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Belgian physician Georges Casteur, board member of the Belgian Society of ethics and medical morality, states that the evolution of the practice of euthanasia in Belgium is a typical case of a slippery slope and predicts it will be the same in Quebec if Bill 52 is implemented.

At the invitation of the Physicians’ Alliance Against Euthanasia, Dr. Casteur gave a seminar on June 8 in Montreal, which can be watched here (in French), based on 11 years of experience of euthanasia in Belgium and the conclusions formulated by many doctors. There are noticeable similarities and differences between the Belgian laws and those of Quebec.

Dr. Casteur said that since the legalization of euthanasia in 2002, the country has gone from having a law that authorizes euthanasia to a program that promotes it. He cites as evidence the information that hospitals must systematically give to patients about the availability of euthanasia (also a provision in the law 52) and the training of doctors specializing in this field. The role of these physicians is to advise their colleagues and often, says Dr. Casteur; they themselves carry out the acts of euthanasia.

Dr. Casteur is also displeased with the compensation (€ 150) that accompanies a second “independent” opinion that all Belgian physicians must obtain prior to performing euthanasia. In practice, the second doctor is a colleague or an assistant in the same hospital. Euthanasia itself is on its way to becoming a paid medical procedure.

As for the supervisory commission to examine suspected cases, Dr. Casteur describes it as a “hoax.” Its members are all supporters of the law and practice euthanasia themselves. In addition, these examiners do not have access to data that identifies patients, which enables euthanasia authors (physicians) to present situations reassuringly.

Initially limited to terminal cases, Belgian law has considerably expanded in only ten years, following a logic that will imminently prevail in Quebec, said Dr. Casteur:  If euthanasia is legitimate because it relieves suffering, how can one grant it to a patient who has 24 hours to live and deny it to another who has years still to suffer?

A 30 year old patient with early stage multiple sclerosis, people at the start of Alzheimer’s, a 40 year old woman dissatisfied with her sex change, and many spouses wanting to die together were also able to be euthanized in Belgium. Dr Casteur denounces the surprising complacency of editorials and the absence of any judicial intervention in response to these events.

The most striking case is the subject of a legal case: a 64 year old woman in good health, Lieve de Troyer, requested euthanasia, depressed by a breakup and having no contact with her children. The doctor, who euthanized her without making contact with her children beforehand, is none other than the President of the Belgian supervisory committee euthanasia, Dr. Wim Distelmans. Tom Mortier, the son of the departed, filed the complaint.

The annual number of euthanasia in Belgium increased from 200 in 2003 to 1,816 in 2013. According to Dr. Casteur, it is very difficult to show that the decisions behind these deaths have been taken in the absence of a pressured environment, physician or institution, in a society that has come to promote the choice of euthanasia.

Dr. Casteur was director IMBO (mobile hospital and neurological rehabilitation in Ostend) from 1976 to 2012 and President of the College of Physicians of West Flanders from 2000 to 2003.