Belgian Catholic nursing home fined for refusing euthanasia
July 05, 2016
A Catholic nursing home in Belgium has been fined for refusing to euthanize a patient.
A civil court in Louvain ruled that the St. Augustine home had "no right to refuse euthanasia on the basis of conscientious objection." Under Belgian law doctors can refuse to administer lethal injections, but the court said that this "conscience clause" protection applies only to individuals, not to institutions.
The patient, a 74-year-old woman with lung cancer, was eventually taken from the nursing home to her own home, where a doctor provided the fatal dose. The court ruled that St. Augustine home should pay a fine of €3,000 ($3,320), and €1,000 to each of the deceased woman's three children, because of her "unnecessary mental and physical suffering."
For all current news, visit our News home page.
Further information:
All comments are moderated. To lighten our editing burden, only current donors are allowed to Sound Off. If you are a current donor, log in to see the comment form; otherwise please support our work, and Sound Off!
-
Posted by: rjbennett1294 -
Jul. 05, 2016 5:29 PM ET USA
This kind of immoral thinking and behavior can only lead to the eventual disintegration of the European Union. No society grounded on such a depraved and unprincipled philosophy can survive in the long run. No such society ever has. Meanwhile, Islam is slowly filling the spiritual vacuum in Europe, and it will continue to do so. There is no individual and no institution that would even dream of trying to stop it.
