Euthanasia News Alert!
The Belgian Parliament has just legalized euthanasia for children with incurable conditions – not just teenagers, but children! This same Parliament in 2009 ratified the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) in which Article 10 says “every human being has the inherent right to life and shall take all necessary measures to ensure its effective enjoyment by persons with disabilities on an equal basis with others.” I don’t understand how the Belgian legislators can ratify the CRPD yet at the same time, offer a so-called right-to-die not only to adults, but – heartbreakingly – to children who may feel distraught by their incurable conditions (which could include disabilities). It is abhorrent that we should burden a child with such an unthinkable responsibility in deciding when his or her life should end. Society’s unwritten moral law has always led us to save our children, not destroy them – and certainly not to allow them to destroy themselves. Join me in praying against the culture of death which is sweeping across Europe… and please, let me hear your thoughts about this new law in Belgium.
“Currently the Belgian euthanasia law limits euthanasia to people who are at least 18 years old. This unprecedented bill would extend euthanasia to children with disabilities,” says Alex Schadenberg of the Euthanasia Prevention Coalition. “The Belgian Socialist government is adamant that the euthanasia law needs to extend to minors and people with dementia even though there is significant examples of how the current law is being abused and the bracket creep of acceptable reasons for euthanasia continues to grow. The current practice of euthanasia in Belgium appears to have become an easy way to cover-up medical errors. Regardless of disability, life should be valued. To pass legislation that allows termination of life for people with disabilities who are minors is unacceptable,” he added. “Instead we must make every effort to use the research provided to us to provide attentive care to relieve their physical suffering in a moral way.”
Dr Paul Saba of Physicians for Social Justice, is very concerned about the situation in Belgium: “They are already euthanising people who are depressed or tired of life because they have taken the interpretations of saying physical and/or psychological suffering – you don’t have to have both, if you have one, why is that not enough? If you are suffering, it’s a personal experience and it would be discriminatory for someone to judge what a person is suffering,” he says. “What this teaches us is that despite the government’s assurances that they will set very strict criteria, that won’t work.”
