Belgium’s Death Spiral

eutEurope’s descent to self-annihilation and a holocaust of its own making continues unabated as a court in Belgium this month granted a convicted rapist and murderer the right to die under Belgian euthanasia laws. This latest destructive blow to Western civilization’s Judeo-Christian moral order comes only months after Belgium’s King Philippe signed into law last March a bill allowing euthanasia for children of any age and dementia sufferers upon request.

With this highly disturbing piece of legislation becoming law, Belgian opponents of euthanasia questioned who would be next after children were granted the barbarism to request their own deaths. They did not have to wait long for an answer. This month, Frank van Den Bleeken, 50, who has been incarcerated for 30 years for the rape and murder of a 19-year-old student, received the right to be euthanized from a court after claiming “unbearable suffering.” Intolerable physical or psychological pain is accepted as a grounds for euthanasia in Belgium.

Van Den Bleeken is not the first Belgian convict to ask to be put to death. Fifteen others have made the same request. But van Den Bleeken is the first to receive legal permission, thus establishing a new euthanasia category.

“I am a human being, and regardless of what I’ve done, I remain a human being. So, yes give me euthanasia,” said van Den Bleeken in a recent television documentary.

The convicted murderer, who is currently serving his sentence in a prison’s psychiatric wing, first requested euthanasia three years ago. Inadequate help from the state for the problem that, van Den Bleeken says, caused him to commit his crime and the chance he will reoffend if released constitute other reasons for his having asked to die.

The Belgian commission responsible for euthanasia stated it would not examine van Den Bleeken’s request until “all therapeutic possibilities had been exhausted.” But a court of appeal blocked the commission’s attempt to transfer van Den Bleeken to an institution for specialized treatment, after which he successfully fought the justice ministry in court for the right to be euthanized.

“My client can be transferred to a hospital for 48 hours to say his goodbyes to his family and can then die in a dignified manner,” said van Den Bleeken’s lawyer. “I am not able to say when nor where this will happen.”

Opinion on this specific case, on granting van Den Bleeken the right to be euthanized, is, as expected, divided and emotional. Since it involves incarcerated criminals, some of whom have committed terrible crimes, this case does not garner the same sympathy and support that the children’s did when the euthanasia right was extended to them, Belgium becoming the first country in the world to do so.

Some of those in favor of granting van Den Bleeken’s death request, for example, believe society would benefit economically from his demise, as taxpayers would no longer have to support him in prison, and would like to see the euthanasia right extended to other prisoners for the same economic reasons. Others are of the opinion that van Den Bleeken deserves death for the horrendous crime he committed, but only wish it was the state demanding an end to his life rather than the murderer (Belgium does not have capital punishment).

Many of those opposing van Den Bleeken’s request also do not do so on the grounds that euthanasia is morally wrong. Some maintain murderers like him forfeited all their rights when they committed their crimes, including the right to be euthanized. And if they are suffering in prison, then that’s too bad, since their victims, and the victims’ families, are also still suffering. Besides, the student van Den Bleeken murdered didn’t get to choose whether she wanted to die, so why should he? The justice system, some opponents argue, also prescribes a punishment for the crime committed, and some view van Den Bleeken’s request to die as an attempt to escape his punishment, thus undermining the rule of law.

But these arguments appear to have overshadowed the bigger issue in the van Den Bleeken case in that the boundaries for euthanasia in Belgium have once again been expanded. And in this case, a scant three months after their last enlargement.

Originally, Belgium’s euthanasia law, passed in 2002, was meant for gravely ill adults suffering unbearable physical pain.  Now, as mentioned, it includes those experiencing “unbearable psychological suffering.” So relatively healthy people suffering mental stress or disorders are now being killed, among them a 44-year-old person who had undergone a failed sex change operation. So it is no wonder the number of euthanasia victims in Belgium has grown from 24 people in 2002 to 1,807 in 2013, an average of five per day and a 27 percent increase from 2012. All of which proves that early Belgian opponents of euthanasia were right when they claimed its parameters would constantly expand, becoming a slippery slope.

