Death tourism is growing in Belgium.

Alex Schadenberg
Executive Director - Euthanasia Prevention Coalition

John Crisp reported for the Telegraph news today that the number of euthanasia death tourists is rising in Belgium. Crisp suggests that the EU healthcare rules have facilitated this growth.

According to Crisp:

There has been an increase in the number of patients travelling from EU countries where euthanasia is illegal to die in Belgium, where so-called "mercy killings" have been legal since 2002.

In 2016 and 2017, 23 foreign patients were brought to Belgium to be helped to die. One unnamed French doctor even applied to come to Belgium on a regular basis with terminally ill patients.

Crisp points out that EU regulations allow physicians to practise medicine in other EU countries.

A 2005 EU directive allows for medical qualifications to be recognised in another EU member state. Critics have blamed the law for making euthanasia tourism easier because it allows doctors accompanying a patient to another EU country to practice there.

Coffin leaving a Swiss suicide clinic

Swiss suicide clinics have encouraged suicide tourism as a profitable enterprise for several years. 

I am concerned that the Belgium euthanasia clinic will turn death tourism into a profitable business.