Tommaso Scandroglio He is a writer and professor at the Università Europea di Roma, with a bachelor's degree in jurisprudence at the Università degli Studi di Milano-Bicocca.
© 2024 La Nuova Bussola Quotidiana. Published with permission. Original in Italian: “In Olanda, sadness is enough for scegliere l'eutanasia”.
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