Topic: Euthanasia for childs voted in Belgium

From deredactie.be (belgian news website)

The lower house of the Belgian Parliament has backed legislation that will allow euthanasia to be carried out on children. Belgium now joins the Netherlands as one of the few countries where euthanasia involving under 18's is possible.

The legislation provides a number of safeguards. Euthanasia can only be carried out on under 18's if their suffering is unbearable and they are terminally ill.

The children have to be in full possession of their mental skills and have to request the intervention themselves. The children's parents have to give a written authorisation and psychological support from a medical team must be provided.

Belgium was the second country in the world after the Netherlands to introduce euthanasia for adults in 2002. The present legislation involves an extension of the existing law.

Any thoughts?

Re: Euthanasia for childs voted in Belgium

Eh, I guess I'll try and spark the debate this time.  tongue

It requires the OK of the child, the OK of the parents, and "psychological support" before being carried out.  Now, I would like to know more about what "psychological support" entails (i.e., whether a medical examiner has veto power over an individual's choice due to mental instability on the part of the child).  However, if the child and parents are both represented, and the state is represented in ensuring the mental stability of the child about to undertake the decision, it seems as if all interests in the event are represented.

And before someone says "what about ____'s general interest in preserving life," that isn't a discussion germane to this debate because it's true of all euthanasia, not Belgium's issue here of expanding an existing euthanasia regime to include minors.  Sure, that's a debate that can be had, but it's not the interesting debate in this thread.

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3 (edited by The Yell 14-Feb-2014 02:12:52)

Re: Euthanasia for childs voted in Belgium

If they want to die they are not in full possession of their mental faculties.   This sort of nonsense is going to lead to hundreds of teen girls killing themselves for being fat and lonely and the authorities refusing to step in.  It's their RIGHT!

We know from the Dutch example that dozens of patients were killed without making a request.  And then we have the example of the Liverpool Care Pathway which does the same thing by withholding water, without patient's requesting it.

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Re: Euthanasia for childs voted in Belgium

And before someone says "what about ____'s general interest in preserving life," that isn't a discussion germane to this debate because it's true of all euthanasia, not Belgium's issue here of expanding an existing euthanasia regime to include minors.  Sure, that's a debate that can be had, but it's not the interesting debate in this thread.

That is like opening a thread on Dutch sex slaves and then saying you don't want to hear about the UN Charter cause that goes beyond the fun of Dutch sex slavery.

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Re: Euthanasia for childs voted in Belgium

What I can choose for myself, the state can ordain for me.  Especially medical care if I'm "incapable" of deciding, in the state's opinion.

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Re: Euthanasia for childs voted in Belgium

The Yell wrote:

If they want to die they are not in full possession of their mental faculties.   This sort of nonsense is going to lead to hundreds of teen girls killing themselves for being fat and lonely and the authorities refusing to step in.  It's their RIGHT!

We know from the Dutch example that dozens of patients were killed without making a request.  And then we have the example of the Liverpool Care Pathway which does the same thing by withholding water, without patient's requesting it.

Mind telling me what country Liverpool is in?  big_smile

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Re: Euthanasia for childs voted in Belgium

United Kingdom

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Re: Euthanasia for childs voted in Belgium

you are aware this involuntary euthanasia thing in holland is fictional, right?

as far as lonely fat girls requesting euthanasia en masse (teehee), surely that'd be stopped by either their parents and/or the psychological report. its not a matter of feeling blue for 5 minutes, walking to the local apothecary and being served with a lethal dose.

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Re: Euthanasia for childs voted in Belgium

Error, Oregon was first with "doctor assisted suicide".

Oregon has been rocked with scandal as some people with cancer and other potentially terminal diseases asked for experimental medicines which showed great promise to be turned down by the Oregon public health system and in the same letter being told that they qualify for full funding of the doctor assisted suicide if they desire.

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Re: Euthanasia for childs voted in Belgium

Oh and in England doctors can withdraw help from infants who have no chance to survive only they found out some doctors were declaring it on children with plenty of chance for life. There have been hearings.

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11 (edited by The Yell 14-Feb-2014 18:27:37)

Re: Euthanasia for childs voted in Belgium

>.you are aware this involuntary euthanasia thing in holland is fictional, right?<<

Not according to the Dutch government.

>>as far as lonely fat girls requesting euthanasia en masse (teehee), surely that'd be stopped by either their parents and/or the psychological report. its not a matter of feeling blue for 5 minutes, walking to the local apothecary and being served with a lethal dose.<<

I worked copying medical records in ahospital with a bulimic unit.  I'd have to go up there to copy the files for the court appearance because the girl was being committed.  It's not cheerful seeing a 45 kilo teen who drinks 12 cans of soda to vomit all her food up to lose fat.  Right now, if they wanted actually to die,  it would be proof of mental illness. The desire itself would be mental illness.  We gain nothing by saying, "OK wait, maybe she's got a point".

