Yet in the Netherlands, physicians are openly euthanizing infants -- who obviously cannot consent to being killed -- under the Groningen Protocol, a set of procedures for doing so established in consultation with the local district attorney.
A brief description of the protocol from Wikipedia:
The Groningen Protocol is a text created in September 2004 by Eduard Verhagen, the medical director of the department of pediatrics at the University Medical Center Groningen (UMCG) in Groningen, the Netherlands. It contains directives with criteria under which physicians can perform "active ending of life on infants" (child euthanasia) without fear of legal prosecution.
[...]
For the Dutch public prosecutor, the termination of a child's life (under age 12) is acceptable if 4 requirements were properly fulfilled:
1. The presence of hopeless and unbearable suffering
2. The consent of the parents to termination of life
3. Medical consultation having taken place
4. Careful execution of the termination
The criteria listed absolutely do not justify infanticide.
With respect to point one: How can a physician know for certain whether an infant is experiencing "unbearable" suffering? Infants cannot vocalize the level of pain they are experiencing to any significant degree of precision. How can a physician know for certain whether the suffering is truly "hopeless"? Why can't analgesics or other palliative care methods be used? Most importantly, why does that even matter? Since when are we permitted to execute people simply because they are experiencing suffering?
With respect to point two: Parental "consent" is completely irrelevant in this context. That's like arguing that parents can "consent" to child abuse. Nobody has the right to authorize the direct and voluntary killing of an innocent human being. That goes double for parents, who have a special duty of care towards their children.
I find this absolutely horrific. Can anybody -- even those who generally support the legalization of euthanasia -- deny that this is gravely immoral?
Related links
The protocol as described by its authors: The Groningen Protocol — Euthanasia in Severely Ill Newborns
A critical view: Paediatric ethics: a repudiation of the Groningen protocol