At least 50 patients are euthanased each year for purely psychiatric reasons, says the leading figure in Belgian euthanasia, Dr Wim Distelmans. In an interview in the Belgian magazine Humo, he says:
Manic-depressive patients, in their manic moments, are capable of doing the most improbable things: plundering their bank accounts, staying for weeks in five-star hotels, buying several cars in a single day. At that stage they are not mentally competent, obviously. But in moments of depression, exhausted ... they are certainly competent. Then they can say, for example: "I have lived through crazy highs and lows for 30 years; I've tried everything to break that infernal cycle, including psychiatric hospitals, but now I'm back on the baseline, and I know I have a few weeks left before I'm sinking into the depths or rising to heights....
read « 50 or 60 Belgian patients euthanased annually for psychiatric reasons »
Belgium is mooting an unprecedented law that would allow the voluntary euthanasia of children.
Voluntary euthanasia is intentionally ending a life at the request of the patient. It is lawful, on various differing grounds, in several jurisdictions, including Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg...
read « Euthanasia for children is wrong »