Belgium, well-known for its liberal laws on assisted suicide and euthanasia, has released data showing that deaths from euthanasia increased 15% from 2022 to 2023 in the country, reaching a record high.
In 2002, Belgium legalized euthanasia; that year, 24 people were euthanized. In 2023, that figure skyrocketed to 3,423, according to the Federal Control and Evaluation Commission for Euthanasia (FCEE). Those figures include a 16-year-old girl, who was euthanized just days after her birthday. While most were elderly, one-third were under the age of 70. Additionally, 89 people were euthanized solely due to psychological conditions, such as depression, or neurodegenerative conditions, such as Alzheimer’s disease, and 110 people traveled to Belgium from abroad to be killed.
Despite having reached the highest number of euthanasia deaths in Belgian history, the European Institute of Bioethics reported in its analysis that the number is likely even higher, with 25%-35% of euthanasia deaths having gone unreported. That means the true number would be between approximately 4,278 and 4,621.
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Numerous cases of euthanasia in Belgium have made international headlines; one woman, Tine Nys, was euthanized in 2010 solely due to an autism diagnosis. According to her family, which has been fighting for justice for over 10 years, Nys was not only not autistic, she was post-abortive, had battled mental illness for years, and was suicidal following a break-up. The doctors involved in her case seemed to have a disturbing lack of empathy towards Nys as a human being. Lieve Thienpont, the psychiatrist who diagnosed her with autism, said that her life had been a “failure,” and general practitioner, Dr. Frank de Greef, blamed Nys for his own misdiagnosis, saying she was “manipulative and looking for conflict.”
Another woman, just 36 years old, was smothered with a pillow in 2022 as she screamed after the dangerous cocktail given to her failed to work. And another woman was euthanized solely due to depression.
As of 2022, over 27,000 people were euthanized in Belgium.
