Health

European countries that allow assisted dying

France could become the next European country to legalize assisted dying for the terminally ill under a proposal set out by President Emmanuel Macron.

Diseases, Conditions, Syndromes

Women with osteoporosis want to know their fracture risk

Most women with osteoporosis want to know their fracture risk, but only half have received this information from health care providers, according to a study published online Nov. 13 in Osteoporosis International.

Medications

ASH: Daratumumab beneficial for patients with multiple myeloma

For transplantation-eligible patients with newly diagnosed multiple myeloma, the addition of subcutaneous daratumumab combined with bortezomib, lenalidomide, and dexamethasone induction and consolidation therapy and with ...

Health

Dutch to allow euthanasia for under-12s

The Dutch government on Friday gave euthanasia for children under 12 the green light, permitting mercy deaths for young minors suffering "unbearably and without hope".

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Netherlands

The Netherlands (pronounced /ˈnɛðərləndz/ ( listen); Dutch: Nederland, pronounced [ˈneːdərlɑnt]  ( listen)) is a country in Northwestern Europe, constituting the major portion of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. It is a parliamentary democratic constitutional monarchy. The Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east. The capital is Amsterdam and the seat of government is The Hague.

The Netherlands is often called Holland, which is formally incorrect as North and South Holland are actually two of its twelve provinces (see terminology of "the Netherlands"). The word Dutch is used to refer to the people, the language, and anything pertaining to the Netherlands. The difference between the noun and the adjective is a peculiarity of the English language and does not exist in the Dutch language.

Being one of the first parliamentary democracies, the Netherlands was a modern country from its inception. Among other affiliations the country is a founding member of the European Union (EU), NATO, OECD, WTO, and has signed the Kyoto protocol. With Belgium and Luxembourg it forms the Benelux economic union. The country is host to five international courts: the Permanent Court of Arbitration, the International Court of Justice, the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia, the International Criminal Court and the Special Tribunal for Lebanon. The former four are situated in The Hague as is the EU's criminal intelligence agency Europol. This has led to the city being dubbed "the world's legal capital".

The Netherlands is a geographically low-lying country, with about 27% of its area and 60% of its population located below sea level. Significant areas have been gained through land reclamation and preserved through an elaborate system of polders and dikes. Much of the Netherlands is formed by the estuary of three important European rivers, which together with their distributaries form the Rhine-Meuse-Scheldt delta. Most of the country is very flat, with the exception of foothills in the far south-east and several low-hill ranges in the central parts created by ice-age glaciers.[citation needed]

The Netherlands is a densely populated country. It is known for its windmills, tulips, clogs, delftware and Gouda cheese, for its bicycles, and in addition, traditional values and civil virtues such as its social tolerance. The country has more recently become known for its liberal policies toward drugs, prostitution, homosexuality, and euthanasia.

The Netherlands has one of the most free market capitalist economies in the world, ranking 12th of 157 countries in one index.

This text uses material from Wikipedia, licensed under CC BY-SA