Executive Director - Euthanasia Prevention Coalition
Birrell writes in the interview:
As we sit in his cosy first-floor surgery in Antwerp, surrounded by books and mementos of his life in medicine, I ask this music-loving 57-year-old physician and president of Right To Die Flanders how many people he has personally killed since Belgium made euthanasia legal in 2002.
‘Maybe 140,’ he concludes after a quick calculation, adding that he has advised perhaps another 500 on euthanasia procedures. ‘But they did not all go through with it and die, of course.’
This astonishing toll is even higher than attributed to Jack Kevorkian, the infamous American right-to-die advocate who became known as ‘Dr Death’ after he claimed to have helped 129 ailing people end their lives before being convicted of second degree murder for his 130th.
Yet the Flemish doctor could – like Kevorkian – end up in prison. He cannot carry out any more mercy killings as he is being investigated by police over the euthanisation of an elderly woman in 2015 who was threatening to commit suicide after the sudden death of her daughter.
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| Simona de Moor |
Link to the: SBS Dateline special report: Allow me to die.
van Hoey is no stranger to the controversies associated with the application of Belgium's euthanasia laws. In a 2013 interview with Canada's National Post newspaper, he was candid in his assessment of the law and his approach to it:
Recently three Belgian doctors were informed that they will face a court hearing in the euthanasia death of Tine Nys (38), the first trial to take place since euthanasia was made legal in Belgium. Nys died by euthanasia for psychiatric reasons, but her family contend that she should not have been approved for euthanasia and that the death was carried-out in an amateur manner. According to the Brussels Times:
In Belgium there have been many other controversial euthanasia deaths such as:
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.
Belgium has a serious problem with euthanasia law abuse. By normalizing the killing of its citizens by doctors euthanasia has become out-of-control in Belgium and yet the world is just learning of how bad it has become.
van Hoey is no stranger to the controversies associated with the application of Belgium's euthanasia laws. In a 2013 interview with Canada's National Post newspaper, he was candid in his assessment of the law and his approach to it:
"Marc Van Hoey, a physician who performs euthanasia and is head of the Flemish death-with-dignity association, said there has been a shift toward euthanasia of what he called the high elderly.
“Recently I went to see a lady of 95 years old, sitting in a nursing home all by herself. All her friends and family had died. The only people she had good contact with were the nursing team. She said every evening she goes to bed, she hopes, ‘Don’t let me wake up any more,’ ” he said. He told her she was a candidate for euthanasia.
“Why do I say that? Because maybe if you say to that kind of person, ‘We are not going to give you euthanasia,’ they open the window on the fourth floor and jump down. And that’s traumatic for everyone.”
"Dr. Van Hoey is remarkably frank about how flexible the euthanasia law is. It requires a written request for euthanasia from a patient, but it can be written on a napkin, he said. The control commission has even approved euthanasia when there was no written request, taking the doctor’s word that an oral request had been made.
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| Tine Nys (center) with her sisters. |
The case concerns a 38-year-old woman, Tine Nys, who was euthanised in April 2010 at her request, as she suffered from psychological problems.
According to the patient’s family, Nys was not ill enough to meet the requirements of the euthanasia law as it was at that time. In addition, the procedure was carried out in an “amateurish” fashion, relatives said. A sister of the dead woman made a complaint, and the circumstances of the case were investigated by the Ghent prosecutor’s office.
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| Tom Mortier's depressed mother died by euthanasia. |
Another significant problem is the number of assisted deaths without explicit request in Belgium. According to the NEJM study:
In 2007, 1.8% of all deaths were hastened deaths without explicit request while in 2013, 1.7% of all deaths were hastened deaths without explicit request.
Last year, Dr Ludo Vanopdenbosch, a palliative care specialist, resigned from the Belgian euthanasia commission after the commission approved the death of a person who could not have consented to euthanasia. Vanopdenbosch stated in his resignation letter that:
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.
In 2014, Belgian euthanasia doctor, Mark Cosyns admitted that he doesn't report the euthanasia deaths.
Belgium has a serious problem with euthanasia law abuse. By normalizing the killing of its citizens by doctors euthanasia has become out-of-control in Belgium and yet the world is just learning of how bad it has become.
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