The first [unfortunate] [lucky] child
A 17-year-old boy suffering from terminal incurable diseases became the first minor to be euthanized on September 17, 2016.
Belgium passed a bill on February 13, 2014 allowing terminally ill children to be euthanized. In the vote on this age-free euthanasia bill, 86 votes were in favor, 44 votes against and 12 abstentions. After Belgium’s king signed the bill, the country became the first country in the world to allow terminally ill patients of all ages to be euthanized.
Since euthanasia was legalized in Belgium in 2002, the total number of euthanasia cases doubled from 1,000 to 8,752 in the ten years from 2003 to 2013. Belgium euthanized 2,000 patients in 2015, the highest number in years.
However, it was not until 2016 that the first case of euthanasia of children was actually carried out.
There are too many true stories.
Each of our doctors has experienced the feeling of watching young patients die day by day.
There is a handsome and lovely little boy in the wound repair department where I work. However, the spinal cord tumor is incurable.
After suffering from the tumor, first of all, I did not walk smoothly, but I was still playing with the iPad on the sickbed, talking and laughing with my parents and nurses and sisters. Then slowly, I could not walk. Then slowly, the bigger the tumor grew, the limbs could not move.
Looking at his increasingly tired body and eyes that gradually lost their light, his parents wept, but they still thought that they could try their best to make the child live one more day, watching the evil disease devour the child’s life, and watching the life fade away slowly.
Another little girl, At the age of 2, she found her eyes red and swollen, and then a tumor with a diameter of about 10cm grew in her left eye. The pain was unbearable. She was finally diagnosed as a malignant tumor and had reached the advanced stage. The girl took more than a dozen painkillers every day to spend her groggy time. Looking at the child suffering from such pain, the parents of the child said that they only hoped to let the child leave or euthanize in reduced pain.
However, no doctor can really do this.
Children are special, but they are also [people]
In Belgium, adults only need the consent of the patient and three doctors to carry out euthanasia.
For underage children whose minds are not yet fully mature, the track of euthanasia is even more difficult: the process of evaluating euthanasia for children is complicated, takes a long time and is very painful.
Children who are terminally ill and cannot bear the pain can make their own requests. Subsequently, a team of doctors, psychologists and independent psychologists jointly conduct a rigorous and long-term assessment to determine whether the children have a clear understanding of euthanasia. In addition, of course, the consent of the patient’s parents is also required.
However, children who are younger and do not have a clear understanding of [death] will be excluded from the scope of the Euthanasia Act. Some children who are not terminally ill may not be able to bear lifelong pain, discrimination, or poverty caused by long-term treatment… They also have no way to get a comfortable and decent death.
However, in our country, there is still no relevant legal permission. Under the circumstance that legislation is still far away, it is even more urgent to improve the protection system for terminally ill children so that a sick child will not bring down the whole family.
Do not do to others what they do not want
The theory and practice of euthanasia have a long history. Aristotle once expressed support for this practice in his works. In the book Republic, Plato supported suicide as a way to relieve incurable pain. Since Pythagoras, many philosophers, scholars and politicians have believed that voluntary euthanasia of the elderly and the weak is morally reasonable.
However…
What you do not want done to yourself, do not do to others.
-< < Analects of Confucius > >
It is time to forget Confucius’ famous words.
Everyone wants to live forever. People also have an innate dislike of death. Euthanasia has become a forbidden area that many people (even doctors) cannot touch. The motion on euthanasia has been repeatedly proposed, but no response has been received. Up to now, euthanasia is still a blank area in our country’s law.
In medical ethics, there is a famous point of view, that is, “do not do to others what people do not want to do to others”. Detailed into the medical process, it can be simply understood as follows: unless the patient’s permission is obtained, the doctor or family members should not judge the value to make decisions for the patient.
It is doctors or parents who use their own values to judge these children, but only they say whether they are really willing to accept and whether they really want to live.
Everyone’s values are different. The most important thing is that every doctor should listen carefully to the patient’s voice.