Belgian
officials are investigating whether doctors improperly euthanised a
woman with autism, the first criminal investigation in a euthanasia case
since the practice was legalised in 2002 in the European nation.
Three
doctors from East Flanders are being investigated on suspicion of
having “poisoned” Tine Nys in 2010. The 38-year-old had been given a
diagnosis of Asperger’s syndrome, a mild form of autism, two months
before she died in an apparently legal killing that she had sought from a
doctor.
Belgium
is one of two countries, along with the Netherlands, where euthanasia
of people for psychiatric reasons is allowed if they can prove they have
“unbearable and untreatable” suffering.
Among
Belgians euthanised for mental health reasons, the most common
conditions are depression, personality disorder and Asperger’s.
It is a seriously dysfunctional, wounded, traumatised family with very little empathy and respect for others
Dr Lieve Thienpont, on the family of Tine Nys
Many experts – in Belgium and beyond – dispute whether autism should be considered a valid reason to be a euthanasia candidate.
Last
year, Associated Press reported that after Nys’s appalled family filed a
criminal complaint, alleging numerous “irregularities” in her death,
her doctors tried to block the investigation.
“We
must try to stop these people,” wrote Dr Lieve Thienpont, the
psychiatrist who approved Nys’s request to die – and one of the doctors
now facing charges. “It is a seriously dysfunctional, wounded,
traumatised family with very little empathy and respect for others.”
Sophie
Nys, one of Tine’s sisters, said that the doctor who performed the
euthanasia asked her parents to hold the needle in place while he
administered the fatal injection, among other fumbling efforts.
Afterward, the doctor asked the family to use a stethoscope to confirm that Tine’s heart had stopped.
Belgium’s
Chamber of Indictment “presumes that there are sufficient indications
in this particular case” and the doctors involved have been referred to
the Court of Assize in Ghent.
Belgian psychiatrist Dr Lieve Thienpont poses during an interview, in Ghent, Belgium. Photo: AP
They
will now face trial “due to poisoning”, said Francis Clarysse, a Ghent
prosecutor. It is unclear when a trial might begin and the doctors could
still appeal the decision. The charge of poisoning carries a maximum
penalty of a lifetime sentence.
Concerns
have previously been raised in other cases about whether Thienpont,
Nys’s psychiatrist, too easily approved euthanasia requests from
patients with mental illnesses.
Associated
Press previously published documents revealing a rift between Thienpont
and Dr Wim Distelmans, who heads Belgium’s euthanasia review
commission. Distelmans voiced fears that Thienpont and her colleagues
may have failed to meet certain legal requirements in some euthanasia
cases – and wrote that he would no longer accept patients referred by
Thienpont.
“I
think this [trial] has symbolic importance in the sense that it sends
doctors a message … that you could be accused of a very serious crime
and prosecuted if you do not comply with the legal requirements for
euthanasia,” said Penney Lewis, a law professor at King’s College
London. “The prospect of criminal investigation may act as a mechanism
to make doctors more careful.”
In
the 15 years since doctors were granted the right to legally kill
patients, more than 10,000 people have been euthanised. Only one case
has previously been referred to prosecutors; that case was later
dropped.
Lewis
said that because Belgium does not routinely publish details of
worrisome euthanasia cases, it was difficult to know if there might be a
more widespread problem.
Earlier
this month, Dutch officials announced they would also prosecute a
doctor who euthanised a woman with dementia, also marking the first time
the Netherlands has charged a physician for possible wrongdoing in
performing euthanasia.
This article appeared in the South China Morning Post print edition as: Probe into euthanasia of woman with autism
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