By Michael Cook Three bills which could significantly expand the scope of euthanasia in Belgium have been proposed by Laurette Onkelinx, the leader of the Belgian Socialists and a former Deputy Prime Minister. The first would remove a five-year sunset clause for...

By Alex Schadenberg, Executive Director, Euthanasia Prevention Coalition The 2015 Belgian euthanasia data indicates that the number of euthanasia deaths continue to increase. According to the Belgian media, in 2015, there were 2,021 reported deaths by euthanasia, up...

By Paul Russell, Founder, HOPE Australia Over recent weeks the issue of conscientious objection, or the “conscience clause” in the Belgian euthanasia law has been brought into the spotlight by the assertion by the new Catholic Archbishop of Mechelen-Brussels, Jozef De...

Belgian MP calls for a review of the euthanasia law By Paul Russell, Founder, HOPE Australia Editor’s note. This is excerpted from a post that appeared at noeuthanasia.org.au. The open letter from medical professionals critical of the application of the Belgian law on...

BY ARIANE BAZAN , WILLEM LEMMENS. and GERTRUDIS VAN DE VIJVER The conclusion is clear: the current law assumes wrongly that there are objective clinical criteria for psychological suffering that might justify euthanasia. It is for this reason that euthanasia on the...

By Michael Cook The theme of control is at the heart of debates about assisted suicide and euthanasia. For the patients, it’s control of their own lives. For legislatures, it’s control of doctors who end lives. Wherever legalisation has failed, it is due to fears...

By Michael Cook News flash from Brussels, the nihilism capital of the world! A 24-year-old healthy woman named Laura will soon be euthanased. The reason? Leven, dat is niets voor mij, she says: life, that’s not for me. And Belgian doctors are happy to accommodate her,...

By Alex Schadenberg, Executive Director - Euthanasia Prevention Coalition The Journal of Medical Ethics recently published a research article that is written by Raphael Cohen-Almagor, a human rights activist and Chair of the Politics department at the University of...

By Michael Cook A leading academic has published a stinging critique of how Belgium administers its euthanasia law. Writing in the Journal of Medical Ethics, Rafael Cohen-Almagor, an Israeli professor of politics at the University of Hull, says that Belgians should be...

  By Michael Cook A Belgian man is challenging his country’s euthanasia law in the European Court of Human Rights. Dr Tom Mortier’s mother was put to death by a doctor for “untreatable depression” even though she was not terminally ill. Mortier did not find out...