Editor's note. The following appeared this morning on the blog of the Euthanasia Prevention Coalition.

Professor Jan Bernheim, an oncologist from Belgium, is misleading audiences on the facts concerning the Belgium model of euthanasia.

Bernheim, a leader in the Belgium euthanasia lobby, who worked to legalize euthanasia in Belgium, recently stated to an audience in Queensland Australia:

"there was no evidence of abuse or a slippery slope beyond voluntary euthanasia under the Belgian model."

A study that was published in the Journal of the Canadian Medical Association on May 17, 2010 found that 32% of all euthanasia deaths in the Flanders region of Belgium were without explicit request or consent. (http://www.cmaj.ca/cgi/content/abstract/cmaj.091876v1)

The same researchers also investigated the role of nurses in the model for euthanasia in Belgium and they found that 45% of euthanasia deaths that were done by nurses, were without explicit request or consent. (See http://www.cmaj.ca/cgi/content/full/182/9/905)

In response to criticism concerning the nurses role in doing euthanasia in Belgium the lead authors of the article stated:

Our questionnaire indeed asked whether there was discussion between the nurse and the relatives in those cases – which happened in 68.9% – but we did not include this in our article because involving the relatives, especially in case of patient incompetence, is ultimately the responsibility of the physician, as is the decision itself. The decision is not made between nurses and relatives, but by the physician with input from relatives as well as nurses.

These comments further confirm that the practise of euthanasia in Belgium is not based on the choice of the person who will die, but rather the decision is made by the physician with input from relatives as well as nurses.

Once again, choice is an illusion in the actual practise of euthanasia in Belgium.

It seems that the Belgium euthanasia lobby and Compassion & Choices have a lot in common.

As I say: "if there is nothing wrong with euthanasia and assisted suicide, then why do you have to lie about it."

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