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Re: Euthanasia for childs voted in Belgium

"I hate my life! I want to DIE"

"OK let's see...nope sorry you don't qualify to die"

Yeah that'll help.

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Re: Euthanasia for childs voted in Belgium

My grandpa was given 6 months to live, 15 years ago. Still the same breathing grumpy man.

Sometimes terminal is not.

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Re: Euthanasia for childs voted in Belgium

you don't have to be terminal to get euthanized. in fact, it has nothing to do with it. it's the pain and joy of life that matters.

and chris, that's cause for improvement on your medical sector, not a counter argument for this.

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Primo

15 (edited by Little Paul 14-Feb-2014 23:22:15)

Re: Euthanasia for childs voted in Belgium

Some more info:

Every doctor can choose not to do it. If the question is put to a doctor multiple times by a child and he wants to go further with it, he has to consult a second doctor first. A third doctor needs to examine if the child is capable of making rational decisions about the matter. If he decides this is not the case, he can veto the procedure. (Most importantly I don't know if they can try to counter it in any way from that point on but found nothing about it in sources on the internet). The medical team needs to examine every alternative solution and supply info to the parents.

In contrast to adults, a child needs to be terminally ill (sorry Primo tongue). Or that is what they told us in the media, I didn't read the entire law. Only a few children each year have the right conditions for this law to apply, and even fewer of them will proly make use of it.

16 (edited by Little Paul 14-Feb-2014 23:20:21)

Re: Euthanasia for childs voted in Belgium

@yell:
You don't see the economics in this. In 2 or 3 generations, the fat or lonely girls will extinct, and you don't even have to pay for gas or something like that.

but on a more serious note, it does not apply to them as they are not terminally ill. Also you have to suffer physically without any future chance on improvement.

Re: Euthanasia for childs voted in Belgium

children need to hear that life is worth living and their despair can be corrected as a learned behavior

anything else is cruel and a waste of humans

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18 (edited by [TI] Primo 15-Feb-2014 00:38:26)

Re: Euthanasia for childs voted in Belgium

i wasnt talking about the this law with the terminally ill remark, it was a response to flint's grandpa-point.


and life is worth living? if you are only going to live a few weeks longer, and are in terrible pain? sure sounds like a fun life.

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Primo

Re: Euthanasia for childs voted in Belgium

I've never understood why suicide is illegal. If somebody wants to kill themselves, who are you to deny them that?

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Re: Euthanasia for childs voted in Belgium

" wasnt talking about the this law with the terminally ill remark, it was a response to flint's grandpa-point."
my mistake.

Re: Euthanasia for childs voted in Belgium

There are hundreds, thousands, probably more than tens of thousands who lost their joy in life then regained it.

This is a part of life.

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Re: Euthanasia for childs voted in Belgium

there's a difference between 'having lost joy in life' and being in insufferable pain.

i am pretty sure no decent psychiatrist would agree to euthanasia because of boredom.

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Primo

Re: Euthanasia for childs voted in Belgium

holds no weight with me, because I remember when no decent psychiatrist supported euthanasia.

The medical profession has no innate sense of morals, they must be governed by others not in their profession.  They proved that in the 20th century by supporting mass ethnic cleansing, euthanasia of "undesirables" and experimenting on lesser races, both in America and Europe and Asia

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Re: Euthanasia for childs voted in Belgium

*tries to like the The Yell posts...*

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Re: Euthanasia for childs voted in Belgium

look it up Einstein

Japan had a biowar unit that created fleas with bubonic plague, put them in clay pots and dropped them into Chinese villages

Hitler didn't go to German doctors and order them to kill the retarded and experiment giving disease to pregnant Jews and checking the effect of the disease at different stages of pregnancy by having scheduled abortions, adn freezing healthy people to death-- the doctors asked Hitler to be allowed to do those experiments

and of course you've heard about Tuskegee experiment, where healthy American blacks were given syphillis and no treatment by the Roosevelt Administration, and the bureaucrats in the Truman kept it going without telling them, and so did the Kennedy Admin, the Johnson Admin, and the Nixon Admin.  Did you also know that in 1922 the US Supreme Court upheld the mandatory involuntary sterilization of a mentally retarded woman because the state of Maryland had a compelling interest in her genes dying out?

and only recently they decided to experiment on millions of Americans needing CPR -- there's the old way, but they came up with a new way to save unconscious people.  Only, they don't know if it will work so well...so what they did was, you call 911, they show up, and half the time they use old CPR and half the time they'll use new CPR, and after a couple million tries they'll know if the new one is better or as good as the old one.  Let's hope they don't turn out to kill people who could have been saved if they just stuck to the old way.

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