Pages tagged "Belgium"
To a Paralympian who wants to die
Sep 15, 2016
By Kevin Yuill (article first appeared at Spiked On Line) Imagine if Usain Bolt, who has now officially retired from Olympic competition, told the world that, after he ticked a few more things off his 'bucket list', he intended to kill himself. How would the world respond? Probably with horror and disbelief.But this is precisely what 37-year-old Belgian Paralympian Marieke Vervoort announced to the world this week. She said that sport was her main reason for living, and spoke of the suffering she endures because of her chronic, degenerative - though not imminently fatal - condition. 'I fight fear, sadness, suffering, frustration', she said. Although she was 'still enjoying every little moment. When the moment comes when I have more bad days than good days, then I have my euthanasia papers.'
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EPC Euthanasia doco: The Euthanasia Deception - launch soon
Aug 25, 2016
Press Release "The Euthanasia Deception," a one-hour documentary that explores Belgium's 15 year experiment with euthanasia, will be available on September 12th. This thought-provoking, emotionally gripping film is a dire warning for the rest of the world, featuring powerful testimonies from Belgium and beyond of those devastated by the false ideology of 'mercy killing.'The film claims the following three perceptions regarding assisted suicide are false. First, that euthanasia and assisted suicide are a form of compassion. The second is the myth of autonomy: that decisions made between doctor and patient operate in a vacuum. And finally, that government 'safeguards' can truly protect the vulnerable.With expert analysis from both medical and legal professions, "The Euthanasia Deception" reveals the serious, long-term implications of assisted suicide laws, and argues that all of us become vulnerable when end-of-life care is handed over to lawmakers.
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Tyranny disguised as autonomy
Jul 05, 2016
by Paul Russell: Two memes dominate the pro-euthanasia rhetoric; choice and pain.Yet in a significant number of media stories featuring people who want access to euthanasia and assisted suicide we see that it is not pain that is the dominant driving factor; it is fear of the possibility of future pain and, most often the fear of loss of autonomy. The latter is often expressed in terms of not wishing to go to a nursing facility or hospital or loss of freedom of movement brought on by the accumulation of perhaps minor ailments associated with aging.
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Belgian Psychiatric euthanasia request based on sexual attraction.
Jun 10, 2016
Alex Schadenberg International Chair - Euthanasia Prevention Coalition BBC News has reported that a Belgium man, known as Sébastien, is seeking euthanasia based on psychological suffering in order to end his struggle with his sexual attractions.The BBC article by Jonathon Blake explains that in Belgium, euthanasia for psychological suffering requires three doctors to approve the act (one of the doctors should be a psychiatrist), The law says that they must be suffering incurable, constant and unbearable physical or psychological suffering. The article states:
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Rushing toward death - Euthanasia in the Netherlands.
Mar 31, 2016
Alex Schadenberg Executive Director - Euthanasia Prevention Coalition
In July 2014, Professor Theo Boer, who was member for nine years of a regional review committee in the Netherlands, wrote an article that was published in the Daily Mail urging the British parliament to reject assisted suicide. Boer then gave the Euthanasia Prevention Coalition permission to publish the full text of his article titled "Assisted Suicide: Don't go there."
On March 28. Professor Boer published a significant critique of the Netherlands Euthanasia law under the title: Rushing toward death?
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'Unthinkable in the beginning' the dynamics of euthanasia laws
Mar 17, 2016
by Paul Russell:
In a recent interview for a Portuguese television network, Dutch Professor Theo Boer gave, for mine, the clearest explanation yet of the situation in both Belgium and The Netherlands.The interview opens with Boer giving an overview: "For a considerable number of people, euthanasia has become part of their lifestyle; it has to do with controlling your destiny. In the beginning euthanasia was seen as a last resort in a situation of extreme physical suffering. Now, increasingly, euthanasia is considered to be a patient's right and is considered by some even to be a fashionable death."This from a man who not only once supported the Dutch euthanasia laws and who, for many years until 2014, was also a member of one of the Dutch Regional Euthanasia Evaluation Committees overseeing the practice of the law. "I was also relieved that I could quit because, in the last couple of years (I quit in 2014) I had considerable problems with my conscience because I saw that people were being euthanized in cases where, in my opinion, it was not necessary."
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Belgium: Crushing resistance - one clause at a time
Mar 04, 2016
Not only has the statute been subject to continual re-interpretation to the point where euthanasia for psychological reasons is now taking place, the parliament has also debated and passed an amendment to the 2002 law only two years ago that removed the lower age limit to now include children. In light of further and more recent events, it seems that change may be just around the corner once again. How does all this happen? While the words of a statute may stand, the conversation about interpretation never ceases. This is not necessarily evidence of some sinister plot by a person or group continually agitating for change. It is most likely simply the fact that while the lines may have been drawn at a certain place at a certain time, medical issues are rarely that neat and what may be a clear line in theory may well be somewhat blurred in practice. Add to that the possible sense of pressure on doctors, on the family, on the person themselves and even the ideal of informed consent will seem less important.It is simply not possible to construct a law that can defy and resist these pressures. That such pressures are extended and amplified by those whom we might call 'euthanasia enthusiasts' adds to the certainty that the story of the Belgian experiment with euthanasia is far from finished.
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Another euthanasia scandal behind the euthanasia curtain.
Feb 18, 2016
Another euthanasia scandal behind the euthanasia curtain. This article was written by Michael Cook and published by Careful.Another euthanasia scandal in Belgium. Two sisters have complained on a television program, Terzake, about the euthanasia of their sister. Tine Nys was 38 at the time and had broken up with her live-in boyfriend. On Christmas Eve 2009 she announced that she was going to be euthanased.
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Belgium 2015 euthanasia report: Deaths continue to rise.
Jan 29, 2016
By Alex SchadenbergExecutive Director, Euthanasia Prevention Coalition The 2015 Belgian euthanasia data indicates that the number of euthanasia deaths continue to increase. According to the Belgian media, in 2015, there were 2021 reported deaths by euthanasia, up from 1924 reported euthanasia deaths in 2014.But Wim Distelmans, the chairman of the euthanasia commission reminded the media that they cannot say for certain the actual number of euthanasia deaths. Distelmans stated:
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Battle lines drawn in Belgium over conscience
Jan 02, 2016
Family set to sue over 'non-euthanasia' in Catholic aged care home. Over recent weeks the issue of conscientious objection, or the 'conscience clause' in the Belgian euthanasia law has been brought into the spotlight by the assertion by the new Archbishop of Mechelen-Brussels, Jozef De Kesel, that he has the right to refuse Catholic hospitals and aged care facilities to co-operate with euthanasia.Euthanasia advocates both in academia and in the medical profession have bristled at the suggestion that institutions might say 'non' with many displaying a distinct and disturbing lack of understanding about the status of the 14 year old statute that allows doctors to kill their patients.
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