Belgian Senate Votes For the Euthanasia of Children -- Without Age Limits

(Brussels), the Belgian Senate voted in the night to agree on the euthanasia for children today. The Belgian euthanasia law, which previously forbade euthanasia for minors, now may also be applied to very young children of any age.

With 50 votes to 17, the Belgian Senate approved the amendment. Now the House must vote on it, then the second and final vote in the Senate. Only a quarter of the senators refused to vote for euthanasia by children's consent. The Belgian euthanasia law stipulates that the patient concerned must submit a request for euthanasia to the judggment of a psychologist who will evaluate the suitability of the applicant. A child is considered with good reason as having no legal capacity, who can not vote and does not have a license. However, for the vast majority of Belgian senators, a three year old child may be able to decide to want to be euthanized.

Law to Kill Troublesome and Costly Ill Children

Therefore, critics accuse the proponents of intending to create a law for the annoying and costly, in order to be able to kill the disabled and sick children legally. The mechanisms to "protect" against abuse, are pure farce, as already is proven in a dramatic way by the euthanasia law in force since 2002 for adults. The ability to euthanize children, would not "help" the kids, but allows adults, to whom they are entrusted, to do away with them.

The Belgian euthanasia law is the most liberal in the world. The senators refused to set an age limit up to which at least one child is safe when in need of protection of his life. A five year old child suffering from "excruciating pain" or a terminal illness is in the "final phase", and can be euthanised in Belgium if the relatives are in agreement and a psychologist's judgment is obtained. The safety barriers, however, apply in practice only as "a nice facade for a murder law" (see separate reports Belgium: Child Pediatricians even in Catholic hospitals, may provide Euthanasia for Children or "My Mother was Euthanized, Even Though She Was Not Sick" - a documentary film tells the brutality of the Belgian euthanasia law and "Woman Was 'Transformed' to Man, but Felt Like a 'Monster' and was Euthanised"- Happened in Belgium ).

"New Form of Barbarism Spreads"

Ahead of the vote, several pediatricians supported the euthanizing of children. Some of these doctors are also active in Catholic children's hospitals. Other doctors warn on euthanasiestop.be of the "dangerous piece of legislation which puts the safety of our seriously ill children at risk". After approval by the Senate, these doctors have accused the senators, "to have voted for a law without weighing the consequences. The value of a child's life now has a price which is set by adults, of which the children will certainly be affected in the desired sense. Sick children do not think about euthanasia. The law is therefore objectively meaningless. It would be necessary, however, to accompany the parents of these children, say the doctors, in order to oppose euthanasia.

"We have to be very concerned about the development of the Belgian euthanasia law and have every reason to be deeply troubled. The Belgian citizens seem to prefer to want an agent that prepares their lives, or the lives of others, for an end, than real pity, or readiness to help and instead to sacrifice the sick and the vulnerable in our society. With great rapidity a new form of barbarism is spreading," say the doctors against euthanasia.

Text: Giuseppe Nardi image: Wikicommons