Belgian Neurologist challenges euthanasia death of 23-year-old with PTSD.

Alex Schadenberg
Executive Director, Euthanasia Prevention Coalition

Wesley Smith wrote an excellent article that was published on October 7 by National Review online concerning a 23-year-old Belgian woman with PTSD caused by an ISIS Terrorist attack, who died by euthanasia.

An article by Steve Warren that was published by CBNNews on October 10 further examines the story. Warren reported:

A young Belgian woman who survived the Islamic State terror attack in the Brussels airport in 2016 chose to end her own life after suffering from severe depression and PTSD for years following the incident.

Now Belgian prosecutors are investigating the case after receiving complaints from a local neurologist who told them the decision to euthanize Shanti De Corte, 23, "was made prematurely."

Warren explains that De Corte was a 17-year-old high school student when on March 22, 2016 she was traveling with a group of classmates to Italy. The teenagers were walking through the departure lounge of the Belgian airport in Zaventem when Islamic State terrorists detonated a bomb.

Warren states that De Corte had escaped the explosion without any physical wounds. However, the mental toll on the teenager left her with constant panic attacks and periods of dark depression. De Corte was under the care of a psychiatric hospital in her hometown of Antwerp and she was taking anti-depressants, but she tried to kill herself on two separate occasions in 2018 and 2020. De Corte died in May 2022 after two psychiatrists approved her death by euthanasia.

I hope that the Belgian authorities truly investigate this death. The Belgian euthanasia commission lacks effective independence since the chair of the committee also operates a euthanasia clinic. Living with PTSD is a difficult decision but De Corte was very young to be determined to have an "unremittant" condition.