A 93-year-old Belgian woman has died after going on a 10-day hunger strike last month to force doctors to help her die, her family said. Amelie Van Esbeen, born in 1916, was surrounded by family members at a home where she lived for the past five years.
“The main thing is that her request for euthanasia was finally approved and that her decision relaunched the debate on how life should end,” her grandson said.
According to her doctors Van Esbeen did not qualify for euthanasia under a 2002 law which authorizes doctors to help patients die if they are suffering from a “serious terminal illness” and “constant and unbearable pain that cannot be relieved”.
Van Esbeen ended her hunger strike on March 24 and made a written euthanasia request which was accepted by a different doctor who helped her die on Wednesday around noon, her family said.
(Report from Expatica, Beligum)
Hello derek
I am a bone cancer patient who has been diagnosed as level 3 of bone cancer and had been told by the doctors that it will be hard to cure my illness as i have crossed that stage in bone cancer , They have told me that i can live only through medicines for the rest o my life
I have accepted that as a fact ,but even the medicines are not helpful in controlling my pain and it has become a very hard to lead a life to carry my day to -day activities , and Then i searched the net and asked the lawyers in my country (India) whether euthanasia is allowed here . They told it has not been legalized yet
I am also low on resources to look after me , as we don’t have government supported medical insurance here and have been thinking of self destruction for some time now
I know its very hard to secure helium here and need to ask you whether a plastic bag is alone can be used in future to take one’s own life as i have decided to end it peacefully with the help of plastic bag alone is it possible or not
As outlined in the book ‘Final Exit’ for the last 18 years, self-deliverance from a terminal illness can be achieved merely with a plastic bag.