Verhagen, who studied both law and medicine, worked out a protocol with prosecutors and doctors in 2002 for infant euthanasia cases.
This Groningen Protocol requires that the parents and teams of physicians and social workers agree that further treatment is futile.
Among others, Dr Rob de Jong openly questions the criteria used in the Groningen protocol, especially "unbearable suffering" and the "expected quality of life" in a critical appraisal.
Another important argument against the Groningen protocol is that the 22 cases described are all children with spina bifida, which is not considered a lethal disability.
[2] Erick Kodish has also harshly criticized the protocol and its premises in an article published in The Lancet where he has concluded inviting to resistance by means of civil disobedience against the medical institutionalization of infanticide.