Children Divided

From the BBC:
"Belgium divided on euthanasia for children"

Belgium legalised the right to euthanasia for adults in 2002. Now the Senate has voted to extend the law to children who are terminally ill, and suffering unbearable physical pain. Supporters believe this would be a logical move. Opponents say it is insanity. An incurably sick child, a request to die, a lethal injection. For many people this is an unimaginable, nightmare scenario.  Most of us will not experience the cruel reality of seeing a child's health deteriorate as a result of a terminal illness. But some Belgian paediatricians who have say children should be allowed to ask to end their lives, if they cannot be relieved of their physical symptoms. "Rarely - but it happens - there are children we try to treat but there is nothing we can do to make them better. Those children must have the right to decide about their own end of life," says Dr Gerlant van Berlaer, a paediatrician at UZ Hospital Brussels.

He and 16 other Belgian paediatricians signed an open letter in November petitioning senators to vote for the child euthanasia bill.  "We are not playing God - these are lives that will end anyway," argues Van Berlaer. "Their natural end might be miserable or very painful or horrifying, and they might have seen a lot of friends in institutions or hospitals die of the same disease. And if they say, 'I don't want to die this way, I want to do it my way,' and that is the only thing we can do for them as doctors, I think we should be able to do it." Under the draft bill, passed in the Senate last month by 50 votes to 17, children must understand what euthanasia is, and their parents and medical teams have to approve the child's request to die. In the Netherlands, Belgium's northern neighbour, euthanasia is legal for children over the age of 12, if they have the consent of their parents. But if the Belgian bill is passed in the lower house of parliament, Belgium will be the first nation in the world to lift all age restrictions. Philippe Mahoux, leader of the Socialist group in the Senate and sponsor of the bill, has described it as "the ultimate gesture of humanity".  "The scandal is that children will die from disease," he says. "The scandal is not to try and avoid the pain of the children in that situation."

^ I do not understand why people/governments want to allow adults or children to die in pain. If any person (regardless of age) has a disease or issue that is life-threatening and can not be cured then they should be given the option to be euthanized. It should never be forced on to them (as happened in the past in places like Germany and the US.) I would like to see strict protocols made throughout the world that allows doctors to ease the suffering of those that are dying and in pain. ^

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-25651758