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I met Louis in his retirement home. For several years, we meet regularly. Lately, Louis had won a medal because it was him who had walked the longest distance across the house. He proudly wore it everyday.

Louis - who had relapsed for a mental problem already successfully treated before - was hospitalized for pneumonia. I went to see him everyday. He had no family who could take care of him. My visits made ??us both happy. It gratified me every time with a wonderful smile which he had the secret...

read « Louis was my friend... »

Belgian professor Tom Mortier got a shocking message at work last year informing him that his 64-year-old mother, who had been struggling with depression, received a lethal injection a day earlier.

Since his mother's death, Mortier, who lectures on chemistry at the University College Leuven, has questioned and criticized Belgian law allowing euthanasia...

read « Dying-with-dignity laws can hit a slippery slope »

The latest euthanasia scandal in Belgium shows that some doctors have discovered an easy way to dispose of some of their medical failures. They can kill them. Legally.

Last Monday afternoon the victim of a botched sex reassignment surgery was euthanased by the country's leading euthanasia doctor, Wim Distelmans. Cameramen from a local TV station filmed the lethal injection...

read « The latest euthanasia scandal in Belgium »

Who are we to decide the life or death of another person, too weak, too fragile, too limited by his mental capacities and/or physical capabilities?

How can we, despite the recognition of the loss of dignity of a life, decide to end prematurely a life of which we see only the tip of the iceberg...

read « Who are we to decide the life or death of another person? »

This sentence,from the proposal No. 5-1610/1 (pg2), raises in me a lot of questions. And I say to myself, reading this, that both for the parents and the child, the choice must be very painful.

In considering the matter from the point of view of the child, I even think that the choice by his parents must be crucifying. What is a suffering child to expect from his parents, his dad, his mom, if not love, affection? When we are sick, when we suffer, what do we wish other than to cling to the hope of healing? How will parents announce their decision to the child who "does not have judgment capacity? How will they take leave from the child they've entrusted the care of death...

read « When the child does not possess "judgment capacity", his/her parents may request euthanasia »

After working for a decade in a hematology-oncology service and another ten years in a palliative care service, I arrived, in all fairness to the conclusion that euthanasia is not the real answer expected by sick and severe suffering people. If the goal of medicine is "to serve life and promote health," there are other ways, more civilized and more responsible, to get there than to take life away to remove mental suffering or rebel pain.

I am even more appalled today to the proposed extension of decriminalization of euthanasia, concerning the "demented" patients in the early declaration and children suffering from an incurable disease, being in a situation of insatiable suffering...

read « Euthanasia in all its forms! »

The current euthanasia debate in Quebec (NDLR and in Belgium) frightens me. As a woman of a certain age, I fear I am heading into a future where I may lose meaningful control of my life. Whether I live or die may hinge on the kindness of individuals unknown to me, perhaps nurses or doctors, who will be put in the position of determining my worth.

If I'm lucky and live past my retirement, evidence of all the things I've accomplished in my career will be gone. How will I look as a 75 year-old to myself and others? How will I be judged...

read « Euthanasia puts the elderly at risk »