Australia Australia Chronology Euthanasia advocates work to make suicide easy.
Belgium Belgian Law on Euthanasia Belgium Chronology Canada Canada Chronology England England Chronology Germany Germany Chronology Netherlands Clinical Problems With the Performance of Euthanasia and Physician-Assisted Suicide in the Netherlands Killing Babies, Compassionately. The Netherlands follows in Germany’s footsteps. Netherlands Chronology Netherlands Summary Seduced by Death: Doctors, Patients, and Assisted Suicide The Slippery Slope: The Dutch Example New Zealand New Zealand Chronology Switzerland Assisted Suicide and Euthanasia in Switzerland Assisted-Suicide in Switzerland Open Regulation and Practice in Assisted Dying Switzerland Chronology |
Belgium Chronology 1999
- Legislation to legalize physician-assisted suicide is introduced in the Belgium Senate.
2000
- A Senate vote on the bill was originally set for mid-February. After a public outcry about the issue being "railroaded," a series of public hearings were set.
2001
- The Belgium Senate passed the bill legalizing physician-assisted suicide and sent it to the House.
2002
- On May 16, 2002, the Belgian House passed the physician-assisted suicide bill.
- On September 22, 2002, the Belgian physician-assisted suicide law went into effect. A permanent committee to monitor the deaths was set up. The committee must approve an official form for physicians to fill out every time they assist a suicide.
- Belgian Christian Democrats vowed to challenge the law in the European Court of Human Rights.
- Mario Verstraete, 39, who suffered from multiple sclerosis, died from a lethal injection one week after the new law came into effect. However, under the law a patient must request euthanasia at least a month before the killing is carried out, and a second opinion must be sought if the patient is not in the final stages of a terminal illness. Belgium's professional medical organization has complained that the killing was illegal and is considering whether to take legal action over the case.
2003
Belgian physicians were asked to extend euthanasia to allow minors and patients with degenerative diseases to request it. There were 250 cases of euthanasia reported in the first year of legalized euthanasia but it is believed there were actually five times that number that occurred.
Posted on June 26, 2004. |