“Can one truly believe that there was really such a strong rise in incurable illnesses in Belgium?” asked the coordinator of a Belgian civil organization that wants stricter control of euthanasia. “When the criteria become more and more flexible, one clearly sees that there is a drift.”

The trailblazer in modern-day euthanasia is actually Belgium’s neighbor, Holland. Holland was the first European country to betray its Judeo-Christian heritage regarding the sanctity of life when it legalized euthanasia in 2001. Holland also has the dubious distinction of leading the way in killing babies, as the Dutch euthanasia policy was expanded in 2006 to babies born with severe birth defects. But while killing children under 12 is still technically illegal, as long as doctors follow a certain protocol, the Dutch justice system leaves them in peace.

It therefore should not surprise that Holland is another country where euthanasia appears out of control. In 2011, 3,695 people were reported medically killed, including 13 psychiatric patients, while 4,188 were euthanized in 2102, accounting for three percent of all Holland’s deaths that year. And like in Belgium, the number continues to rise, setting a new record every year.

“The Dutch experience shows that euthanasia becomes routine,” said one British anti-euthanasia activist.

One would have to go back to Nazi Germany to find a European country where euthanasia was so triumphant. In October, 1939, Adolph Hitler signed an authorization on his own personal stationary allowing German doctors to murder ill and physically and mentally handicapped children. This authorization launched the infamous Nazi euthanasia program, T-4 (for Tiergarten 4, the Berlin address of the program’s headquarters), in which several hundred thousand disabled minors and grownups, classified as ‘leben lebensunwert’ (life unworthy of life), were eventually killed simply because of the way they were born. Their murder was the beginning of the Nazi genocide and was to be followed by the Jewish Holocaust. More than seven decades later, modern-day Belgium and Holland are reviving the nightmare.

A new and frightening part of this nightmare is the mobile euthanasia units a Dutch pro-euthanasia organization created in 2012. In their eagerness to kill, these supporters of death on demand send a medical team, equipped with a lethal injection, to the homes of people who legally qualify for euthanasia but whose family doctors refuse to do it. These ‘death on wheels’ teams are called, appropriately, “Levenseinde” (Life End) units.

This is quite a reversal of the traditional doctor’s house call.

The reason for Belgium’s ever-expanding euthanasia legislation that now even includes children is that Western civilization is in the grips of a death cult, like the Nazi, Communist and Islamist ones. As Judeo-Christian values recede in Western European countries, the more such abominations associated with death worship, such as abortion, pedophilia, bestiality and euthanasia, will appear, as the continent reverts back to a pre-Christian paganism (which was also a Nazi goal). It is therefore no coincidence that Holland and Belgium, two of Western Europe’s most secularized and de-Christianized societies, have legalized euthanasia. They and Luxembourg are the only ones — so far.

Belgian euthanasia opponents, who are once again left asking ‘who’s next?’ after the van Den Bleeken legal decision, will, again, probably not have to wait long for a possible answer. The Belgian Intensive Care Society released a document requesting authorization to euthanize without a patient’s permission, “even in the absence of discomfort.” It claims non-requested euthanasia is already being regularly practiced.

“These patients are not sufficiently conscious to make an explicit request. It’s not about increasing the medication to prevent pain but so to precipitate death when the quality of life has become deficient,” wrote Jean-Louis Vincent, a former society head, in a Belgian newspaper.

Already, doctors have such control over life or death in Belgium that sometimes they do not even tell family members that a loved one has requested to be euthanized. The relatives of the deceased are told only after the fact. Now, if the Belgian Intensive Care Society gets its way, they won’t even have to inform their victims.

But such a frightening, downward trajectory is not unexpected when a country progressively gives up its traditional religious faith and allows Marxist socialism to heavily influence its society and culture. By abandoning its morality, losing its sense of eternity and living only in the here and now, oblivious of past and future generations, Belgium has created a moral and spiritual vacuum conducive to euthanasia’s growth. And its expansion is now occurring with such speed that it no longer resembles a slippery slope but rather a steep drop off a cliff into a beckoning abyss.

