THE HAGUE--Euthanasia and abortion should become legal on the BES islands Bonaire, St. Eustatius and Saba within one year. Conducting same-sex marriages should become possible on the islands in two years.
This is stated in three amendments that the liberal democratic VVD party and the green left party GroenLinks will present during the handling of the WolBES, the general law that defines the "public entity" status of the BES islands, and six other related law proposals, in the Dutch Parliament's Second Chamber, today, Thursday.
The amendments on abortion and same-sex marriage are expected to receive sufficient support from the Second Chamber. The third amendment, on euthanasia, probably won't make it in the voting.
GroenLinks and VVD had already demanded that the Dutch rights of abortion, euthanasia and same-sex marriage should become applicable on the BES islands at the moment these islands became part of the Netherlands as public entities, during the preparatory legislation meetings in January. They had jointly submitted three amendments at that time.
Dutch State Secretary of Kingdom Relations Ank Bijleveld-Schouten had advised against the law amendments as outlined, because there would not be sufficient support on the islands to make abortion and euthanasia legal and to allow same-sex marriages to be conducted. She had also said that facilities to supervise legal abortions and euthanasia were not ready for that task either.
Members of Parliament (MPs) Johan Remkes (VVD) and Ineke van Gent (GroenLinks) adapted the amendments and dropped their request to immediately introduce abortion, euthanasia and same-sex marriage. They are now asking to introduce abortion and euthanasia in one year, and same-sex marriage in two years.
They expect to receive support from the Socialist Party (SP), D66 and PVV, but to acquire a majority they will need the Labour Party PvdA to go along. PvdA will support the abortion and same-sex marriage amendments, but not the euthanasia amendment.
"We should not want everything at the same time. Besides, euthanasia is a sensitive issue in my party," said MP John Leerdam (PvdA). Christian Democratic Party CDA and Christian Union (CU) are against all three amendments.
