Thought Provoking ...
Deaf Belgian twins going blind
choose to be euthanized
USA Today
Distraught about going blind,
45-year-old deaf twin brothers from Belgium chose to be euthanized because they
couldn't bear not to see one another, according to reports from Flanders.
Marc and Eddy Verbessem of Putte
died Dec. 14 by lethal injection at Brussels University Hospital. Voluntary
euthanasia has been legal in Belgium since September 2002. Thought Provoking ...
The doctor who presided over the
euthanasia described the twins as being "very happy."
"It was a relief to see the
end of their suffering," David Dufour told Germany's RTL TV network.
"They had a cup of coffee in the hall, it went well, and a rich
conversation. The separation from their parents and brother was very serene and
beautiful. At the last, there was a little wave of their hands, and then they
were gone."
The twins, who were born deaf,
had spent their entire lives together. Both were cobblers, and they never
married or had children.
"They lived together, did
their own cooking and cleaning. You could eat off the floor. Blindness would
have made them completely dependent," their older brother, Dirk, told the
London Telegraph. "They did not want to be in an institution.
"Their great fear was that
they would no longer be able to see each other," he said. "That was
for my brothers unbearable."
He said he and their parents
tried to talk them out of it, but they were persuaded to let them die as they
wanted.
The brothers' hospital refused
their desire to end their lives, because doctors did not accept that they were
suffering unbearable pain, one of the major requirements, the Telegraph says.
Here's the law and researchers'
summary of what it requires:
To make a legitimate euthanasia
request, the patient must be an adult, must be conscious and legally competent
at the moment of making the request, and must be in a condition of constant and
unbearable physical or psychological suffering resulting from a serious and
incurable disorder caused by illness or accident, for which medical treatment
is futile and there is no possibility of improvement.
The physician decides whether the
disorder is incurable based on the actual state of medicine, and the patient
alone determines whether suffering is constant and unbearable. The physician
must have several conversations with the patient in which he ascertains whether
the patient experiences his/her suffering as constant and unbearable.
The physician must inform the
patient about their medical condition, prospects, and possible alternative
treatments, including palliative care. He must consult another independent
physician about the serious and incurable character of the condition. This
physician does not need to be a palliative care specialist.
From 2002 through the end of
2011, more than 5,500 Belgians chose euthanasia, the European Institute of
Bioethics reported last April. For 2011, the most recent figures, 1,133 people,
mostly suffering from terminal cancer, chose to end their lives.
In 9 per cent of declared cases
of euthanasia, death was not imagined in the very short term. The most often
declared illnesses mentioned to justify this type of request are first and
foremost neuropsychiatric diseases, followed by degenerative neuromuscular
diseases and a combination of non-fatal "multiple pathologies."
In 91 per cent of requests, death
was considered as expected in the short term and among these requests, 75 out
of 100 concerned pain relating to cancer while 5 out of 100 requests related to
pain due to a neuropsychiatric disease, a non-degenerative neuromuscular
disease (following an accident...) or a combination of multiple pathologies.
Days after the brothers' deaths,
the ruling Socialists in Belgium's Parliament tabled a proposal to expand
euthanasia to adults suffering from dementia or Alzheimer's and to children 17
and younger, an idea first considered in 2005.
Calling legal euthanasia a
"slippery slope," Catholic Online declares, "It is only a matter
of time before we report the story of the first child euthanized in
Belgium," which is predominantly Catholic.
Besides Belgium, voluntary
euthanasia — generally called assisted suicide in North America — is legal in
the Netherlands, Switzerland, Luxembourg, and in the U.S., — Oregon,
Washington, and Montana.