In a significant euthanasia case, the European Court of Human Rights will decide on Tuesday whether Belgium properly permitted a woman to be put to death by lethal injection on the pretext of “untreatable melancholy.”
Godelieva de Troyer’s son, Tom Mortier, passed away in 2012 after she had contacted the nation’s top proponent of assisted suicide, who finally decided to euthanize her despite being a cancer expert.
According to a statement by the Christian legal firm Alliance Defending Freedom, neither her son nor any other family members were contacted prior to her euthanasia at the age of 64. (ADF International).
According to Mortier, Belgium breached the European Convention on Human Rights by failing to sufficiently safeguard his mother’s right to life, who had serious mental health issues and battled depression her whole life.
“She was treated by psychiatrists for many years, and tragically, she and I lost touch for a while. She was given a fatal injection at this point and passed away. Never in a million years could I have thought that we would be separated forever,” he remarked.
De Troyer sent money to a group that supports euthanasia in Belgium during a brief period of time. Despite the need for separate views in cases of patients not anticipated to pass very soon, according to ADF International, he recommended she contact other physicians who were also a member of the same group.
The physician who executed her death sentence is now co-chair of the federal body tasked with later authorizing euthanasia cases.
Euthanasia and assisted suicide are already available in nations like Belgium and the Netherlands, and medical professionals who personally disagree with the practice are nevertheless required to refer individuals.
In September, Vincent Kemme, the founder of the Belgian bioethics group Biofides, told EWTN News that his group has seen a trend away from medical profession conscience safeguards in recent years, particularly in the low nations of Europe:
According to Kemme, “the advent of relativism and moral subjectivism has radically transformed the profession of the doctor in Europe and the United States.”
Euthanasia is legal in Belgium when a serious and incurable problem brought on by an illness or accident cannot be treated, leaving the patient in a continual state of excruciating bodily or mental suffering.
According to the most recent official statistics from Belgian authorities, over 27,000 individuals have died through euthanasia in Belgium since it was approved 20 years ago, on May 28, 2002, ADF said.
According to Belgian legislation, terminally sick minors of any age may even seek euthanasia. It is necessary to get parental permission as well as the approval of physicians and psychiatrists.