Recently, Dr. Mark S. Komrad provided comments on the sickening story of a Belgian criminal euthanized at the end of February, 2023. His words provide exceptional insight into the ever slippery slope of assisted suicide. Read his insight below:
This story I find astonishing. 13 years ago this Belgian woman murdered her five children, presumably due to a mental illness, after which she failed in an attempt to take her own life. She was given a life sentence, in a psychiatric hospital. Now, her unsuccessful suicide 16 years ago is being completed by physicians, as she qualifies as having an “unbearable” psychiatric condition. Due to her life imprisonment creating an unrelenting circumstance, along with a mental condition, she qualifies in Belgium for voluntary medical euthanasia. Perversely, one Belgian psychologist called this “a symbolic gesture in respect for her children.”
This is yet another illustration of how, once the door is opened to euthanasia, initially for a select few suffering extreme terminal illness, the slope will slip, and slip, and slip. We end up with facilitated suicide for profoundly ill people who commit terrible crimes. This way, an “enlightened society” that wishes to avoid capital punishment can dress it up as compassionate, progressive respect for autonomy and “death with dignity.”
Mark S. Komrad M.D., DFAPA, ACP
Faculty of Psychiatry, Johns Hopkins, University of Maryland, Tulane
Once the Door is Opened to Euthanasia, the Slope will Slip Recently, Dr. Mark S. Komrad provided comments on the sickening story of a Belgian criminal euthanized at the end of February, 2023. His words provide exceptional insight into the ever slippery slope of assisted suicide. Read his insight below: This story I find
Mental Illness is not a Terminal Diagnosis Canada announced a delay in the implementation of assisted suicide for people with mental health disabilities. Since this delay, many proponents of and advocates against these laws have spoken up about this decision. Mr. Ashley Geddes wrote an article in the Alberta Times covering some of the reactions
Life With Dignity In our pandemic strained, profit-driven health care system, intractable pain and the fear of unimaginable suffering is not one of the top five reasons surveyed that many of society’s most vulnerable feel driven towards assisted suicide; Loss of autonomy, dignity and the perceived fear of being a burden to family, friends and
