(Editor’s Note: Please be advised, this story is sad and almost unbelievable and our source CBS NATIONAL News is linked at the bottom. As usual, our award-winning site and worldwide team sources our stories every time.)
Because of Belgium’s euthanasia laws, three doctors are facing trial after being accused of certifying a woman as autistic so that she could die by euthanasia. The trial is the first of its kind since euthanasia was legalized in 2002. You can read that on the CBS NEWS link below.
In 2010, Tine Nys (pictured in the middle with her sisters) told two doctors and a psychiatrist that her suffering was “unbearable and incurable” so she could die by lethal injection.
(The video below about Tine is not in English and the only report we have on her story.)
“However, her family say that her suffering was down to a broken heart after the end of a relationship, not autism. Moreover, they say the law was broken because Ms Nys was never treated for autism and so it had not been established that her suffering was ‘incurable’. She died only two months after the diagnosis of autism was made, and the last treatment she had received for psychological problems was 15 years prior to her death.”1
Her sisters Lotte and Sophie have accused her physicians of making a rushed decision without treating her for autism.
“The 38-year-old had been diagnosed with Asperger’s syndrome, a mild form of autism, two months before she was euthanized by a doctor in an apparently legal killing that she had asked for.
Belgium is one of two countries, along with the Netherlands, where the euthanasia of people for psychiatric reasons is allowed if they can prove they have ‘unbearable and untreatable’ suffering. Among Belgians euthanized for mental health reasons, the most common conditions are depression, personality disorder and Asperger’s.”2
This is a warning for the rest of the world “how the most vulnerable groups in society are put at risk”1 after euthanasia becomes legal:1
- In Belgium, three children were killed by euthanasia in 2016 and 2017.
- 10% of cancer patients are euthanized, some without consent.
- This year, the Netherlands allowed a 29-year-old woman with mental illnesses to die by assisted suicide.
- Alcoholics, sex-abuse victims, and dementia sufferers also qualify and have died in these countries.
Regardless of what side of the argument you are on, it’s a topic that’s not going to go away and deserves discussion; if for no other reason than to put serious safeguards into place to protect the most vulnerable among us.
Depression is a serious issue that has very recently become more acceptable and mainstream to discuss. And that’s a good thing. If you are depressed and think you are alone, you are not. Help is available.
If you are feeling desperate or have any thoughts of suicide, please call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline, a toll-free number: 1-800-273-TALK (8255), call 911, or simply go to your nearest hospital emergency department.
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