Serial murderer and rapist, 50, given right to die under controversial Belgian euthanasia laws

Daily Mail

Peter Allen

A serial murderer and rapist has been given the right to end his life under controversial Belgian euthanasia laws, it has emerged.

Frank Van Den Bleeken, 50, has been behind bars for 30 years and has no hope of release because of his intensely violent urges.

Now judges in Brussels have agreed that Van Den Bleeken can commit suicide with the help of medics.

Jos Vander Velpen, the prisoner’s lawyer, said: ‘Over recent years, he has been seen by several doctors and psychologists and their conclusion is that he is suffering, and suffering unbearably.’ . . . [Full text]

Navy nurse faces expulsion after refusing to force feed Gitmo detainees

RT Question More

A Navy nurse who refused to force feed hunger-striking Guantanamo detainees over the summer, once threatened with court-martial, could now lose his career.

The nurse, a Navy lieutenant who has never been publicly identified, refused to force feed hunger strikers shortly before July 4 at Cuba’s Guantanamo Bay prison complex. The decision reportedly followed months of him carrying out the painful procedure.

A Navy commander on Monday said he asked the board to determine whether the nurse should be allowed to stay in the US Navy.

“I can tell you right now that, after reviewing the investigation that was conducted in Guantánamo, I recommended that the officer be required to show cause for retention in the Navy. I chose not to do the court-martial route,” the nurse’s commander, Navy Capt. Maureen Pennington, told the Miami Herald. . . [Full Text]

Murderer in non-capital punishment Belgium granted request to die

 Reuters

Robert-Jan Bartunek

BRUSSELS (Reuters) – A Belgian murderer and rapist serving a life sentence is to be allowed to have doctors end his life following a ground-breaking ruling under laws in Belgium permitting people to request euthanasia.

Frank Van Den Bleeken had argued that he had no prospect of release since he could not overcome his violent sexual impulses and so he wanted to exercise his right to medically assisted suicide in order to end years of mental anguish. [Full text]

The 4th Annual Conference on Medicine and Religion

March 6-8, 2015
Cambridge, Massachusetts, U.S.A.

Spiritual Dimensions of Illness and Healing

It is a grievous mistake to keep a wall of separation between medicine and religion. There is a division of labor but a unity of spirit. The act of healing is the highest form of imitatio Dei.
~Rabbi Abraham Heschel (1964)

Rabbi Heschel’s words seem as relevant today as they did in 1964, when he spoke them to physicians at the American Medical Association. Contemporary western culture continues to divide carefully care of the soul from care of the body, apportioning the former to religious communities and the latter to medicine. The division of spiritual and material care of the human person has allowed us to meet many clinical needs efficiently, but it has also wrought unwanted outcomes, including increased mechanization of care and isolation in the experiences of illness and dying.  [More Details]

The Problem of Persons: Public Bioethics and Contending Moral Anthropologies

September 15, 2014 (7:00pm – 9:00pm)
Keane Auditorium, McGivney Hall,
Catholic University of America
Washington, D.C.

The Center for Cultural and Pastoral Research is please to host a conversation with Prof. Carter Snead on the topic “The Problem of Persons: Public Bioethics and Contending Moral Anthropologies,” on Monday, September 15, at 7:00 p.m.

In this lecture, Prof. Snead will argue that the richest way to understand contemporary disputes in public bioethics is through the lens of moral anthropology.  At bottom, such disagreements – over abortion, embryo-destructive research, assisted reproductive technologies, the definition of death, end of life decisionmaking, and research involving human subjects – are conflicts regarding the nature and identity of human persons.  The anthropological premises underlying the most prominent viewpoints in this domain will be illuminated and examined. [More details]