The right to die
Belgium legalizes child euthanasia
Andrey Sidorchik, AIFIn Belgium, a new law will be finally approved in the near future, which some call extremely humane, while others call it very cruel and even criminal.
The Belgian RevolutionOn February 13, the House of Representatives of the Belgian Parliament officially approved a law allowing child euthanasia in the country.
86 deputies voted "For", 44 "against", 12 abstained. Earlier, the bill has already received the approval of the Senate and the Ministry of Justice of the country. Now it must be signed by the King of Belgium, and 10 days after the publication of the law in the official press, child euthanasia in the country will become legal.
Supporters of the bill, including center-left, liberals and greens, say that in no case is it about killing sick children, from whom parents want to get rid of. A terminally ill child is simply given the opportunity to decide for himself whether he wants to prolong his days, or prefers to leave with dignity.
The law establishes a strict framework for child euthanasia: the child must be in a hopeless state from the point of view of medicine, experiencing constant and unbearable suffering that cannot be alleviated, and which will soon lead to death.
In addition to the decision of the child himself, the consent of the parents is also required. Critics pay attention to a controversial point – the law does not specify what will happen if the father and mother disagree. In addition, the correspondence of the child's condition to that in which euthanasia is allowed must be confirmed by doctors and psychologists.
The Netherlands became the first country to legalize euthanasia for adults in 1984. 18 years later, Belgium adopted a similar law. Euthanasia is also legal in Switzerland, Luxembourg and in a number of US states.
The revolutionary nature of the new Belgian law is that it does not establish any age standards at all. Even in the Netherlands, only persons over the age of 12 have the right to euthanasia. In Belgium, from now on, voluntary retirement becomes a right even for preschoolers.
The number of people choosing euthanasia is growingEven in liberal Belgium, this approach has caused rejection among many.
The issue of child euthanasia has split not only among politicians and ordinary citizens, but even doctors.
Most specialists of hospices and palliative medicine centers opposed the innovation. A group of 160 pediatricians addressed an open letter to the authorities, demanding that the law be rejected.
Supporters of child euthanasia insist that we are talking about only a few cases a year when children can no longer be helped in any way, their suffering is terrible, and a doctor who has the opportunity to stop the torment cannot do this because the patient is a minor.
Opponents object – the beginning is a big trouble. In the first year of the law on euthanasia for adults, 200 people died thanks to it, in 2003 – already 360. And in 2012, 1,432 Belgians ended their existence with euthanasia, and this is a quarter more than in 2011.
The opponents of the law had their last hope – in the king. It was to him that the participants of the mass action held in Brussels addressed. They expect that the monarch will veto the bill.
What has progress come to?The situation in Belgium has also attracted attention abroad.
A Canadian doctor has recorded an appeal to the Belgian authorities, in which his 4-year-old daughter Jessica asks King Philippe of Belgium not to sign the law on child euthanasia.
Jessica was born with a severe form of heart disease. During the first examinations, the doctors came to the conclusion that the girl would live for several days at best. Formally, such a child falls under the new Belgian law.
However, Canadian surgeons chose to fight for the child's life to the end and did the almost impossible, snatching her from the clutches of death.
A strange trend is also alarming: in modern Europe, things are being legalized that begin to resemble those that were practiced in the 1930s and 1940s. Perhaps fear has big eyes, but the public execution and dismemberment of a giraffe in Denmark, which coincided with the adoption of the law on child euthanasia in Belgium, makes one think that progress in the European Union has moved down a dangerous path. I would really like to make a mistake in this.
Portal "Eternal youth" http://vechnayamolodost.ru14.02.2014