Belgium's Culture of Death

“A healthy 24-year-old woman in Belgium made headlines recently when she announced that she was going to die by assisted suicide, not because of chronic pain or a terminal ailment, but because of her persistent suicidal thoughts. The woman, who gave only her first name, Laura, to the press is one of 50 people per year in Belgium who are allowed to get assisted suicides for psychiatric reasons alone. Belgium made history in 2002 when it legalized assisted suicide for people with unbearable pain, physical or psychological. Proponents of the law say it humanizes people with debilitating conditions by giving them the autonomy to end it all. Opponents of the law argue Belgian doctors often prescribe assisted suicide when the patient is not entirely out of other options. Since the law went into effect, about 10,600 people have taken their lives in Belgium via assisted suicide, about half of them between the ages of 70 and 90. But of the 1,924 people who were euthanized in 2014, about two to three percent were people suffering from psychiatric conditions, and many of them were younger, Professor Wim Distelmans, chairman of the federal commission for euthanasia, told Belgian publication Humo.”

“Thousands of people in Belgium,” Business Insider, Jul. 3, 2015

---