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  • UCSPanther

    I fear something very dark will manifest at the end of the slippery slope, be it a doctor who starts deciding on his own initiative to start “putting people down”, or worse, state-mandated murder of those who are deemed “unfit” to live by a panel of disconnected bureaucrats who use a list of check-boxes for criteria…

    • Paul of Alexandria

      The latter. Behave, toe the line, or you’ll be euthanized.

      • Dallas25305

        I can think of millions of People the corrupt and racist Hussein Obama/Eric Holder regime would like to euthanize. They already show who they hate for anyone who has the brains to see it. Note President Hussein mention of “Ferguson”. Never any mention of the hundreds of white people raped and murdered by his racist black power hood rats. If your white or a patriotic American your his enemy.

    • Pete

      “doctor who starts deciding on his own initiative to start “putting people down”

      Doctors?

      How about nurses and nurses aides as well.

      • UCSPanther

        They commonly call medical professionals who murder patients “Angels of Death”.

        That was also what they used to call that psycho Josef Mengele back in the day…

        • L.S.

          I met one of those “angels” – they can be nurses or doctors and are like little Kevorkians believing they are helping society. They say the person was “dying anyway”.

    • lacourt

      I fear our country’s use of drones to kill millions of people who DON’T want to die. Where are the slippery slope arguments here?

  • L.S.

    This is all quite scary. My Dad was given a lethal injection in a hospice facility along with 5 different sedative drugs. But they can get away with it as they say he “was dying anyway”. This was for a man who had NO pain.

  • Damaris Tighe

    Excellent article Stephen. I particularly like the connections you make between post judeo-christian pagan culture & the cult of euthanasia.

    There’s another aspect that’s always struck me in the debate here in the UK. This is the narcissism behind demands for legalised ‘assisted dying’, the proponents of which seem unable to see beyond their personal desires to the harmful consequences for the most vulnerable.

    A ‘right’ that they want for themselves trumps the interests of the elderly & sick who might feel pressurised to end their lives if such a right were formalised in law. They wilfully shut their minds to arguments about the dire consequences for others because they might want it for themselves in the future.

    When we choose for ourselves we also choose for the whole society.

    • Patriot077

      Oh but how they will howl in the future if it is used on them against their wishes.

  • namberak

    Every time I read something like ‘My client can be transferred to a hospital for 48 hours to say his goodbyes to his family and can then die in a dignified manner’ it just makes me want to vomit. The piece of garbage that is this man’s client didn’t give his teenage victim an opportunity to say her goodbyes before dying with dignity. If the state feels compelled to kill this animal, how about a bullet to the head? Cheap and efficient. Then do as the Chicoms do and send his family the bill for the ammo. Or perhaps a public hanging, as the French say, ‘pour encourager les autres.’ What passes for ‘compassion’ can be sickening.

    • Atikva

      The French don’t say anything of the kind any more, they have abolished the death penalty in 1981. And hanging had not been used anyway since the 18th century, it had been superseded by beheading through Dr. Joseph-Ignace Guillotin’s new invention, courtesy of the 1789 revolutionaries.

  • Paul of Alexandria

    Euthanasia, but not capital punishment? I wonder how they justify that one?

    • Pete

      Easy, it is based on choice.

      People make the choice for euthenasia whereas it is usually against a person’s will to be put to death.

      There was the case of a large number of Chinese convicts being forced onto a a battle field and committing mass suicide in front of the opposing army. The opposing army promptly surrendered.

      The Chinese convicts had been told that, if they did not, their families would suffer. So in reality their suicide was compelled.

      Question is can a person make a considered choice, when they are in pain or when family or state resources are involved. Or will they be guilt tripped?

  • Hard Little Machine

    Why have trials? Just put a gun to their head and tell them to volunteer for death.

  • Pete

    Researchers are so close to solving so many diseases.

    The Human Genome Project has got to count for something.

    In the meantime bureaucrats & politicians are busy shuffling people off.

    • mikey123

      Shuffling people off? They are KILLING the inconvenient. Please don ‘t use euphemisms for what they are doing

      • Pete

        “In 2011, 3,695 people were reported medically killed, including 13 psychiatric patients, while 4,188 were euthanized in 2102, accounting for three percent of all Holland’s deaths that year. And like in Belgium, the number continues to rise, setting a new record every year.”

