This leaves us nearly speechless. Here in the US, where many states execute murderers by lethal injection, there have been incidences in which the drugs have failed, causing great suffering and a prolonged death. Many in the US are calling for an end to executions using drugs that do not always work in the ways they were intended to. Belgium has no capital punishment, presumably because the Belgians think it is cruel and because they recognize that there can be unintended consequences, as we have seen in the lethal injection executions in the US.
Now, however, a Belgian murderer/rapist, imprisoned for thirty years, has been granted euthanasia for suffering his lawyer says has been caused by failure to receive needed treatment in prison. So Belgium, which does not believe in capital punishment, is now executing a man by means of lethal injection! We have to presume this is more acceptable to them than giving the man the treatment he wants and needs.
The man, is, of course, not terminally ill; and his lawyer has outlined the way in which his desire for death could be prevented.
It would seem that the slippery slope in Belgium goes in a circle.
