Media Release 6 January 2015
Belgian Prisoner to be Legally Murdered by Doctor

Frank van Den Bleeken has won his request to be killed by a doctor under Belgium’s euthanasia laws. The Court of Appeals in Brussels has recently granted his request. Van Bleeken is a 50 year old and is serving a life sentence for serial rape and murder. He has been imprisoned for 30 years at the Bruges prison.

Van Bleeken, is not physically ill, nor is he suffering pain. He will be taken from the prison and to a hospital to be killed on psychological grounds on 11 January 2015. The Court of Appeals found that the prisoner should have been committed to a mental institution for treatment and not to prison. The government had previously refused providing this treatment. This unprecedented judicial murder by the state of a prison inmate, is a violation of the right to life of the prisoner.

As a result of this case, there are now a further 15 prisoners in Belgium, requesting to be killed. The death penalty was repealed in Belgium on 1 August 1996. Are we now witnessing the reintroduction of capital punishment? This tragic case is further evidence that euthanasia is not about pain control, but about disposing of lives deemed not worthy of life. It is never possible to impose limits on euthanasia, which now it has been allowed out, will continue to expand to a wider and wider range of cases. One reason for this is that it is simply cheaper to kill than to provide care. In New Zealand it costs $90,000 a year to keep a male prisoner in prison. Killing the prisoner with a lethal injection could become an attractive option for the state.

This tragedy is a further warning to our community of the grave danger to the lives of the vulnerable in our society that would follow the introduction of laws that allow doctors to kill their patients or assist in their suicide. Right to Life requests that Labour leader, Andrew Little and his caucus, takes heed of the warnings we are bringing and withdraws support for the reintroduction to the ballot of the “End of Life Choice Bill.”

Ken Orr
Spokesperson,
Right to Life

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