comments
- on First-ever case of euthanasia on very young child, 2, was handled well in c/europe@feddit.org · 2d ago
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on First-ever case of euthanasia on very young child, 2, was handled well in c/europe@feddit.org · 2d ago
You don’t understand. The child, while suffering extremely, is in no way able to consent to their killing. The state sanctions it as ok, as long as a list of criteria are met.
Which at that point becomes a decision that is made by the parents, not the state. The state can’t decide for you that you will be euthanised. That is a decision to be made either by the person in question, or in the case of a two-year-old their parents.
The alternative would be to not allow euthanasia on young children at all, and force this child to live with their disease and experience hopeless and unbearable suffering for ten years, until they are twelve years old. That was the old cut-off point for decisions like this.
The way I see it, is that giving parents to ability make this decision on their child’s behalf, in order to make sure their child doesn’t have to needlessly suffer, can be a good thing if done carefully and thoughtfully. The checks and balances are there to make sure that is gets done carefully and thoughtfully.
I certainly wouldn’t call that an erosion of the west as per your first comment.
This signals to other powers, who view the Netherlands as a role model that state sanctioned involuntary killing in medicine is fine, as long as you have a long list of reasons you can go through.
So because another country might not be deliberate in the way they implement their version of euthanasia, we shouldn’t be implementing our version of euthanasia?
Edit: Removed the quote characters around “erosion of the west”, because it isn’t a direct quote. It’s a paraphrasing, and it’s disingenuous of me to put that in quotes.
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on First-ever case of euthanasia on very young child, 2, was handled well in c/europe@feddit.org · 2d ago
Euthanasia so often gets portrayed as if it is just like an option at the buffet table that you can chose if you so feel like it. But that is not even remotely like how the system is set up in the Netherlands at all.
The only case in which someone is even eligible for euthanasia is if they suffer from a chronic illness, for which there is no possible cure, and you effectively will have to endure undue suffering for the rest of your life. And as you say, at that point it is still up to the discretion of the doctor, who is in turn liable for that decision. There is a whole bunch of checks and balances to make sure that it doesn’t just become a free-for-all.
This is not some ploy by some reactionary government to eradicate “life unworthy of life”, as distal@lemmy.ml suggest
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on Chat Control 2.0: EU negotiations resume on September 29 in c/europe@feddit.org · 5d ago
Here we go again…
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on Your LG TV Might Be Spying on Your Entire Network While You Think It's Turned Off in c/technology@lemmy.world · 7 Sep 2026
Enough that they can tell with a decent amount of certainty whose social credit score should be lowered, once that gets inevitably introduced /s
(I don’t think that conspiratorially… It’s probably just data harvesting and extreme greed.)
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on Your LG TV Might Be Spying on Your Entire Network While You Think It's Turned Off in c/technology@lemmy.world · 7 Sep 2026
The issue in this case is that they apparently use text to speech locally, store that information on the device itself, and then if at any point in the future gets connected to the internet for any meaningful length of time (be it by a subsequent owner) it will then be sent on to LG… for safekeeping of course /s
The deep-dive by GamersNexus is pretty in depth.
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on Stop Killing The Internet: No Digital ID & No Age Verification Petition in c/buyeuropean@feddit.uk · 7 Sep 2026
I’ll bite… Why would that be my goal?
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on Stop Killing The Internet: No Digital ID & No Age Verification Petition in c/buyeuropean@feddit.uk · 6 Sep 2026
e-ID isn’t mandatory (it’s not even available in every country), but the form should be filled in with correct personal information.
They will need to verify whether the people who filled in the form are actual people who are eligible to sign the citizens’ initiative.Using e-ID just makes the whole verification easier for everyone.
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on Stop Killing The Internet: No Digital ID & No Age Verification Petition in c/buyeuropean@feddit.uk · 6 Sep 2026
Given that this is part of the legislative process, and there is legal requirements for European Parliament to adhere to if the Citizen’s Initiative meets the threshold, I would argue that signing the petition has a similar weight to casting a ballot in an election.
