Belgian law on euthanasia for children, with no age limit, will be first in world

After debate splitting professions, parliament due to pass law allowing euthanasia for terminally ill minors 'suffering unbearably'

The Guardian, Wednesday 12 February 2014 16.22 GMT

I think the debate on whether you own your own life (now you know where I stand) has reached new heights with this development: Belgium decides on euthanasia for children, under certain very restricted circumstances.


Following months of painful and divisive debate the Belgian parliament is expected to pass a law extending euthanasia – which has been possible in the country for the past 12 years – to minors.

Belgium is one of only three countries to have legalised euthanasia, the others being Luxembourg and the Netherlands. The Dutch also allow minors the right to die from the age of 12. Belgium will be the first to drop all age restrictions.


"It is not about deciding whether a child is or is not to die," said Daniel Baquelaine, an MP who backs the new law and who is also a doctor. "Death is coming quickly. It is therefore necessary to allow the child to express what he thinks of the end of life, about how to die."

A group of 160 paediatricians, opposed to giving children the right to die, said: "In practice, there is no objective method for determining whether a child is gifted with the ability of discernment and judgment. This is actually a largely subjective assessment and subject to influences."

The heated debate has split the medical, legal, and political professions, with the Catholic church staging prayer vigils in protest, and hospice and palliative care specialists stating themselves generally opposed.


What do you people think of this law? (Not law yet, but is thought to be soon.)

I haven't thought it through completely yet myself, but I can see that in a country where euthanasia is a right, it would seem unreasonable not to extent that right to terminally ill and severely suffering children.