Current law regarding euthanasia
The Belgian act legalizing euthanasia for competent adults and emancipated minors was passed on May 28, 2002. It went into effect on September 3, 2002.
Text of law
“Euthanasia in Belgium: 10 years on”
(European Institute of Bioethics — April 2012)
Already mobilized to justify euthanasia of new-born infants and young children, the state of necessity is also invoked to justify euthanasia of adult patients who are not conscious and who have not drawn up a prior declaration.
Articles
“Belgian euthanasia not such a big deal”
(BioEdge — February 22, 2013
But trivialization must be well and truly underway when euthanasia becomes the subject of TV chat shows….Dr. Distelmans, the doctor who euthanased the Belgium twins said that Marc and Eddy Verbessem were Catholics and received the last sacraments of their church before he administered the lethal dose.
“Another speed bump for Belgian euthanasia”
(BioEdge — February 10, 2013)
The complications of euthanasia keep bubbling away in Belgium. The latest scandal is the euthanasia of a 44-year-old woman because of unbearable mental suffering from anorexia nervosa. Only a handful of these women ask for euthanasia each year and they normally have other psychiatric issues as well.
“Belgian Anorexia Euthanasia“
(National Review — February 10, 2012)
Belgium is a vivid demonstration of the abandonment and darkness that euthanasia can’t help but eventually become. Now, only weeks after learning that twin disabled men were euthanized, we find out a young woman with the mental illness of anorexia nervosa has been killed by her psychiatrist — after being sexually abused by another psychiatrist.
“How my mother died”
(MercatorNet — February 4, 2013)
A mentally-ill Belgian woman sought euthanasia to escape her problems. The doctors told her, sure, why not?
“Helen Keller, Anne Sullivan and Assisted Suicide”
(American Spectator — January 17, 2013)
What advice would the young Helen Keller receive if she were alive today?
Helen Keller became both blind and deaf after an illness when she was 19 months. She was taught to communicate at age 7, and she went on, during a long life of 88 years, to contribute to our lives. Apparently no one told the story of Helen Keller to the identical Belgian twin men, age 45, cobblers both, who sought and obtained assisted suicide in Belgium in December.
“Depression = suffering, reason for lethal injection”
(One News Now — January, 17, 2013)
Though euthanasia of twin brothers in Belgium has made headlines, the real story may be how the incident has been trivialized….Belgim is looking to expand its program so that minors will be allowed to commit suicide with medical assistance.
“National Federation of the Blind Comments on Belgian Euthanasia of Deaf Men Losing Sight”
(NFB — January 15, 2013)
“This disturbing news from Belgium is a stark example of the common, and in this case tragic, misunderstanding of disability and its consequences. Adjustment to any disability is difficult, and deaf-blind people face their own particular challenges but from at least the time of Helen Keller it has been known that these challenges can be met….”
“Belgian identical twins in unique mercy killing”
(Telegraph — United Kingdom — January 13, 2013)
Identical twins, 45, who were facing blindness, were euthanized by Belgian doctors last month in a unique mercy killing under Belgium’s euthanasia laws. Doctors at Brusssels University Hospital in Jette euthanized the two men by lethal injection.
“Euthanasia ‘trivialized’ in Belgium: report by bioethics institute”
(BioEdge — December 9, 2012)
The central theme of the report is the ineffectiveness and bias of the body established by the legislation to allay the misgivings of the public by monitoring and controlling euthanasia. After 10 years and about 5,500 cases, not one case has ever been referred to the police. It is illusory, says the IEB, to expect doctors to denounce their own failings.
“Belgium pioneers organ donation from euthanased patients”
(Bioedge — October 5, 2012)
The practice of transplanting organs from patients who die after voluntary euthanasia is becoming relatively common in Belgium. According to the website De Redactie, run by the Flemish public broadcasting company, VRT, Belgium is the world leader in organ removal after euthanasia.
“Belgian euthanasia law allows first death of a prisoner”
(Medical Xpress — September 13, 2012)
A gravely ill prisoner serving a long jail sentence has become the first inmate to die under Belgian euthanasia laws…Last year, some 1,133 cases — mostly for terminal cancer — were recorded, about one percent of all deaths in the country, according to official figures.
