Euthanasia for children is wrong
Belgium is mooting an unprecedented law that would allow the voluntary euthanasia of children.
Voluntary euthanasia is intentionally ending a life, with a patient’s consent. Different forms of this are legal for adults in Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg, although there are differences in the grounds on which it is allowed, for example if someone is terminally ill.
In Belgium, doctors can actively take part in someone’s death. But misconceptions about voluntary euthanasia make extending this to children a bad proposal. Here are four of them:
Euthanasia’s the only way to end suffering
This is untrue. Given modern palliative care (which is likely to be available in any European jurisdiction in which active euthanasia is proposed), there is simply no need for euthanasia. Pain and much-feared symptoms such as choking can all be controlled effectively.
Pro-euthanasists love stories about people going screaming to their deaths. The stories are out of date, and it is disingenuous or ignorant, as well as alarmist and unkind, to let people believe it’s inevitable.
In the vanishingly rare cases of suffering that cannot be palliated using orthodox techniques, it is always possible to sedate the patient to unconsciousness and withdraw food and fluids (sometimes referred to as “passive euthanasia”). This leads to a painless death in a few days.
You could say that it is intellectually dishonest to cause death in this way and deny a quick death by lethal injection, but many feel that there is a distinction of great moral weight between causing death by an act (for example an injection) and causing death by omission. That distinction has proved its worth in the law of murder.
Children can make informed decisions
Let’s suppose, for the sake of argument, that there are no good reasons why the law shouldn’t permit the euthanasia of a fully capacitous adult. (In fact there are some very good reasons: I touch on some of them below). And if that is so, why children shouldn’t be the beneficiaries of a similar compassionate law.
Death, so far as we know, is terribly final. And if you’re opting for death, you need to be sure that you’ve got it right. This demands an understanding of many complex facts (such as prognosis – how your disease or condition is going to pan out – and your therapeutic and palliative options), and an evaluation of their significance. It’s hard for anyone; it’s likely to be impossible for children.
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