Belgian officials are now conducting a criminal investigation against three doctors who allegedly poisoned a 38-year-old woman Tine Nys. She was diagnosed with having Asperger's syndrome before she was advised for euthanasia. She died by lethal injection.
The incident happened in 2010 after Nys was diagnosed with having Asperger's syndrome when euthanasia was legally accepted, as posted by Life News.
Sources say that the 'legal' killing happened just two months after she was diagnosed with a mild form of autism. It was after Tine herself asked the doctors to qualify her for euthanasia since she was suffering an "unbearable and incurable" disease.
Unfortunately, her family states that Tine's condition is far from autism. They believe that their loved one just suffered a broken heart and not an incurable disease.
Lotte and Sophie Nys, Tine's sisters suspected the doctors have failed to properly treat their sister. They claimed the doctors seemed to be in a rush to mercy kill their sister without giving her other options to treat her disease.
They even narrated how traumatizing the process of euthanasia has been to her family. They said that during the process, their parents were asked by the doctors to hold the needle in place while they were conducting the lethal injection. After that, they are even told to check Tine's heart to confirm if the heartbeat had already stopped.
Last year, when the family filed their complaint about what happened to Tine, the accused tried to defend themselves and asked to stop the investigation.
Dr. Lieve Thienpont, one of the accused psychiatrists who allegedly approved Tine's request for euthanasia, said, "We must try to stop these people. It is a seriously dysfunctional, wounded, traumatized family with very little empathy and respect for others."
Belgium's chamber of indictment says that the case has sufficient indications and that the doctors are now going to face trial because of what they did. They are going to be transferred to the court of assize in Ghent.
The trial was the very first criminal investigation regarding euthanasia laws after it has been passed in Belgium.
With the incident, people are now getting more concerned about how euthanasia is easily approved in patients with mental problems. According to The Guardian, even children are not exempted with it.
Belgium is one of the countries that allow euthanasia as their final solution not just for terminal diseases but also for several psychiatric problems. It was accepted as law since 2002. Since the very first time the law was passed in Belgium, almost 10,000 people have already died because of it.
