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Belgium: survivor of the Brussels attacks, a young woman euthanized for "psychological suffering"

2022-10-07T04:45:00.473Z


RTBF revealed this week the story of Shanti De Corte, a Belgian who survived a bomb explosion at Brussels airport. After several suicide attempts, the young woman suffering from psychiatric sequelae was euthanized last May.


Shanti De Corte had long days ahead of her.

His life was not threatened, in the short or medium term, nor destroyed by unbearable physical pain.

At her request, the Belgian doctors nevertheless euthanized her on May 7, 2022, considering that the deep psychological suffering of which she was the victim authorized her to resort to medical assistance to put an end to her life.

The law of 2002 admits indeed, under the title of the diseases opening the possibility of requesting euthanasia, the “

unbearable psychic sufferings

”.

Of the 1,500 patients euthanized each year in Belgium, about fifty are euthanized for this reason.

Shanti De Corte's life was ruined in seconds on March 22, 2016, when the teenager was on her way to Rome for a graduation trip.

In the departures hall of Brussels airport, she was a few meters from the terrorists when they triggered their explosive charge.

18 people will be killed in the attack, and 92 will be injured.

She is not one of them: she emerged unscathed from the attack - at least in appearance.

In reality, the traumatic shock she suffered head-on will mark her permanently.

"

There are some students who react worse than others to traumatic events.

And having interviewed her twice, I can tell you that Shanti De Corte was one of those fragile students.

For me, it's clear, she already had serious psychological problems before the attack.

So I referred her to psychiatry

”, testifies the school psychologist who followed her, with the RTBF, the French-speaking public audiovisual of Belgium.

Read alsoPalliative care, assisted suicide, euthanasia... what are we talking about?

Shanti De Corte was already fragile.

She made several stays in a psychiatric hospital before the attack.

She returns to the same establishment a few weeks later, keeps a logbook on Facebook in which she counts the antidepressants, which she takes by the dozen every day, confides to her relatives on the Internet: "

I feel like a ghost who does not feel nothing

”.

Alternative therapeutic pathways were possible

During one of her stays in a psychiatric hospital, she then suffered an attempted sexual assault in 2018, by another patient.

After efforts to recover and get up, she finally makes suicide attempts.

Then makes numerous requests to resort to euthanasia.

Her friends, also present on the day of the attack, come back up the slope thanks to a stay with a therapist, subsidized by the State.

The young woman is offered to follow this course, but she declines.

Finally, Shanti De Corte approached an association lobbying in favor of euthanasia, and she renewed her request: two psychiatrists, this time, accepted it.

On May 7, 2022, the young woman was euthanized with her family, at the age of 23.

Read alsoEuthanasia in Belgium: the ECHR denounces a failing control commission

The Federal Commission for the Control and Evaluation of Euthanasia in Belgium, the CFCEE, found nothing to complain about.

But a neurologist, Paul Deltenre, is indignant despite everything that the offers of care adapted to the situation of the young woman have not been tried.

There was nothing to lose

,” he laments.

RTBF understands that a judicial inquiry has been opened at the Antwerp public prosecutor's office, to examine the possibility of a drift in the choice to accede to the young woman's request.

On Tuesday 4 October, the European Court of Human Rights condemned Belgium for the lack of independence of its Control Commission.

Indeed, Belgian law “

does not prevent the doctor who performed euthanasia from sitting

” within it “

and from voting on the question of whether his own acts were compatible with the material and procedural requirements of the law

”, notes the ECHR, which ordered Brussels to pay 2211.30 euros for costs and expenses to the applicant.

Source: lefigaro

All news articles on 2022-10-07

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