Belgium

New first for Belgium: prisoner euthanasia

Michael Cook | 16 September 2012

No doubt about it: Belgium is the place to be for creative applications of legalised euthanasia. Last year Belgian transplant surgeons revealed that they had harvested organs from four people who were voluntarily euthanased. Now it appears that one prisoner, a rapist-murderer, has already died after voluntary euthanasia and another has requested it.

Let’s give intellectually disabled the right to euthanasia, say Belgian humanists

Michael Cook | 27 April 2012

People with intellectual disabilities, all children and people with dementia should be able to request euthanasia, the Belgian Liberal Humanist Association (HVV) has declared.

Is the slippery slope at work in Belgium?

Michael Cook | 11 December 2011

The “slippery slope” is often derided as a logical fallacy. But when one of the leading advocacy groups for euthanasia in Belgium posts an article entitled “Euthanasie: tijd voor de volgende stap, Euthanasia, time for the next step”, it’s hard not to think that it may not be so illogical after all.

Belgian doctors are using organs from euthanased patients

Michael Cook | 13 June 2011

Using organs from euthanased patients seem to have become a well established procedure in Belgium, only nine years after it was legalized. A press release from a team at a hospital in Leuven announced last week that it had successfully transplanted lungs from four euthanased patients between 2007 and 2009.

Euthanasia makes it easier to have a customised funeral

Michael Cook | 31 March 2011

If you are up for some spine-chilling excitement, take a look at this video clip from Flanders News, in Belgium.

Belgian doctors harvest high quality organs from euthanased patients

Michael Cook | 25 January 2011

A group of Belgian doctors are harvesting “high quality” organs from patients who have been euthanased. This is not a secret project, but one which they described openly at a conference organised by the Belgian Royal Medical Academy in December.

Dignitas inspires prize-winning Belgian comedy

Michael Cook | 11 November 2010

A Belgian black comedy about assisted suicide has taken away the top prize at the Rome Film Festival. The Hollywood Reporter predicts that Please Kill Me will become a “cult hit” on the art house circuit.