Belgium’s controversial euthanasia laws have seen three KIDS take their own lives over the past two years
Three children are among thousands of people to have died under the country's euthanasia laws
BELGIUM’S controversial euthanasia laws have seen three CHILDREN take their lives in recent years, new figures reveal.
The tragic kids - all of whom are believed to have been terminally ill - are among thousands of people to have killed themselves since Belgium legalised euthanasia in 2003.
An official report reveals that the three children died under the world’s only law that allows kids of any age to choose to be put to death.
This practice was legalised in Belgium in 2003 and in 2007 495 Belgians chose to end their lives this way.
The legislation came into force a year later than the Netherlands.
However, statistics show there were 2,028 such deaths in Belgium in 2016 and 2,309 in 2017 – a 14% year-on-year rise.
Two of the children – both who are understood to have had cancer - died in 2016. The other child died last year.
While the Netherlands does not allow children under 12 to choose death, Belgium’s decision in 2014 to extend its euthanasia laws to everybody, regardless of age, sparked international outrage.
Of the 4,337 to opt for assisted dying in Belgium in 2016/17, most were cancer patients.
But 710 were elderly people suffering from conditions such as as blindness and incontinence.
A further 77 chose to die because of unbearable psychiatric suffering.
While another 19 young people between 18 and 29 also decided to end their lives.
Crossbench peer Lord Carlile, co-chairman of Living and Dying Well, a parliamentary group opposed to euthanasia, said he was “profoundly shocked” both by the deaths of the children and by the soaring number of euthanasia cases.
“No parent or public authority has the power to take away the life of anyone who is a child, whoever they are," he said.
Belgian laws stipulate that children must have a terminal disease and be suffering unbearably for euthanasia to be granted.
Parental consent must also be given.
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