Belgian Murderer and Rapist 'Allowed to Die' by Court in Landmark Ruling
Frank Van Den Bleeken, a Belgian man serving a life sentence for rape and murder, has won the "right to die" in a landmark ruling after arguing he cannot control his violent sexual urges.
Belgium's euthanasia laws, which earlier this year also gave terminally ill children the right to have doctors end their lives, have been strongly criticized by pro-life groups.
Fifty-year old Van Den Bleeken, who was convicted in the 1980s, argued that he would never be freed and so wishes to end his life, BBC News reported. The ruling follows a three-year legal battle by the prisoner.
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His lawyer, Jos Vander Velpen, said that the prisoner will be transferred to a hospital where the medical procedure will take place, but did not reveal when or where it will happen.
The convict first requested euthanasia in 2011, citing "unbearable psychological anguish," but Belgium's Federal Euthanasia Commission said that every possible treatment options needs to be considered before agreeing to the request.
"The number of euthanasia cases in Belgium has gradually risen each year since the law was first introduced in 2002, and most are now uncontroversial, concerning older, terminally ill people. But new ground has been broken several times recently, and the legislation is not without its critics," BBC's Piers Scholfield noted.
The law has come into play in several cases reported by the media, including the 2013 deaths of 45-year-old identical twins Marc and Eddy Verbessem, who requested euthanasia after finding out that they would go blind as a result of a genetic disorder.
In another case, transsexual Nathan Verhelst, who was born a woman, was allowed to die in October 2013 after several failed sex-change operations that was argued greatly diminished Verhelst's quality of life.
In February, following the Belgian Chamber of Deputies' passage of the bill that allows children to seek euthanasia, some pro-life groups questioning how a civilized society would consent to such a law.
"No civilized society allows children to kill themselves. Far from a compassionate law, this law hands the equivalent of a loaded gun to a child with the astonishing belief that the child should be free to pull the trigger if he or she so chooses. Belgium's decision to allow this is grotesquely abhorrent and inhumane," said Alliance Defending Freedom Senior Legal Counsel Roger Kiska in a statement at the time.
