'The Economist' reports on euthanasia in Belgium
A group of 65 Belgian psychiatrists, professors and psychologists have written an open letter published in the daily De Morgen in which they call for Belgium to end the practice of allowing euthanasia on grounds of unbearable psychological suffering.
The 65 claim that there is no objective way of judging unbearable psychological suffering.
Annually only 3% of the 2000 people undergoing euthanasia in Belgium do so on grounds of unbearable psychological suffering. These people are not terminally ill.
The psychiatrists' appeal was made against the backdrop of cases like Emily's. She is a psychiatric patient of 24 who first applied for euthanasia two years ago. Permission was granted, but at the last minute Emily chose life. The British magazine The Economist made the following documentary about Emily.