Three doctors are facing trial in Belgium accused of certifying a woman as autistic so that she could die by euthanasia.
Tine Nys was killed by lethal injection in 2010, at the age of 38. She had told two doctors and a psychiatrist that her suffering was ‘unbearable and incurable’ so that she could qualify for euthanasia under Belgian law.
However, her family say that her suffering was down to a broken heart after the end of a relationship, not autism. Moreover, they say the law was broken because Ms Nys was never treated for autism and so it had not been established that her suffering was “incurable”. She died only two months after the diagnosis of autism was made, and the last treatment she had received for psychological problems was 15 years prior to her death.
Ms Nys’ sisters Lotte and Sophie have accused the doctors of making a rushed decision without treating her for autism. The doctors are facing trial for failing to comply with euthanasia laws and poisoning, in the first such case since euthanasia was legalised in Belgium in 2002.
