Alex Schadenberg
Executive Director, Euthanasia Prevention Coalition
Genevieve Lhermitte killed her son and four daughters, aged three to 14, in the town of Nivelles on 28 February 2007, while their father was away.
She then tried to take her own life but failed, and ended up calling emergency services for help.
The 56-year-old was sentenced to life in prison in 2008, before being moved to a psychiatric hospital in 2019.
Gahagan reported that Lhermite died by euthanasia based on psychological suffering. The report stated:
In Belgium the law allows for people to choose to be euthanised if they are deemed to be suffering from "unbearable" psychological, and not just physical, suffering that cannot be healed.Lhermitte likely died on February 28 to finish what she had started 16 years earlier. Gahagan reported:
The person must be conscious of their decision and be able to express their wish in a reasoned and consistent manner.
Psychologist Emilie Maroit told the RTL-TVI channel that Lhermitte likely chose to die on 28 February in a "symbolic gesture in respect for her children".
"It may also have been for her to finish what she started, because basically she wanted to end her life when she killed them," the psychologist said.
In March 2021 Canada expanded the euthanasia law to include euthanasia for mental illness that included a two year moratorium for implementation. Recently the Canadian government introduced Bill C-39 to delay the implementation of euthanasia for mental illness until March 17, 2024.
2 comments:
She didn’t die by euthanasia out of respect for her children. Serving her full prison sentence and showing remorse would have been showing a little bit of respect for her children who she murdered. She died by euthanasia because she was suicidal.
Understanding the highly dysfunctional environment in which she was living could be a valuable insight into her devolution into severe mental illness. Her husband was attending university and living with a family friend, a doctor, who helped financially support him. When she married her husband they moved into the apartment of the doctor and all lived together. Her husband never finished university and they were dependent on the doctor for financial support. She had two children before they ALL moved to a house bought and paid for by the doctor. Her husband began working for the doctor. As the family expanded they moved into a larger house paid for by the doctor who lived on the second floor of the house. The situation of living in a dependent situation with the doctor became a point of contention between the couple and the wife’s untreated postpartum depression was finally addressed by her going to a psychiatrist. Her mental illness was severe and uncontrolled when she murdered her children and attempted to kill herself. THE DOCTOR WITH WHOM THEY LIVED WAS AN EXPERT WITNESS AT HER TRIAL! The incestuous nature of this adult triad was seriously dysfunctional. She blamed the doctor for what drove her to the extreme of murder, but her husband had also failed to become an adult and ceded his responsibility to the doctor.
None of this is a good reason for this mother to murder her children nor is it good reason for her to be euthanised on the date she committed her heinous acts. If anything it is disrespectful to her children and their memory because it is a selfish impulse to complete a vengeful act. No respect is apparent to me, only selfish escape from accountability.
She was a murderer, and she got away with the deaths of her children, and now got away with paying the penalty for their deaths. What an evil person, and an evil system. Yet she will stand on judgement day and answer to God himself and then will pay for her sins. Yeah says Jesus "You are of your father the devil, and your will is to do your father’s desires. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks out of his own character, for he is a liar and the father of lies."
Post a Comment