 None of this is to suggest that it is not necessary to ensure the presence of safeguards against potential abuse of legally protected voluntary euthanasia. This is particularly important for the protection of those who have become incompetent by the time decisions need to be taken about whether to assist them to die. Furthermore, it is, of course, possible that the reform of any law may have unintended effects. However, if the arguments outlined above are sound (and the experience in the The Netherlands, Belgium and Luxembourg, along with the more limited experience in several states in the United States, is, for the present, not only the best evidence we have that they are sound, but the only relevant evidence), that does not seem very likely.