“Healthy 24-year-old granted right to die in Belgium”
A young woman suffering from psychological issues has reportedly been granted permission to legally utilize doctor-assisted suicide in Belgium sometime this summer.[1]
Quite remarkably the preceding headline recently appeared on the ‘cover’ of Newsweek. In fact a physically healthy woman in Belgium has been granted her wish to die … with the help of her doctor. Those providing her psychiatric care believe that the only remaining alternative for her is receive a medically assisted her suicide.
Western societies now find themselves at a crucial juncture regarding their understanding of the sacredness of all life. When doctors who take the Hippocratic Oath assist with suicide instead of preventing them, a critical point has been reached. After all, human life ought to be protected by everyone concerned, especially by the medical profession.
Aside from depression and feeling as though “she wanted to die ever since childhood,” the 24-year-old is physically healthy, and enjoys coffee, friends and theater.[1]
How is it that European sensibilities have evolved to the point whereby clinical depression is now treated with medically assisted suicide? This form of societal permissiveness is manifesting more frequently throughout the West. The growing number and intensity of modern-day stresses are too much for some to bear. However, the pressures of life have always been there, and will always be there. Suicide, then, has often been looked at as the ultimate escape.
Because human life is sacred and ought to be protected by every reasonable means, for the psychiatric establishment in Europe to radically depart from this ancient proscription defies every moral and ethical norm. Clearly, it is the psychiatrists involved in this alarming trend who are in great need of counseling and discipline.
Stories like Laura’s are apparently nothing new in the Western European country, as psychiatrists there have reportedly been granting permission for euthanasia in cases in which a patient is not being given relief from psychological plights.[1]
Europe’s Psychiatric Crisis Is Being Mismanaged, Otherwise This Practice Would Be Outlawed
There comes a point when society must come to grips with its most difficult and thorny problems. Giving in to those patients who are profoundly imbalanced, even incapacitated to make sound and reasoned life decisions, is exactly what happens when the inmates are running the asylum. It appears that this is the true state of affairs in Belgium, the Netherlands and other European countries who are permitting such unacceptable psychiatric practice. Because of these dangerous precedents, it is quite likely that the entire Continent will eventually move in the same direction.
The real concern here is that younger people who are distressed with their predicaments are particularly vulnerable to taking the quick and easy way out. When teenagers see that young adults have assisted suicide available as a ‘treatment plan’ it is likely that many will jump at the same ‘opportunity’. Teens are already risk-takers and therefore susceptible to wild and dangerous behavior.
Belgian Parliament
In spite of this well known predicament throughout the world countries like Belgium are clearly moving in the wrong direction. The following excerpt from the same article clearly demonstrates how the Belgians have crossed the point of no return.
Earlier this year in February, the parliament in Belgium passed a bill also allowing euthanasia for terminally ill children without any age limit, by 86 votes to 44. The vote makes it the first country in the world to have legalised euthanasia without an age limit.[1]
Source
[1] Newsweek