In Belgium,
where euthanasia is now legal for people over the age of 18, the government is
considering extending it to children — something that no other country has
done. The same bill would offer the right to die to adults with early dementia.
Advocates argue
that euthanasia for children, with the consent of their parents, is necessary
to give families an option in a desperately painful situation. Belgium is
already a euthanasia pioneer; it legalized the practice for adults in 2002. In
the last decade, the number of reported cases per year has risen from 235
deaths in 2003 to 1,432 in 2012, the last year for which statistics are
available. Doctors typically give patients a powerful sedative before injecting
another drug to stop their heart.
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