The Netherlands is setting up a commission to regulate the practice of ending the lives of “seriously suffering” newborn babies, the government said on Tuesday, in a move critics say could allow more euthanasia.

Euthanasia of newborns and late abortions remain illegal, but the commission - composed of three doctors, a lawyer and an ethicist - is likely to recommend that doctors who follow certain rules are not charged in concrete cases.

Justice Minister Piet Hein Donner and Junior Health Minister Clemence Ross-van Dorp said they hope the commission, expected to start work in mid-2006, will improve the transparency of decision making.

“We wanted to respond to the needs of doctors to create clarity in how to deal with ending the life of seriously suffering newborns as well as the legal consequences of late abortions,” the ministers wrote in a letter to parliament.

“The conventions, as well as the opinion of the commission, offer doctors the knowledge that cases will not just be seen from a legal perspective but also from a medical and ethical perspective…the uncertainty of doctors is being addressed.”

In 2001, the Netherlands became the first country to legalise adult euthanasia, a move condemned by the Roman Catholic Church, but has since been followed by Belgium, while other European states are investigating allowing it.

SLIPPERY SLOPE?

Bert Dorenbos, from anti-euthanasia group Scream for Life, said the commission would effectively allow more euthanasia. “It is a very dangerous and tragic development,” he said. “It means that doctors will have a freer hand as to whether to end the life of a child or not. It is a slippery slope.”

A study earlier this year showed that Dutch doctors reported 22 cases between 1997 and 2004 of euthanasia of babies with spina bifida, a disabling birth defect affecting the spinal column, but were not prosecuted after judicial review.

Prosecutors decided against charging doctors as long as unofficial rules - dubbed the Groningen protocol after the university hospital that compiled them - were met.

The ministers want the commission to work on the basis of similar criteria, allowing euthanasia or late abortion if the baby has no chance of survival and is suffering unbearably, if the doctor consults at least one other doctor, the parents agree and the life is ended in the correct medical way.

Eduard Verhagen, paediatrician at the Groningen University Medical Centre that drew up the protocol, has long campaigned for the government to create an expert commission to encourage doctors to report such cases without fear of prosecution.

“If we take this awfully difficult decision, it must happen with complete openness,” he told De Volkskrant newspaper.

“You are trained to save the life of a child but with these children the suffering can only be stopped by ending their lives. It takes courage to do that.”

The precise number of euthanasia cases in the Netherlands is not known because not all doctors report them, but the government estimates that there are several thousand each year, including about 15 to 20 disabled newborns.