Belgium Senate passes euthanasia for children

(Vatican Radio) The Senate in Belgium last week passed legislation making it the first country to allow euthanasia for children. The country legalized doctor-assisted killing of patients in 2002, but had not allowed it for those under 18. According to the law, children must understand what is meant by euthanasia and the decision must be agreed by their parents.

However, most children facing euthanasia are infants, according to Human Life International’s Director of International Coordination, Joseph Meaney.

“It was hospitals and doctors who wished to get their general practice…sanctioned by the law because technically they were breaking the law by euthanizing these children, particularly the newborns that were very sick,” he said.

He also told Vatican Radio that it was not patients and their families asking for the law, but those in the medical field.

“One of the terrible things about euthanasia, as the practice gets into place, there is a sort of callousness that seems to come in, and healthcare personnel determine for themselves who should live and who should die,” Meaney said.

He said doctors will often decide that an infant will not have a good “quality of life”, especially if it suffers from a disease such as Down Syndrome.

“The doctors then seek for ways for that to happen, either putting pressure on the parents, or sometimes even doing it in secret,” he said.

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