Euthanasia cases double in Belgium in just five years
MailOnline 5 February 2016
The number of people to die by euthanasia in Belgium has more than doubled in just five years, new figures have shown.
More than 2,000 people died last year under the country’s euthanasia laws, which cover children as well as adults, and which allow people to be killed without giving consent.
The rapid increase in the euthanasia total mirrors the rate of euthanasia in neighbouring Holland, where mercy killing laws were brought in in 2002, a year before those in Belgium.
The figures provoked fresh warnings in Britain over the risks of any shift of the law here in the same direction.
Anti-euthanasia campaigner and former government adviser on terrorism Lord Carlile said: ‘I am shocked by these figures in Belgium. They show a poorly compliant ethical regime which ought to be examined.
‘There is a real danger that elderly vulnerable people in particular are having their rights violated.’
The newly-released figures show that, from less than 300 in 2003, the year the country’s euthanasia law was introduced, numbers of those who died by euthanasia in Belgium reached 2,021 last year.
The level was higher than 2,000 for the first time and more than double the 954 recorded in 2010.
The real total of euthanasia deaths may be higher still.
READ MORE: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3434356/Euthanasia-cases-double-Belgium-just-five-years-2-000-people-used-country-s-right-die-law-past-12-months.html
