Safeguards do little to control euthanasia in Belgium.

This article was published on March 27 by OneNewsNow.

Alex Schadenberg

Promised safeguards and controls for euthanasia and doctor assisted-suicide in Belgium apparently aren't working, according to the latest study.

In 2007, a study was conducted in Belgium, and figures released in the most recent examination of the practice from 2013 show it is problematic. Alex Schadenberg of the Euthanasia Prevention Coalition tells OneNewsNow experts researched over 3,700 deaths.

“And in that data they learned that 4.6 percent of all the deaths were euthanasia, which is significant and huge,” he explains. “On top of that, they found that 1.7 percent of all deaths were what they call 'hastened deaths without request.'”

In other words, doctors or nurses decided to kill an ailing person who had not requested euthanasia.

According to Schadenberg, the absence of estimates on unreported cases is glaringly apparent. He says the practice is so out of control that even people suffering depression are assisted to die.

“So the fact is that there is a serious problem, and the Belgium government needs to stop it,” he tells OneNewsNow. “The problem with euthanasia right off the bat is once you allow someone else to cause your death, once you allow in law that someone else can kill you, the one question remaining is for what reason? And when they are promoting this to people they always say, Oh, but we will have safeguards.”

But Schadenberg says the regulations are neither safe nor do they guard against abuse. He says that's also true in states in America where assisted suicide has been legalized.

• Almost half of all Belgian euthanasia deaths may not have been reported.
• New study: Euthanasia represents 4.6% of all deaths in Flanders Belgium in 2013, deaths without patient request continue.
• More than 1000 deaths may have been hastened  without explicit request in 2013 in Belgium.