The Guardian said that the state of Belgium is expected to become the first country in the world to remove the age limit to allow to die on Thursday. The European state's reform on the right to die, or legal euthanasia, will now include children who are terminally ill, the UK newspaper's report read.
After months of painful and often divisive deliberations, the Belgain parliament will soon pass the law of awarding sick children the option to die. Legal euthanasia has been in place in Belgium for the past 12 years, the Guardian said, being one of only three countries in the world to do so. The country to come close to allowing children to have a right to die is the Netherlands, which permits terminally ill children age 12 onwards to die by choice.
A parliament member who is also a doctor, Daniel Baquelaine, said about the new law, "It is not about deciding whether a child is or is not to die. Death is coming quickly. It is therefore necessary to allow the child to express what he thinks of the end of life, about how to die."
On the other hand, Belgium's reform on legal euthanasia in children comes with very tight restrictions, the Guardian said, According to the bill, "(the child must) be in a hopeless medical situation of constant and unbearable suffering that cannot be eased and which will cause death in the short-term".
Moreover, approval by both parents must be needed, although the law is not clear if two parents of a child did not give their consent. Additional restrictions include psychiatric and medical advice. Also, the child must be able to display a capacity of discernment and should be conscious when the request is made.
On the other hand, some interest groups are appalled at the legal decision. A group fo 160 pediatricians said, "In practice, there is no objective method for determining whether a child is gifted with the ability of discernment and judgment. This is actually a largely subjective assessment and subject to influences."
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