Free Republic

Frank Van Den Bleeken, a Belgian man in prison for multiple rapes and a rape-murder, has decided he wants to die and authorities have decided they can grant that request. Van Den Bleeken, 50, has been in prison for nearly 30 years and has declined to seek parole because he believes his uncontrollable urges make him a danger to society, but he says he can no longer bear prison conditions and his own "unbearable psychic suffering," AFP reports. "I am a human being, and regardless of what I've done, I remain a human being," he told Belgian TV. "So, yes,...

In a hospice in Pinellas Park, Fla., lives a young woman who is quite alive, yet quite unlike most of you reading these words. Since 1990, she has not been able to swallow or to communicate as most of us do. However, she smiles and cries, kisses her parents and utters a few simple words. She is not on life support. She receives nutrition through a tube instead of chewing and swallowing. She is not in a coma. She is not in a persistent vegetative state as defined by Florida law. She is much loved by her loyal parents and...