Newborn babies are killed in Belgium, Ne: herlands — but most won’t call it infanticide: Infants determined by medical professionals to have ‘no hope of a bearable future’ are frequently killed by ‘deliberate euthanasia,’ affecting ‘10% of the neonates (0-1 year) who died in Flanders, between September 2016 and December 2017.’
A recent study has brought to light the practice of deliberate euthanasia to new-borns for whom the medical team considered that there was "no hope of a bearable future". These practices concerned 10% of the neonates (0-1 year) who died in Flanders, between September 2016 and December 2017 (i. e., 24 babies). This practice is illegal in Belgium, yet no authority seems to take offense. The law only allows the euthanasia of a minor if he or she is capable of discernment and conscious at the time of the request for euthanasia. In her thesis, which served as the basis for the study in question, Laure Dombrecht, researcher at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB), refers to a similar study conducted in 1999-2000. The proportion of euthanasia to new-borns by injection of lethal substances has increased from 7 to 10% since this previous survey. Among what is considered as "end-of-life medical decisions" involving 61% of these babies, the study distinguishes between decisions not to start or …