35 J. Med. Ethics: Belgian Euthanasia Law: A Critical Analysis.

• Author: Cohen-Almagor, R.
• Position: Reprint

This study is based on a critical review of the literature supplemented by interviews the author conducted in Belgium with leading scholars and practitioners in 2003 and 2005 about the practice of euthanasia there. In 2001, the Belgium legislature approved legislation removing criminal penalties for euthanasia. In 2002, the legislature approved euthanasia legislation making the practice of euthanasia in that country legal and providing guidelines for the practice. The legislation laid out the terms for doctors to end the lives of patients who were hopelessly ill and suffering unbearably. Potential candidates for euthanasia must be residents of Belgium, at least 18 years of age, and have made specific, voluntary and repeated requests that their lives be ended. Euthanasia requests were approved only if the patient was in a hopeless medical condition and complaints of constant and unbearable physical or mental pain that could not be relieved and was the result of a serious and incurable accidental or pathological condition.

Eventually, the law...