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The decision by Belgium's parliament to legalize euthanasia for children of any age has opponents warning the European nation has crossed a dangerous threshold. Pro-life protestors were out in force before the vote, with Marie Schwarz, a mother of four, saying that euthanasia is a "failure." "It is death," she said. "It is not a pain killer." Supporters called Belgium's euthanasia law necessary and compassionate. But critics said it's a dangerous, slippery slope. Under the new law, if both parents agree their child should be killed, three doctors and a psychologist would then have to certify that the child was...

BRUSSELS, February 13, 2014 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Belgium has become the first country in the world to approve euthanasia for children of all ages after the country’s parliamentarians passed the controversial bill today in a vote of 86 to 44, with 12 MPs abstaining. Alex Schadenberg, executive director of the Euthanasia Prevention Coalition, called the move a “form of abandonment.” “Belgium has abandoned the elderly, and now they are saying they will abandon their children,” he told LifeSiteNews. Schadenberg said the new law is not about ending suffering for children with disabilities, but about expanding the “categories that are eligible...

Parliament in Belgium has passed a bill allowing euthanasia for terminally ill children without any age limit, by 86 votes to 44, with 12 abstentions....Opponents argue children cannot make such a difficult decision. It is twelve years since Belgium legalised euthanasia for adults. In the Netherlands, Belgium's northern neighbour, euthanasia is legal for children over the age of 12, if there is parental consent.Under the Dutch conditions, a patient's request for euthanasia can be fulfilled by a doctor if the request is "voluntary and well-considered" and the patient is suffering unbearably, with no prospect of improvement. One man in the...

The former Dutch health minister who drafted the Netherlands’ law legalizing euthanasia has been found dead in her garage. Police in Utrecht say an initial post-mortem examination to determine the cause of Els Borst’s death was inconclusive, but they have ruled out natural causes. A spokesman said that investigators suspect that she died as a result of “an accident or possibly a crime”, but they will not know until a full examination has been completed. …

BRUSSELS (AP) — Belgium, one of the very few countries where euthanasia is legal, is expected to take the unprecedented step this week of abolishing age restrictions on who can ask to be put to death — extending the right to children for the first time .The legislation appears to have wide support in the largely liberal country.

As his 7-year-old son Mikey lay in a hospital bed on life support, the victim of a drunk driver who had smashed into his family's car, Paul Cortez took the boy's hand and made a solemn promise to God: If his son survived, no matter in what condition, he and his family would always be there for him. It was a promise the family would keep for 31 years ... Although he would never emerge from the persistent vegetative state his father had found him in that night, Mikey's family was not only there for him but also gave him...

Hundreds of thousands of people will be marching around the country today to protest the wholesale slaughter of life in the womb. Catholics and others have kept that fight alive, to good effect, for decades. But as a faith that values both faith and reason, Catholicism makes careful distinctions on other life issues as well.Most people, for instance, are not familiar with what, specifically, constitutes brain death. It is not the most pleasant of topics to ponder. And, thank God, few of us have a pressing reason to do so. But the tragic case of a 13-year-old Oakland girl, Jahi...

State law provides a fundamental right to a terminally ill, competent patient to choose a physician’s aid in getting prescription medications that will allow a peaceful death, a state judge ruled Monday in a seminal case. Second Judicial District Judge Nan Nash said Drs. Katherine Morris and Aroop Mangalik, both oncologists at the University of New Mexico Hospital, could not be prosecuted under the state’s Assisted Suicide Statute, which is defined as the act of “deliberately aiding another in the taking of his own life.” The practice recognizes that the patient is dying from his or her underlying disease and...

In bioethical matters of life and death, the liberal media can generally be counted on to come down on the side of death. But once in a while, exceptions arise. CBS’s Norah O’Donnell joined a panel with her “This Morning” co-anchor Charlie Rose and legal analyst Jack Ford on January 6 to discuss the heated controversy of brain dead Marlise Munoz, a Texas woman who remains on life support because of her unborn baby. Predictably, many liberals believe Munoz should be taken off life support and allowed to die – along with her now 18-week-old unborn infant.  But O’Donnell argued...

The family of Terri Schiavo, a comatose woman who died in 2005, has become involved in helping the family of a comatose California teenager. Jahi McMath's family hopes to transfer the 13-year-old from Children's Hospital Oakland to New Beginnings, a New York facility dedicated to Schiavo's memory, the San Jose Mercury News reported. Jahi's family has gone to court to force Children's to keep her on a ventilator, while the hospital contends she is brain dead. Schiavo was the focus of a lengthy legal battle between her husband, who wanted to remove her from a feeding tube and allow her...

