A terminally ill 17-year-old has been euthanized in Belgium, this marks the first time since the vote to make assisted death for minors permissible was passed, back in 2014.
The head of Belgium’s federal euthanasia commission, Wim Distelmans, confirmed that it was an exceptional case of a child with a terminal illness that a local doctor had reported last week. He added that doctors used ‘palliative sedation’, which is when patients are placed in an induced coma. No other details were forthcoming.
“Fortunately there are very few children who are considered, but that does not mean we should refuse them the right to a dignified death,” Distelmans told a Belgian newspaper.
Euthanasia was legalized in Belgium in 2002, but with the amendment made two years ago, Belgium is the first country in the world to extend the law to people of all ages, including children. There is no age limit on one seeking to end their suffering, as long as they are able to make rational decisions and are in the final stages of an incurable disease.
The amendment, passed after much debate – specifically over the exact definition of the required “capacity of discernment” – offers the possibility of euthanasia to children “in a hopeless medical situation of constant and unbearable suffering that cannot be eased and which will cause death in the short term”.
Any request for euthanasia must be made by the minor, have parental consent, and is to be evaluated by a team of doctors and an independent psychiatrist or psychologist.
In the neighboring Netherlands, euthanasia is legal for children, but they must be at least 12 years of age.
According to the national euthanasia control committee’s records, the number of patients being euthanized in Belgium rose nearly eight-fold to 8,752 between 2003 and 2013.
Euthanasia is legal in Belgium, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Switzerland, and Colombia.
Canada and the American states of Oregon, Washington, Vermont and Montana, have legalized “assisted dying”, a term usually used to mean assisted suicide for the terminal ill only.
