Pages tagged "Belgium"
Medical professionals resign due to euthanasia laws
Feb 02, 2018
In Belgium and the Netherlands, medical professionals are resigning in considerable numbers due to the lack of regulation surrounding the practice of euthanasia. This phenomenon is specifically peaking in the palliative care field, as nurses and doctors find their roles reduced to that of reluctant executioners.
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Belgian medical experts call for reforms to “very problematic” assisted suicide laws
Nov 20, 2017
Last week 43 Belgian psychiatrists, psychologists, and academics published an open letter demanding national debate on the issue of euthanasia and mental illness. These experts in the field state that the current law is too vague, and is resulting in many uncalled-for deaths.
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Warning from Belgium: safe legislation is impossible
Sep 25, 2017
Safeguards, qualifications, accountability, and consent: none of these exist in Belgium when it comes to their euthanasia laws.
Cambridge University Press is set to release Euthanasia and Assisted Suicide: Lessons from Belgium, which will be the first interdisciplinary study of euthanasia to be published.
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Belgian Euthanasia Commission is on the slippery slope
Jan 05, 2017
85 Belgians professionals involved in end-of-life care recently published this log of problems with the Belgian Euthanasia Commission. (First published in The Standard newspaper and also at the Euthanasie Stop website) The conclusion is clear: the slippery slope is also evident in the work to this commission:The Federal Commission for the Control and Evaluation of Euthanasia ('La Commission fédérale de Contrôle et d'évaluation de l'Euthanasie'; CFCEE) recently published its biannual report. Here we shall take the liberty of offering some criticism.
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Psychiatric euthanasia: salvos across the Atlantic
Dec 23, 2016
The development of the idea and then the availability of euthanasia for psychiatric reasons is something that few people, if any, could have foreseen when Belgium and Holland passed their laws in 2001 and 2002 or when the short-lived law existed in the Northern Territory of Australia in the mid 1990s. Certainly, commentary existed regarding concerns of competency (capacity) and the presence of depression etc. in people requesting euthanasia - where psychiatry had a legitimate role; but this was always in the context of assessment of a person who 'qualified' or was eligible for euthanasia by virtue of other criteria (such as a terminal illness or the presence of 'untreatable' or 'incurable and irreversible' suffering due to illness or injury). It was never that the 'illness' was itself psychological in nature.The Belgian act of 2002 states that:
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Documentary: The inhumanity of euthanasia in Belgium
Dec 05, 2016
by Michael Cook. Article first appeared on Mercatornet's Careful Blog Euthanasia is billed as a humane practice. But after watching this brief documentary about Belgium it's hard to believe that. Euthanasia was legalised there in 2002 and since then about 8,000 cases have been officially registered. Experience shows that demand grows with availability. Now children and the mentally ill can be given a lethal injection.As one doctor remarks, "If someone thinks that it is intolerable to have bad eyesight, and that it is incurable because they don't want to wear glasses, then we are in a situation within the criteria of the law. They ask for it repeatedly, so what is the problem?"
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Euthanasia for purely psychological suffering: reflections on the Belgian report.
Nov 11, 2016
Article first appeared in De Morgen (rendered from the Dutch via google translate) Authors: Ariane Bazan is Professor of Clinical Psychology (ULB), Willem Lemmens (pictured) Professor of Ethics and Modern Philosophy (UA) and Gertrudis Van de Vijver professor of Modern and Contemporary Philosophy (University of Ghent).Beginning in 2016, supported by some 65 experts, we called for policy-makers to revise the law on euthanasia on one point: purely psychological suffering would no ground may be more to accede to a request for euthanasia.
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Belgium euthanasia report 2015: 41% increase in 4 years.
Nov 11, 2016
An interview with the French news service, Atlantico, with Carine Brochier, Director of the European Bioethics Institute, Brussels. 41% increase in euthanasia in 4 years: an appalling excess due to the legislation on assisted death in Belgium In 2014 to 2015, nearly 4,000 individuals resorted to euthanasia in Belgium, of which 124 due to "behavioral, mental or psychological disorders".
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The year they did the unthinkable - child euthanasia in the Low Countries
Sep 20, 2016
by Paul Russell: Hot upon the heels of the news that the first reported case of euthanasia for a minor took place recently in Belgium, comes the news from Holland that a 'centre for euthanasia in children' is expected to open in that country within 12 months. Dutch Health Minister, Edith Schippers earmarked 400,000 Euros in May this year for a study on the matter.What is it they say about an inquiry? Never start one unless you know the answer beforehand?
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