The discussion board over at 4chan.org seems to be on to something: Holy sh** have you people read the Margaret Sanger wikipedia article? It's like Planned Parenthood themselves wrote it. It makes light of her racism and eugenics beliefs, and even says under 'Legacy': >''Many who are opposed to the legalization of abortion frequently condemn Sanger by questioning her fitness as a mother and criticizing her views on race, abortion, and eugenics.[61][62][note 8] In spite of such attacks, Sanger continues to be regarded as an icon for the American reproductive rights movement and woman's rights movement.'' Yes, because if...

In 50-17 vote today, the Belgian Senate approved a bill that would allow euthanasia for children. The bill now goes to the House of Representatives for final approval before being sent to the King to be signed into law. Most political observers are predicting the passage of the bill. Currently the law in Belgium allows euthanasia requests for those over 18 and of sound mind, although it is acknowledged that these restrictions are widely ignored. The bill allows euthanasia, with parental consent, for children experiencing intolerable physical pain and who are suffering from a terminal medical condition....

The Belgian Senate voted today 50-17 to extend euthanasia to children with disabilities, in a move pro-life advocates worldwide had been fearing would come and expand an already much-abused euthanasia law even further. The vote today in the full Senate comes after a Senate committee voted 13-4 to allow minors to seek euthanasia under certain conditions and the measure also would extend the right to request euthanasia to adults with dementia. There is still a chance to stop the bill in the House of Representatives, though pro-life campaigners fear it will become law. “Currently the Belgian euthanasia law limits euthanasia...

Brussels, Belgium (CNN) -- As little Ella-Louise faded away, her tiny, frail body wracked with pain, her heartbroken mother was left to look on, feeling powerless. Linda van Roy says she could do nothing to help her terminally ill baby in the last hours of her life. "In that period, they tell you it's best not to give any fluids, because babies survive on little drops of liquid," she said. "So we stopped feeding her. In the end, it was bones and skin and no more baby left." Ten-month-old Ella-Louise died two years ago with Krabbe disease, a rare and...

A committee in Belgium's senate has approved today by a wide margin a bill that would allow euthanasia for minors, so long as they have the approval of their parents and a team of medical experts. The bill is intended for children who are experiencing 'unbearable' pain, thus expanding Belgium’s laws on euthanasia that are already on the books.

CNN) -- A controversial bill that would extend the right to request euthanasia to children suffering terminal illnesses and adults with dementia cleared a vote in a Belgian Senate committee Wednesday. The panel voted 13-4 to allow minors to seek euthanasia under certain conditions, the communications director for the Senate, Patrick Peremans, told CNN. The vote is one stage in a legislative process -- the bill must clear other hurdles before it becomes law. Belgium passed legislation in 2002 allowing voluntary euthanasia for adults.

Contraception, Abortion, and now Euthanasia: Demographics is Destiny.by Brian Kopp, DPM The historical and universal Christian prohibition on contraception, which dates back to the Apostles, was first shaken by the Anglican Church's 1930 Lambeth Conference, the first Christian body ever to condone contraception. Although the Anglicans limited contraception to what they termed exceptional cases, they cracked open a door that had previously been tightly shut. Within three decades, most Protestant denominations had abandoned the universal Christian prohibition against contraception and, by the early 1970s, much of Eastern Orthodoxy had dropped its prohibition on barrier methods.   The connection between the...

It’s that time of the year again folks, when two lucky turkeys come to Washington, spend time at a swanky hotel, get some facetime with President Obama at the White House, before spending the rest of their days at a historic Virginia farm. But those days are always short. Gobbler and Cobbler—last year’s set of turkeys who attended the annual Presidential Turkey Pardon—have both died, Whispers has learned. Gobbler, Cobbler’s understudy, died in February. … Cobbler, 2012’s official pardoned turkey, lived through the summer and was euthanized on Aug. 22. …

Hemlock Society Founder Pushes for Euthanasia of Mentally Ill People by Wesley J. Smith | LifeNews.com | 11/5/13 10:37 AM It really is astounding how the media continue to assume that assisted suicide/euthanasia is only for the terminally ill.HereÂ’s the latest example: Hemlock Society founder Derek Humphry was in Arizona advocating for assisted suicide for the mentally ill, and Arizona Star columnist Tim Steller is shocked!From the article: If you think the idea of assisted suicide is controversial, welcome to the farthest frontier in the debate. Announcing his visit to Tucson for two Nov. 23 presentations, Derek Humphry, a pioneer...

<p>Should children have the right to ask for their own deaths?</p> <p>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.</p>