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Belgium gives terminally ill people the right to die

Rory Watson Brussels

Belgium is set to become the second country in the world to decriminalise euthanasia. The draft legislation was overwhelmingly approved by its upper house, the Senate, last week and is expected to be approved by its lower chamber before the end of the year.

Strict criteria will have to be met before a patient’s wish to end his or her life can be honoured. Patients will have to be aged over 18 years, be conscious, have an incurable illness, and have made voluntary and repeated requests to die.

Each case of euthanasia will have to be registered with a national committee, which will have eight doctors among its 16 members and will report periodically on the implementation of the new rules.

Parallel legislation, which won almost unanimous support in the Senate, makes provision for improved palliative care. It gives patients the right to such . . . [Full text of this article]

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Relevant Article

Dutch experience of monitoring euthanasia

Bregje D Onwuteaka-Philipsen, Agnes van der Heide, Martien T Muller, Mette Rurup, Judith A C Rietjens, Jean-Jacques Georges, Astrid M Vrakking, Jacqueline M Cuperus-Bosma, Gerrit van der Wal, and Paul J van der Maas
BMJ 2005 331: 691-693. [Extract] [Full Text] [PDF]

This article has been cited by other articles:

• Hurst, S. A, Mauron, A. (2003). Assisted suicide and euthanasia in Switzerland: allowing a role for non-physicians. BMJ 326: 271-273 [Full text]  

Rapid Responses:

Read all Rapid Responses

"Strict" criteria and lazy reporting

Timothy James
bmj.com, 2 Nov 2001 [Full text]

Look into your hearts, not to your neighbours

Sam Hjelmeland Ahmedzai
bmj.com, 3 Nov 2001 [Full text]

Re: "Strict" criteria and lazy reporting

John Keown
bmj.com, 3 Nov 2001 [Full text]

Issues of loss vs growth

Leslie Piet
bmj.com, 3 Nov 2001 [Full text]

Response to Ahmedzai

Karen Sanders
bmj.com, 7 Nov 2001 [Full text]

Response to Piet

Karen Sanders
bmj.com, 7 Nov 2001 [Full text]

Re: Issues of loss vs growth

Peter Bradley
bmj.com, 7 Nov 2001 [Full text]