A new medical term under discussion: a comment on the so called “versterving”

Abstract

This informative note examines the meaning of a new word, which has spread across Holland and Germany: versterving. This Ducht term is in current use in insane nursing homes for insanity affected old people. The debate about the term started with an episode occurred in a Ducht nursing home. An in-patient’s relatives notified the nursing staff because they denied the patient food and water with the purpose to accellerate his death. As a matter of fact, the term was first introduced by the psychiatrist Chabot to mean the interruption of hydratation and artificial nourishment. This directly leads to the acceptance of passive euthanasia.

Indeed, nourishment and hydratation are included in the normal treatments that are always to be given to a patient; therefore, their unjustified suspension may have the meaning of a real euthanasia. In conclusion, this versterving is an undeserved interruption of proportionate cures.

The author also states that the sanitary-medical activity must be grounded in two principles: the patient trust and the physician conscience, whose duties are assistment, treating, and healing.