{"id":8587,"date":"2018-02-17T17:59:38","date_gmt":"2018-02-18T01:59:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.consciencelaws.org\/?p=8587"},"modified":"2018-07-09T18:52:56","modified_gmt":"2018-07-10T01:52:56","slug":"belgiums-euthanasia-commission-under-fire-after-shock-letter-by-whistleblower","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.consciencelaws.org\/?p=8587","title":{"rendered":"Belgium’s euthanasia commission under fire after shock letter by whistleblower"},"content":{"rendered":"

BioEdge<\/strong><\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

Xavier Symon<\/p>\n

Evidence of gross negligence<\/a> is mounting against Belgium’s peak euthanasia regulatory body, the Federal Commission for Euthanasia Control and Evaluation.<\/p>\n

Dr. Ludo Van Opdenbosch, a neurologist who was a Commission member for several years, resigned in September 2017. Associated Press recently obtained the letter of resignation<\/a> that Dr Van Opdenbosch sent to senior politicians, which details his dissatisfaction with the oversight processes of the Commission. “I do not want to be part of a committee that deliberately violates the law,” he wrote.<\/p>\n

According to the letter, the Commission failed to refer to authorities a doctor who Van Opdenbosch says euthanised a demented patient without consent. The letter outlines the basic details of the case \u2013 the patient, whose identity was not disclosed, was euthanised at the family’s request, and there was no record of any prior request for euthanasia from the patient.<\/p>\n

Furthermore, Van Opdenbosch states that when he expressed concerns about other potentially problematic cases, he was immediately “silenced” by other members of the Commission. He suggests that because many of the doctors on the commission are leading euthanasia practitioners, they can protect each other from scrutiny, and act with “impunity”.<\/p>\n

“It’s not euthanasia because the patient didn’t ask, so it’s the voluntary taking of a life,”\u00a0said Dr\u00a0An Haekens, psychiatric director at the Alexianen Psychiatric Hospital in Tienen, Belgium. “I don’t know another word other than murder to describe this.”<\/p>\n

However, the two co-chairs of the commission,\u00a0Dr\u00a0Wim Distelmans\u00a0and Gilles Genicot, have strongly denied<\/a> that there has been any negligence. “It can obviously occur that some debate emerges among members but our role is to make sure that the law is observed and certainly not to trespass it,”\u00a0they said. They also denied that Van Opdenbosch had been muzzled.<\/p>\n

Associated Press<\/a> had already revealed details of a rift between the co-chair of the Commission, Dr. Willem Distelmans, and Lieve Thienpont, an advocate of euthanasia for the mentally ill. Distelmans suggested some of Thienpont’s patients might have been killed without meeting all the legal requirements.<\/p>\n

More than 360 doctors, academics and others have since signed a petition calling for tighter controls<\/a> on euthanasia for psychiatric patients.<\/p>\n

\n

\"Belgium'sThis article is published by Xavier Symons and BioEdge under a Creative Commons licence. You may republish it or translate it free of charge with attribution for non-commercial purposes following these guidelines<\/a>. If you teach at a university we ask that your department make a donation to BioEdge. Commercial media must contact BioEdge<\/a> for permission and fees. Some articles on this site are published under different terms.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

BioEdge Xavier Symon Evidence of gross negligence is mounting against Belgium’s peak euthanasia regulatory body, the Federal Commission for Euthanasia Control and Evaluation. Dr. Ludo Van Opdenbosch, a neurologist who was a Commission member for several years, resigned in September 2017. Associated Press recently obtained the letter of resignation that Dr Van Opdenbosch sent to … Continue reading “Belgium’s euthanasia commission under fire after shock letter by whistleblower”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5432,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[77,402,162,9],"tags":[2827,3481,3478],"post_folder":[],"class_list":["post-8587","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-assisted-suicide","category-belgium","category-euthanasia","category-news","tag-lieve-thienpont","tag-ludo-van-opdenbosch","tag-willem-distelmans"],"yoast_head":"\r\nBelgium's euthanasia commission under fire after shock letter by whistleblower - Protection of Conscience Project News<\/title>\r\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\r\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/news.consciencelaws.org\/?p=8587\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Belgium's euthanasia commission under fire after shock letter by whistleblower - Protection of Conscience Project News\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"BioEdge Xavier Symon Evidence of gross negligence is mounting against Belgium’s peak euthanasia regulatory body, the Federal Commission for Euthanasia Control and Evaluation. Dr. Ludo Van Opdenbosch, a neurologist who was a Commission member for several years, resigned in September 2017. 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