First interdisciplinary study of Belgian euthanasia published
by Michael Cook, Bio Ege:
A book from Cambridge University Press to be released next week takes a critical look at euthanasia in Belgium. Euthanasia and Assisted Suicide: Lessons from Belgium features essays on legal, philosophical and medical issues, as well as how euthanasia affects vulnerable populations, with a number of authors from Belgium and the UK.
The editors, David Albert Jones, of the Anscombe Bioethics Centre, Oxford; Chris Gastmans, of the Faculty of Medicine at KU Leuven in Belgium; and Calum MacKellar, of the Scottish Council on Human Bioethics, say that the volume is the first interdisciplinary study of Belgian euthanasia. The authors point out that
- The system is not transparent. Just 16 members of a euthanasia commission are supposed to oversee thousands of euthanasia cases.
- The system relies on self-reporting. Of the thousands of reported cases, only one has been referrrd to a public prosecutor and it is estimated that only half of all cases are even reported.
- Since legalisation in 2002, euthanasia has been “normalised”, with more and more cases of life-ending without request.
- A leading palliative care doctor who is sympathetic to euthanasia warned in 2013 that “once the barrier of legalistation is passed, [euthanasia] tends to develop a dynamic of its own and extend beyond agreed restrictions”.
- “Continuous deep sedation” is increasingly being used as a means of euthanasia.
They conclude: