Wesley J. Smith: Belgium’s Death Doctors

Doc Hipp Oath

(First Things) – Wonder of wonders: Belgium is prosecuting three doctors for illegal euthanasia. After thirty-eight-year-old Tine Nys received a lethal injection, family members reported the doctors—one a psychiatrist—to authorities.

They claim Nys’s lethal injection violated the guidelines that doctors are supposed to follow under Belgium’s euthanasia laws.

Their allegations are disturbing. Nys had been diagnosed with autism a few months prior to her death. In her younger years she suffered from a depressive disorder and attempted to commit suicide.

But family members report that she had not required treatment for many years and really wanted to die because of a broken romantic relationship.

Law enforcement agreed that Nys was not suffering from a “serious and incurable” disorder—which euthanasia patients must be experiencing to be legally eligible for euthanasia. CONTINUE