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Associated Press stated on 30 Nov. 04: "A hospital in the Netherlands, the first [sic] nation to permit euthanasia, recently proposed guidelines for mercy killings of terminally ill [sic] newborns, and then made a startling [sic] revelation. It has already begun carrying out such procedures, which include administering a lethal dose of sedatives." In fact, the first nation to permit euthanasia in modern times was Nazi Germany. The babies killed by doctors are disabled but not all terminally ill, and the practice has been advertised by Dutch doctors for several years. "In August [2004] the main Dutch doctors' association KNMG urged the Health Ministry to create am independent board to review euthanasia cases for terminally [ill] people 'with no free will', including children, the severely mentally retarded and people left in an irreversible coma after an accident. The Health Ministry is preparing its response." (A.P.) The New England Journal of Medicine on March 10, 2005 published an article entitled "The Groningen Protocol - Euthanasia in Severely Ill Newborns", by Eduard Verhagen, MD, JD and Pieter J. J. Saner, MD, PhD, at the University Medical Centre, Groningen, the Netherlands. Wesley Smith commented in the National Review (22 March 05): "This was merely the most recent in a series of euthanasia/assisted suicide-promoting articles that have been published in that once august journal in recent years. Perhaps the NEJM should change its name to the New Euthanasia Journal of Medicine."
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