Just like how you need to verify in an election that someone is legally allowed to vote in that election, this petition needs to verify whether someone is legally allowed to sign the petition.
If there was no verification of identity, hypothetically someone could fill the platform with junk petitions, which could all be signed by a bunch of Russian bots. It would completely undermine the democratic process.
So yes, I do believe identity verification is “strictly necessary” in this case
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on Stop Killing The Internet: No Digital ID & No Age Verification Petition in c/buyeuropean@feddit.uk · 6 Sep 2026
As the Citizen’s Initiative says:
Citizens must not be forced to identify themselves to access lawful online content or services unless strictly necessary, proportionate and provided by law.
I would argue in this case e-ID verification (or other verification of identity) is necessary and proportionate.
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on Stop Killing The Internet: No Digital ID & No Age Verification Petition in c/buyeuropean@feddit.uk · 6 Sep 2026
That’s just how these Citizen’s Initiatives work.
Since there are requirements for the European Parliament to address the concerns, they need a way to verify that the signatures are actually real and match to EU citizens.
They need some way to prevent spam which would make this democratic tool meaningless.
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on Stop Killing The Internet: No Digital ID & No Age Verification Petition in c/buyeuropean@feddit.uk · 6 Sep 2026
Thanks for the headsup. Signed it and passed it on to a few friends who also care about this stuff.
I’m not inherently against the EU providing a means to verify age and/or identity online, but the legal framework proposed by this Citizen’s Initiative seems entirely reasonable, and even preferable, to me.
Edit: I do find it a bit funny that I signed a petition about online ID checks using my country’s e-ID.
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on Dutch central bank shifts billions in gold to London in 'crisis preparedness' move in c/europe@feddit.org · 3 Sep 2026
The Dutch gold reserve is nothing to sneeze at. It’s a fifth the size of Germany’s gold reserve, and a quarter the size of Italy’s
Source: statbase.org/datasets/finance/gold-reserves/
Germany has about 37% of its gold in the US, for the NL this was previously 31.3% (and now 18.5%)
So the amount of Gold that was moved by the NL is still significant.Edit: Accidentally said quarter the size of Germany and a third the size of Italy. This is incorrect.
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on Dutch central bank shifts billions in gold to London in 'crisis preparedness' move in c/europe@feddit.org · 2 Sep 2026
I’ve read the news in Dutch papers, referencing the Dutch Central Bank directly.
Having skimmed through the AP article, it doesn’t really seem to provide any real additional information. -
on Dutch central bank shifts billions in gold to London in 'crisis preparedness' move in c/europe@feddit.org · 2 Sep 2026
I guess 41% of Dutch gold stored in the US is technically a fraction
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on Dutch central bank shifts billions in gold to London in 'crisis preparedness' move in c/europe@feddit.org · 2 Sep 2026
The “crisis preparedness” argument boiled down that in case of crisis they needed to be able to sell the gold quickly. And that that would be easier in London than it would be in New York or Ottowa.
I do not believe that this is the real reason.
There has been concern about the US “confiscating” (read: stealing) our gold reserves ever since Trump got re-elected. The Dutch Central Bank also has regularly voiced concerns about the reliability of the US, and our over reliance on American financial services and payment services.
I think the real reason is that they want to secure the gold from Trump’s grubby little hands.
And the “official reason” is meant to obfuscate the actual reason, and buy plausible deniability.
Source: nos.nl/…/2629369-nederland-haalt-groot-deel-van-d…According to the NOS the vast majority of gold that was moved was from the US, not Canada.
The share of Dutch gold stored in New York has gone down from 31.3% to 18.5%.Edit: Added translations to the graph
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on In case you need some motivation to de-google in c/buyeuropean@feddit.uk · 31 Aug 2026
Not sure if you can buy unlocked phones from 3rd parties where you live, but over here in the NL I can get a green one for €511,-
galaxus.nl/…/fairphone-gen-6-256-gb-bosgroen-631-…
(They used to be under €500 for all models, but the RAM shortage makes a fool of us all)
Buying the /e/OS version from Fairphone directly is €649. So the difference is still €138, which I wouldn’t say is insignificant.
