Religious Care Home in Belgium Refuses a Request to Euthanize One of Its Patients, Causing an Uproar

Jeanne Smits : May 14, 2019
LifeSiteNews.com

"...because of our Christian vision of life, we choose not to respond to a request for euthanasia. After all, we believe more in the benefits of loving and expert care, in closeness and involvement during your final phase of life. Implementing euthanasia will only be able to be considered by us when palliative care can no longer offer quality of life and when all palliative care options have been exhausted." -from a brochure by the care facility

(Belgium)— [LifeSiteNews.com] A care home run by the Catholic religious congregation of the Sisters of the Childhood of Jesus (Zusters Kindsheid Jesu) is currently under the spotlights of the Belgian press for having refused the euthanasia of an elderly inhabitant to take place on Wednesday, May 8. The woman's son took his story to the press, complaining that he had had to "lobby" for his mother's death. (Image: Pixabay)

Ultimately, Liliane Vangenechten, 69, was moved to another hospital, where she was to receive a lethal injection on the planned date.

The case has given rise to fierce criticism of faith-based institutions where euthanasia is, if not impossible, at least difficult to obtain. Wim Distelmans, a cancer and palliative care specialist who has himself performed many a "borderline" euthanasia, and who is at present co-president of the Belgian Federal Euthanasia Commission, weighed in, saying no care home or hospital should be allowed to fall back on internal procedures in order to refuse euthanasia that meets all the legal requirements... Subscribe for free to Breaking Christian News here

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