Frank Van Den Bleeken’s doctors have decided to suspend the euthanasia procedure scheduled for this Sunday. The detainee, who claimed to be suffering from an incurable disease, had invoked his right to die.
Spectacular turn of events. Finally, the Belgian detainee who was to be euthanized at his request this Sunday will remain alive. Its doctors “decided not to continue the euthanasia procedure”, announced the Belgian justice ministry.
Irrepressible sexual urges
Frank Van Den Bleeken has been serving a sentence for rape and homicide for almost 30 years. He says he has an incurable pathology. He does not suffer from terminal cancer or complete quadriplegia; but many irrepressible sexual impulses, which cause him, according to his formula, “unbearable psychic suffering and without hope of cure”. Comments confirmed by several psychiatric expertises.
The 51-year-old inmate believes he is a danger to society. He has always refused his early release, for fear, according to his lawyer, of causing new victims. A little earlier, he had requested his transfer to the Netherlands, to a psychiatric center specializing in this type of profile. But the Brussels Court of Appeal had rejected his request for formal reasons. Suddenly, Frank Van Den Bleeken demanded death. The judges agreed, finding that his case met the medical and legal conditions for euthanasia.
Lively controversy
The decision sparked an uproar in public opinion, including supporters of assisted death. The chairman of the Belgian commission for the control of assisted death, oncologist Wim Distelmans, thus refused to euthanize Frank Van Den Bleeken. “Everyone has the right to palliative care,” he told Flemish newspaper Het Laatste Nieuws. In the Netherlands, therapeutic treatment was possible. We were not at the end of the file. Ethically, we are on the wrong track if we grant him euthanasia ”.
For her part, Belgian Senator Christine Defraigne, co-author of the law on the euthanasia of minors with an incurable disease, felt that a yellow line had been crossed. “Have we tried everything? Was chemical castration not suitable since his suffering seems to be linked to being considered an incurable rapist and to the fear of starting over? In this case, we may be making an extensive interpretation of the law: it is more a question here of assisted suicide – which is not legal in Belgium – than of euthanasia ”, she expressed herself. in the pages of Liberation.
“Quick transfer”
Without providing an official explanation, the Justice Ministry announced the suspension of the procedure, with doctors refusing to apply it. Frank Van Den Bleeken will finally be transferred to the legal psychiatric center in Ghent, with a view to “adapted” care. In a press release, the ministry indicates that “the personal motivations for this decision are a matter of medical confidentiality”.
In addition, “very recent and intense contacts” with the Dutch authorities “offer a clear prospect of a rapid transfer to a center specializing in long stays of internment,” the statement explained. The Minister of Justice has promised to develop in the next six months a “plan for the organization of a concrete reception capacity in Belgium” of internees suffering from profound mental disorders. The country has been condemned several times by the European Court of Human Rights for its shortcomings in this area.
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