Belgian doctors charged after euthanizing autistic woman.

Alex Schadenberg
Executive Director - Euthanasia Prevention Coalition

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Tine Nys (center) with her sisters.

he Associated Press (AP) published an article by Maria Cheng that provided more information about the charges in the psychiatric euthanasia death of a Belgian woman. The AP article states that Tine Nys (38) had been diagnosed as having a form of Autism known as Asperger's.

• Three Belgian doctors face charges over euthanasia death for psychiatric reasons.

According to the AP article, the family of Tine Nys filed a criminal complaint against the doctors who participated in the euthanasia death and that the doctors, in the case, attempted to block the investigation.

Lieve Thienpont

The article reported that Dr Lieve Thienpont, the psychiatrist who approved the death, stated:

“We must try to stop these people,”

“It is a seriously dysfunctional, wounded, traumatized family with very little empathy and respect for others,”

If this is true, Thienpont, who has been criticized for her handling of other psychiatric euthanasia deaths, should have asked herself - Why has this family been wounded and traumatized?

• Another euthanasia scandal behind the euthanasia curtain.

The International Business Times reported that the family believes that Tine was falsely diagnosed as Autistic so that she would qualify for euthanasia. The family also claimed that the law was broken because Tine never received treatment. The IBTimes reported:

Her sisters, however, told investigators that her suffering was caused by a broken heart after a failed relationship and not by autism. They also accused the doctors of making a rushed decision. They said the law was broken because Nys was never treated for autism and hence it had not been proven that she was suffering “unbearably and incurably.”

Ludo Vanopdenbosch

Earlier this year, Maria Cheng wrote in an article published by the Associated Press that Ludo Vanopdenbosch resigned from the Belgian Euthanasia Commission over their approval of a euthanasia death of a person with severe dementia who never requested euthanasia. His resignation letter stated:

The most striking example took place at a meeting in early September, ... when the group discussed the case of a patient with severe dementia, who also had Parkinson's disease. To demonstrate the patient's lack of competence, a video was played showing what Vanopdenbosch characterized as "a deeply demented patient." 

The patient, whose identity was not disclosed, was euthanized at the family's request... There was no record of any prior request for euthanasia from the patient.

Recently the Public Prosecutor in the Netherlands charged a doctor in the euthanasia death of a woman with dementia  who previously stated that she wanted to die by euthanasia, but at the time of the euthanasia, she said NO. According to the case, the doctor put a sedative in her coffee and then had the family hold her down while completing the lethal injection.