The following article was written by Dr Kevin Fitzpatrick and published on November 27 by CNN under the title: Euthanasia: We can live without it.
Editor's note: Dr. Kevin Fitzpatrick is director of the Euthanasia Prevention Coalition Europe, a
group dedicated to opposing the legalization of euthanasia and promoting
palliative care. The opinions in this commentary are solely his.
 |
| Kevin Fitzpatrick |
(CNN) --
Disabled people, elderly people, adults made vulnerable by terminal and other
illnesses, and now children are being told that their lives are not worth
living.
This view was forcefully
expressed by Professor Etienne
Vermeersch in a recent public debate on euthanasia in Brussels. One of the
authors of Belgium's controversial euthanasia law, Vermeersch said it had been
specifically designed to include disabled people.
For Vermeersch it seemed obvious
that "a man with no arms or legs" would want to die.
Without conscience or insight
into the discrimination of choosing only disabled people as examples, he
shouted at a member of the audience "Just wait until you are
paralysed." A paraplegic wheelchair-user for forty years, I was sitting
directly in front of him, and had spoken before the debate.
His chilling and very final
solution to suffering is to remove the sufferer. His zealous delivery caused a
frisson in the room amongst most (though sadly not all) of the audience. With
its clear echoes, this discourse from a government adviser was shocking.
 |
| Alex Schadenberg |
Earlier in the same debate, Alex Schadenberg of
the Euthanasia Prevention Coalition had pointed out that the law in
Belgium is just not safe:
- Nearly half (47%) of euthanasia deaths are not reported (according to a study carried out in Flanders in 2007): This is illegal.
- Euthanasia deaths should be carried out by doctors, but according to a 2007 study, nurses are doing them: This is illegal.
- Some euthanasia deaths are carried out without request (according to a 2007 study in Flanders): This is illegal.
Dr. Jan Bernheim, a leading
promoter of euthanasia, admitted that there are problems with Belgium's
euthanasia law. But despite its "imperfections" he still believes it
should be extended to children.
Bernheim argued euthanasia was
necessary to remove suffering: yet pain is hardly ever the reason for seeking
euthanasia. In fact, any palliative care specialist will say no-one should ever
be in intolerable pain.
Bernheim claims Dr. Wim Distelmans as his protege: Distelmans recently
ended the life of Nancy/Nathan Verhelst, in front of TV cameras. After a series
of botched sex-change operations, in the absence of other support, Verhelst sought refuge in death
by euthanasia.
The Belgian commission to regulate
the practice of euthanasia has never referred a case of
euthanasia to prosecutors (and
remember only half of those are reported). It is co-chaired by Distelmans. It
is fundamentally unsafe that the most high-profile doctor in Belgium to carry
out euthanasia is also the regulator.
Distelmans also carried out the
euthanasia of Mark and Eddy Verbessem,
45-year-old identical twins, who were deaf and decided they wanted
to die after their eyesight began to fail.
Anorexic Ann G. also
opted to have her life ended after being sexually abused by the Belgian psychiatrist
who was supposed to be treating her for her life-threatening condition.
The core of good clinical
governance is patient safety but under Belgium's euthanasia laws that is
sacrificed in the name of individual choice. Verhelst, the Verbessems and Ann
G. -- bereft of support -- felt they had no choice but death.
The European Social Rights
Committee has
condemned Belgium for violation of the European
Social Charter because
of its lack of social care. It is little wonder that disabled Belgian people
fall into terminal despair, but that does not validate euthanasia becoming a
"treatment" for depression as it has in Belgium.
Killing someone by lethal
injection is ot an act of medicine: it comes when medicine apparently has
nothing left to offer.
With a 500% increase in
euthanasia in Belgium in ten years, it is crystal clear that the law in Belgium nis not safe; we cannot stand by as they try to extend that law to children.
The opinions in this commentary are solely those of Dr. Kevin Fitzpatrick.
Links to similar articles:
The Great Euthanasia Debate.
Belgium euthanasia promoter admits that there are problems with the Belgian euthanasia law.
Links to similar articles:
The Great Euthanasia Debate.
Belgium euthanasia promoter admits that there are problems with the Belgian euthanasia law.
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