The Belgian Senate in December voted in favour of an alarming bill that would give children the right to seek euthanasia.
The vote of 50-17 in favour of the proposal will now go to the House of Representatives for further scrutiny.
If this Bill is enacted in law, a 12-year-old child could decide on life or death without the consent of his or her parent(s).
Safeguards will not work
The Dean of the Faculty of Law at a Belgian university has warned that laws permitting euthanasia cannot be introduced without endangering the lives and safety of patients, and that safeguards and controls introduced in any such legislation will not work.
Speaking at a press conference in Quebec, Professor Etienne Montero explained that it is difficult to maintain a strict interpretation of safeguards in a way that is consistent with the intentions of the legislator, and that once euthanasia is legalised, the boundaries of what is acceptable become wider.
Loss of meaning
Giving an overview of the experience in Belgium, where euthanasia was introduced 11 years ago, the professor noted that most requests for the procedure do not flow from physical pain, but from psychological suffering, including loneliness, loss of meaning and weariness of life.
While it was originally said that the Belgian law would not cover psychiatric, demented or depressed patients, the Belgian Control Commission (BCC) now permits euthanasia in such cases. The legal requirement for severe and incurable disease and suffering is also interpreted very widely, with the BCC permitting the elderly to be euthanised on the basis of conditions that are not severe, such as arthritis or diminishing sight and hearing.
He further highlighted the danger that vulnerable people with declining health would feel pressured and compelled to end their lives so as not to be a burden to family or society.
Quebec
Professor Montero’s speech comes after a Bill to allow patients to request ‘medical aid to die’ was introduced in Quebec’s National Assembly in June. Quebec’s Commission of Human Rights has given a legal opinion that refusing to permit 14-year-olds to access euthanasia would amount to discrimination.
