Euthanasia - still a dilemma for Dutch doctors

By Emma Thomasson

AMSTERDAM (Reuters) - "I am not a monster. I'm also not a God. In the best case I'm an angel," muses a doctor in a Dutch play about euthanasia, before delivering a lethal injection to an old friend, a cancer patient.

"The Good Death" is playing to packed houses across the Netherlands, which became the first country to legalise euthanasia in 2002 despite condemnation by the Roman Catholic Church.

The play reflects the fact that far from becoming standard practice after legalisation, euthanasia -- Greek for "good death" -- remains an agonising decision for all involved.

Official figures actually show a fall in euthanasia cases in recent years and a rise in the use of sedation for the terminally ill.

Dutch campaigners say some doctors are shying away from making a decision about euthanasia and they want the law relaxed further to make mercy killing easier.

While euthanasia is also legal in Luxembourg and Belgium and is permitted in Switzerland if performed by a non-doctor, activists elsewhere in Europe are fighting for decriminalisation.

The case of Chantal Sebire, a woman with a face-distorting tumour who was refused assisted suicide, rekindled the debate in France. Sebire was found dead of an overdose at home in March days after a court rejected her bid for medical help to die.

The mercy killing of Belgian writer Hugo Claus, who suffered from Alzheimer's disease but was well enough to express his wish for euthanasia, has also exposed divisions in Belgium between supporters and opponents of legalisation.