Belgium Euthanizes Deaf Twins Going Blind - Page 4

I have had the opportunity to talk to a few people on this issue who are from Belgium. They informed me that they institutionalize disabled adults. They are not "handicap accessible" like the US nor do they have the resources to adapt. I can see how these gentlemen would not want to live in a facility for 30, 40 or even 50 years. That is just what I have been told. In respect to children, I don't think we give them enough credit. I have taken care of a handful of children who knew they were dying. They understood what it meant to die and they were at peace with it. I've even heard one child beg for God to take them because they were suffering for so long. The dying process can be long and full of awful symptoms. These cases I think it is ethical to offer all humans a peaceful death. Often times a patient just wants to be in control of SOMETHING when they have lost control of everything else in their life. Let them choose. In other cases when a patient does not have the capacity, let a judge decide... like in the case mentioned in the article.

Belgium does not "institutionalize" disabled adults. There are facilities available for the disabled, but they are not required to use them, they can instead take the funding that would have paid for their stay in a facility, and instead "cash out" in the form of publicly provided Personal Assistant Budget, which they can then use to pay for help in their own home, or however else they want to establish support for themselves.

I wasn't able to find much on the support system there via Google. I did see where they are "behind on the times" as far as the services that are available to the disabled. It would be incredibly challenging to take care of 2 blind and deaf adults and maybe they feared they would be placed in a facility? I will not judge them for making this decision. If it were me, I might choose the same fate.

Regardless of how I feel on the issue, I think the most important part of this article is that it was the patient's choice. They have the right to access care, and to refuse it. I think, I would have loved to support them in their decision. It reminds me a lot of the abortion/pregnancy debate.

I agree about not judging the two twins. I wonder, however, if counseling and maybe some mental health support were at least offered to these people. That would be really sad if that had been the case but I don't know the whole story. I would just think that if someone was diagnosed with a very difficult maybe emotionally painful disability, they should be offered lots of support to deal with it. Why should a early death be necessary when with proper assistance and care they might be able to live another fulfilling 40 years or however long. Who knows though, maybe they were offered assistance and counseling or antidepressants but it wasn't what they wanted.I just can't help but compare the situation to someone who has gone through something emotionally painful, traumatizing etc and is depressed and wants to commit suicide. I'm sure if you phrase out that way, no healthcare professional would help that person to commit suicide instead of trying to prevent the suicide. I understand there's a communication with the world issue, but isn't there some way to help that? Would the same techniques that helen keller had used to communicate be available to people in belgium? Sure it sounds awful and incredibly difficult for all those involved in these people's lives but why wasn't there a better way?