Children are being euthanized in Belgium

By Jonathon Van Maren

Last fall, I described a major push by Canada’s suicide activists to expand the eligibility for assisted suicide in this country to include children in my column for LifeSiteNews. Some parents, in fact, have already been inquiring of doctors as to whether they could have their infant children euthanized—nearly fifty of them, in fact. These were noncommunicative infants—children who could by definition not request assisted suicide.

This slippery slope, which we have been skittering down for quite some time now, is going to lead us to a very dark place. In Belgium, several news sources are reporting, the euthanasia of children has already begun:

Belgian doctors have euthanized three minors in the past two years, according to a report from the nation’s chief euthanasia regulatory body released earlier this month.

The report, produced by Belgium’s Federal Commission for Euthanasia Control and Evaluation, said these three minors were the first to be euthanized since the country’s parliament voted to lift age restrictions on euthanasia in the country, the first such law in the world. Euthanasia for adults has been legal in Belgium since 2002.

“There is no age for suffering,” said Professor Wim Distelmans, chairman of the euthanasia committee. “Fortunately, euthanasia among young people remains very exceptional. Even if it were only one, the law would have been very useful. “

The minors were 9, 11 and 17 years old, according to the report. Their conditions ranged from muscular dystrophy to brain tumors to cystic fibrosis. The conditions of all three were determined to be terminal, and euthanasia was approved unanimously by the committee.

Just think of it for a moment. Children are being given lethal injections by medical professionals, because death is now their “right” and the cost of killing them is now covered by the nanny state. We don’t allow nine-year-old children to vote, or smoke, or drive—but we can allow them to be killed.

We have lost our way, and these dead children are more evidence of that tragic fact.

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For anyone interested, my book on The Culture War, which analyzes the journey our culture has taken from the way it was to the way it is and examines the Sexual Revolution, hook-up culture, the rise of the porn plague, abortion, commodity culture, euthanasia, and the gay rights movement, is available for sale here.