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. Continue reading

Can a Belgian hospital or nursing home refuse to take part in euthanasia deaths? The law can determine the answer to that question entirely by a decision of the parliament or the courts. The hospital, the aged care facility or, more appropriately, the network to which they belong, may also decide for themselves. If that decision is at odds with the law, then there may be consequences - but that does not take away the institution's right to make that determination. What most certainly may be at peril in such circumstances would be the institution's right to make such a decision without loss of freedom or privilege on a par with similar other institutions that have taken the opposite view.The newly installed Archbishop of Mechelen-Brussels, Jozef De Kesel, has prized open this 'can of worms' in Belgium in his recent statement asserting the right of Catholic hospitals and aged care services to refuse to co-operate. That they currently do co-operate - many under formal protocols - is a significant concern but not the focus of this article. Continue reading

De Standaard newspaper is reporting today that, for the very first time since its inception in October 2002, the Belgian Euthanasia Commission has referred a reported euthanasia case to the judiciary for review. The case in question is well known as it was recorded by the Australian SBS TV Network reporter, Brett Mason, in a Dateline documentary aired in Australia in September. As Mason reported:"Simona de Moor is a physically healthy 85-year-old. She lives in a care home in Antwerp, but is still active and on no medication. Continue reading

When discourse descends into ad hominem By Paul Russell: The name and the story of Belgian chemist, Dr Tom Mortier, is known throughout the world. His physically well mother, was clinically depressed. Yet she was euthanased without his knowledge in Belgium. He and his sister were left to pick up the pieces. Continue reading

By Dr Kevin Fitzpatrick OBE Director of the Euthanasia Prevention Coalition International.Spokesperson - Not Dead Yet UK Campaign. Originally published on Alex Schadenberg's blog.  (Link to a PDF of the article)Belgium's leading euthanasia practitioner recently conducted a 'study tour' of Auschwitz (reported in Der Spiegel Nov 21, 2014). His group of seventy included doctors, psychologists and nurses from Belgium, all in favour of euthanasia; with no-one to challenge their world-view that they are right in taking the lives of other human beings. One is a psychiatrist, deliberating a request for euthanasia by a man with bi-polar disorder who loses thousands gambling during his manic phases. That such a request can be considered at all shows just how far they have travelled already in Belgium under Wim Distelmans. Continue reading

Media from across the globe are reporting on the planned euthanasia death of long-term Belgian prison inmate, Frank Van Den Bleeken. Van Den Bleeken applied for euthanasia originally in 2010. He has been in prison for thirty years and is serving a life sentence for sexual crimes including rape. The Dutch news service, Volksrant says that Van Den Bleeken was determined to be criminally insane by the Belgian Courts after being tried for numerous rapes, one including murder. He is reported as saying that he is a 'menace to society' and, on those grounds has refused any consideration for parole. Yet he also says that the conditions in his internment are 'inhumane'. Volksrant clarifies Van Den Bleeken's intolerable situation:"Due to lack of space in the psychiatric institutions more than 1,100 forensic psychiatric patients just sit in jail, where they hardly get therapy.Thirty years Van den Bleeken is in a cell, without any hope of change."I'm sitting here in a sort of sarcophagus, to wait until I die," he said in a documentary." Continue reading

News reports today say that Poppe has confessed to in the Sacred Heart Hospital in Menen from the 1980s up to 2011. Up until 2002 Poppe was a nurse at the hospital and,thereafter worked in a part time capacity as a pastoral assistant.killing up to 50 people Continue reading

Mortier along with Dr Georges Casteur, allege that Distelmans did not have the expertise to evaluate whether Godelieva De Troyer, was ready for voluntary euthanasia. Distelmans is an oncologist, not a psychiatrist and was not even De Troyer's doctor beforehand. She was physically healthy and not suffering from physical pain, and had spoken with psychiatrists who thought that her emotional distress was at least treatable. In fact, she was taking medication at the time, which can cause suicidal ideation - so clearly a treatment plan was in place and it may have been causing serious side-effects. Distelmans, it seems, did not take that into account.  Continue reading

This is simply and breathtakingly cruel. But cruelty seems to be off the Belgian moral register when it comes to euthanasia. Logan's Run?More like Soylent Green with glee.  Continue reading

Philosophers with no suspicion that anything is beyond their professional competence, or may be too deep for their individual talent, 'mistake [their] vices for the virtue of thinking radically, courageously...', [and they] have contributed to a drive that feeds an aggressive and now much less self-reflective lobby, who make the same mistake of vice for virtue. (Rai Gaita, 1991)  Continue reading