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on In case you need some motivation to de-google in c/buyeuropean@feddit.uk · 31 Aug 2026
If you specifically want /e/OS, you need to watch out where you buy the Fairphone.
There is two versions, with the regular Android (with Google services) version being the more common one.fairphone.com/…/the-fairphone-gen-6-e-operating-s…
If you buy this one from their website you are guaranteed to get the /e/OS version
Edit: Also worth noting that you could also unlock the bootloader, and install /e/OS on the regular Android version as well. You might be able to save € 150-200 that way.
To my knowledge you can relock the bootloader after you are done? You’d have to look into that yourself though.
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on In case you need some motivation to de-google in c/buyeuropean@feddit.uk · 31 Aug 2026
You don’t need to get a non-Android phone in order to get a non-Google phone.
Android is open source, and if you are willing to forgo the Google Play Store and Google Play Services there are non-Google options. GrapheneOS and /e/OS are de-Googled versions of Android, for example.
Fairphone comes with an option with /e/OS installed by default, if you don’t want to bother installing it yourself.
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on In case you need some motivation to de-google in c/buyeuropean@feddit.uk · 31 Aug 2026
It’s still showing as Lake Ontario on Google Maps in the Netherlands
The Gulf of Mexico is also still called the Gulf of Mexico, but they put Gulf of America in parenthesis
By all means de-Google though. Cut all the American tech companies out of your life as much as feasibly possible.
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on Norway will drill in Arctic regardless of EU's position, says energy minister in c/europe@feddit.org · 26 Aug 2026
Given that the EU is running out of reliable allies for their supply of natural gas, it is probably a bad idea to try and restrict Norway from tapping new gas wells.
While the EU must do everything in its power to cut its reliance on gas for both environmental and national security reasons, it is unreasonable to think we will complete that process by 2030. We are going to need reliable partners to supply us with that natural gas until the transition is complete, and Norway is one of the few gas-producing countries we are truly allied with.
I don’t consider the US a particularly reliable ally, and relying on their LNG in the way that we do is a strategic vulnerability similar to our reliance on Russian gas prior to 2022.
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on YouTube Premium is getting yet another price hike for users across the globe in c/technology@lemmy.world · 25 Aug 2026
I used to have YouTube Premium.
The main reason for paying for it was that I don’t like having to sit through ads. A nice benefit of Premium over ad-blockers was that a part of the revenue from YouTube premium goes to creators in lieu of advertising revenue. YouTube gets money for running the service, the creators get money for making videos, and I don’t have to watch ads.
I stopped my Premium subscription not because it was getting too expensive, but because YouTube is an American company. Ever since Trump got elected for a second time I have been progressively working on cutting out products and services by American tech giants from my life, and YouTube Premium was a very easy one to cut out.
These days I just use an ad-blocker. If the creators want revenue from my view, they can upload to a platform that isn’t YouTube.
In that case I must apologize. I misinterpreted what you meant with that erosion. I also shouldn’t have written it as a quote as I initially did, since it was paraphrasing and not a direct quote. I didn’t mean to misrepresent.
That still doesn’t change the rest of my argument, however.
That’s fair. We differ in opinion on that, and I can see where you are coming from.
My issue with that, however, is that we then end up in a situation again where this child needs to spend ten years in whatever pain and agony they might be going through, just because they legally cannot make the decision by themselves.
Preferably that should not be happening, and giving the parents the ability to decide on their behalf is in my view an acceptable compromise to prevent that suffering from happening. While it is a decision with a lot more weight, we already do give parents a lot of power to make decisions for their child in other situations, so it is not entirely without precedent.
I think this is a ridiculous take. The Netherlands cannot be held responsible for what it didn’t do itself.