On the Case: Issue 4

Belgium legislators allow euthanasia for children

In this fourth edition, Robert Pelletier reports on the recent introduction of laws to permit euthanasia of children in Belgium.

In 2002 Belgium legalized euthanasia. On Thursday 13 February 2014, the lower house of the Belgium Parliament voted overwhelmingly to extend the right to euthanasia to children of any age. This bill will become law when it is signed by the King.

According to the Guardian’s and the Time’s reports, the law will enable children to choose to be killed who are:

  • suffering from a terminal and incurable illness;
  • near death;
  • in constant and unbearable physical pain.

The choice must be agreed to by the parents and two doctors. One of the doctors must be a paediatrician psychiatrist or psychologist who certifies that the child has the discernment to understand what their choice means.

Holland allows children over the age of 12 to request euthanasia. Holland also de facto allows infanticide in certain circumstances pursuant to the Groningen Protocol which is sets up guidelines for taking the life of a new born baby born with a terminal condition. If these guidelines are met, the Dutch prosecutors will not prosecute those involved in the death even though infanticide is still illegal.1

Active euthanasia raises a host of ethical issues. In the case of the young there are real questions as to whether or not they are capable of making a free, fully informed decision. How does a young child appreciate the finality of this decision? We do not give children under 18 the right to vote. We restrict their right to consume alcohol and to view certain programs. They have to be 16 to get a driver’s licence. Pro euthanasia advocates, however, argue that some (at least) they have the understanding and, indeed the right, to enable them to choose to end their own life.

Even assuming that a child understands the import of his or her choice, it is legitimate to ask whether any pressure been applied by anguished, exhausted and well meaning parents, carers or health professionals for the child to reach “the right decision” that might suit everyone but the child’s best interests?

This extension of the euthanasia laws to children represents a major retreat from the medical ideal of above all, do no harm. This extension of euthanasia will alter the culture of the medical profession and of the community in unforeseen and possibly disastrous ways.

1 AA Edward Verhagen, 'The Groningen Protocol for newborn euthanasia; which way did the slippery slope tilt?' (2013) 39 Journal of Medical Ethics, 293 (http://jme.bmj.com.ipacez.nd.edu.au/content/39/5/293.full)