'Incurable' murderer and rapist wins fight to be euthanized in Belgium
Frank van den Bleeken, a convicted murderer and rapist, has been given permission to die. According to Belgian doctors, he suffers from an incurable condition, but not a terminal disease, that makes him unable to control his violent sexual urges.
After being imprisoned for almost three decades, van den Bleeken has spent the last three years fighting for his right to die. This week, Belgian authorities agreed to his request, even though he is not dying.
The controversial decision has stirred Carine Brochier, a project manager with the Brussels-based European Institute for Bioethics, an organization that looks into ethical issues in medicine and healthcare.
"The international press is really wondering what kind of country Belgium is," Brochier says to Carol. "It is a real shame, especially for the psychiatric system in Belgium."
Brochier says just one day after van den Bleeken's story was reported in the media, 15 more Belgian prisoners made the same request. "It will not stop," she says. "The state is guilty about the way we treat those prisoners."