        That is pretty scary actually.

        • Richard_L_Kent

          Meh. We killed 1.2 million last year, just because mommy didn’t want to be bothered–and someone who graduated med school at the bottom of his class needed $500.

    • lacourt

      Aha. Perhaps someday we will figgure out how humans can live forever.
      ;-}

  • Pete

    The Belgian Intensive Care Society should be renamed The Belgian Society of Abrupt Termination of Care

    • mikey123

      The Belgian Fascists Society

  • mikey123

    Not surprising at all.
    Especially when they have mobile killing vans (Used to use the exhaust from the trucks). Concentration camps next?
    If Granny is a problem, kill her. If the kid is not perfect up to 12 years old, kill it.
    When life is cheap, society is cheap.

  • tagalog

    There’s controversy in Belgium over a convicted rapist and murderer committing suicide through euthanasia?

    Why don’t they just bring back the death penalty?

  • wileyvet

    Belgian and the Dutch are so enlightened don’t you know. The same sanctimonious turds that condemn America as crude and barbaric because certain states have the death penalty. No doubt the same cocktail of drugs that Europe manufactures, but won’t sell to the US are used for their euthanasia programs. I remember Austria denouncing and basically disowning Arnold Schwarzenegger when he didn’t grant good ol’ Tookie a stay of execution.
    We are constantly harangued that America should look to Europe for ideas from the likes of Kerry and Obama and their ilk. The Supreme Court does the same. Really?

    Remember it was the intellectuals that very enthusiastically accepted and helped implement the ideas of the Third Reich. It was intellectuals looking to remake and reorder society in Russia. The result of which was both countries being consumed by the dehumanizing effects of their grand schemes. As sick as all this is it is not surprising as Europe has collectively been euthanizing its culture for decades, and now that they have also embraced the death cult of Islam, they are finished as a morally and ethical people. They might as well just call these deaths honour killings, and no one will say a word about it.

  • Atikva

    If the death penalty had not been eliminated for the perpetrators of such atrocities as rape/murder, Belgium would have spared itself this kind of rigmarole.

    The generalization of euthanasia with all its prospective fraudulent uses, especially in the case of children, is not the only innovation that plagues not only Belgium, but practically all Northern Europe.

    How about the systematic slaughter of perfectly healthy zoo animals simply because their genes are deemed sufficiently represented amid the animal population?

    And how about letting children witness the slaughter followed by the devouring by other zoo pensioners in order to familiarize these future adults with the sight of blood?

    Not to mention the perfectly legal prostitution of animals in these countries?

  • UCSPanther

    http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/3/32/EuthanasiePropaganda.jpg

    Paraphrased and updated Translation:

    “This person suffering from hereditary defects costs the Peoples’ community
    60,000 Euros during his lifetime. That is your money, too, comrade.”

  • Reuven

    This is a nightmare which must be stopped!

  • herb benty

    Leftism is financially, spiritually and morally bankrupt. The right, on the other hand, promote surpluses, prosperity and godliness. Sinful mankind goes their own way.

  • cacslewisfan

    Next stop: Soylent Green. The Left will love it. It’s green! And it eliminates your carbon footprint!

  • hatsylady

    Don’t even get me started on the Dutch. My husband is from the Netherlands and I can go on and on. They need God but they’re secular humanists now. They may never recover.

  • Pete
    • lacourt

      Oh please. Define ill.

      • Pete

        Well, my comment is the title of an article, which I linked.

        So of you clink on the link, it will take you to a Daily Mail story

        You will read the following & more.

        “An elderly husband and wife have announced their plans to die in the world’s first ‘couple’ euthanasia – despite neither of them being terminally ill.

        Instead the pair fear loneliness if the other one dies first from natural causes.”

        Have a nice day.

  • kevinstroup

    Always question anything that the Europeans propose. It may, or may not be, a good idea. Remember, they gave us communism, fascism, and two World Wars.

  • lumiss

    I would actually support the “right” of any rapist and murderer, possibly robber too, to be “put out”.
    Society will ONLY benefit.