Belgium to Vote on Child Euthanasia: Are 5-Year-Olds Old Enough to Kill Themselves

by Steven Ertelt

As Belgium considers a measure that would open up children to euthanasia and assisted suicide, writer Michael Cook puts the debate in to perspective with a poignant question.

“Are Belgian five-year-olds really capable of voluntarily choosing to die?” he asks. The rest of his column follows:

The Belgian MPs are also studying whether to authorise euthanasia for patients with dementia who have written advance directives, even if they appear to be cheerful and content with their impaired life.
Is that really voluntary? The history of euthanasia in Belgium is one of unremitting bracket creep.

What began with euthanasia only for constant, unbearable, untreatable suffering and only for consenting adults keeps expanding and expanding with consequences that no one could envisage.

Here are a few of them.

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