Should children and incompetent persons be euthanized in Belgium?

The AFP has reported that the Belgian legislators are debating extending euthanasia to Children, primarily newborns with disabilities and incompetent people with Alzheimers disease or dementia. The AFP article that is titled: Belgium debates euthanasia for minors stated that: 

Belgian legislators opened a debate Wednesday on whether to amend a decade-old law on euthanasia to cover minors, being told by experts that it was already taking place in practice without any set guidelines. 

Currently, the law applies to those over 18 but one expert told the upper house of parliament that it was clear that euthanasia was being carried out on younger people, the Belga news agency reported. 

"We all know it," said Dominique Biarent, head of intensive care at Queen Fabiola Children's University Hospital in Brussels. 

Faced with this reality, "doctors need a legal framework," Biarent was quoted as saying by Belga. 

It is clear that the guidelines that govern the Belgian euthanasia law including the prohibition of euthanizing children, are being abused and ignored.

Recent studies on the practise of the Belgian euthanasia law have found that:

1. 32% of all assisted deaths, in the Flanders region of Belgium, were done without consent,

2. Nurses are killing patients by assisted death, even though the law clearly prohibits nurses from doing it.

The AFP article then stated:

Another expert, Professor Chris Van Geet of Leuven University, said the proposed changes pose "an enormous ethical problem." 

The changes to the law, which would also include sufferers of Alzheimer's disease, were submitted to parliament in December and it is likely to be several months before any decision is taken on them. 

Belgium was the second country in the world after the Netherlands to legalise euthanasia in 2002. 

A total of 1,133 instances -- mostly for terminal cancer -- were recorded in 2011, about one percent of all deaths in the country, according to official figures. 

A recent study also found that 47% of all assisted deaths in the Flanders Region of Belgium were not reported. 

Therefore the actual number of assisted deaths in Belgium, reported and unreported, are likely greater than 2000 per year.

For more information read the article: Euthanasia is out-of-control in Belgium.

Order the book: Exposing Vulnerable People to Euthanasia and Assisted Suicide.