Age of Consent. Belgium's parliament votes through child euthanasia
 

Tough solutions for tough situations.

Lots of the critics of the bill are incoherent. The bill also requires parental consent. What are the opponents of the bill thinking? We think it's ok for adults to relieve themselves of unbearable suffering but we want to make damn sure that children suffer as much as possible????

Euthanasia of a sort has been going on for a long time among humans and no doubt the critters who preceded us. Hunter/gathers could not afford to jeopardize the group in the vain attempt to haul around and feed someone incapable of pulling their own weight. I've read that Vikings would place a severely deformed newborn out on the ice for a swift and merciful death.

NPR had a piece a while back about invalid children who received state funded aid in the high six figure range annually for care. A dilemma was approaching for some as state aid expires at age 18. It is an unpleasant question: how many people can even a wealthy industrial society afford to care for in such manner? And this is to say nothing of the ongoing pain and discomfort of being bed-ridden for life.

Probably should of taken Steven Hawking out for a long slow stroll out to the low tide line and left him there a long time ago!

And if he consented to it, what would be the problem?

Who will define consent?

I think there are generally pretty standard definitions of consent available in the legal system.

The person consenting DUH

Can an unconscious person consent?

Who says this applies to an unconscious person?

What is "this"?

Clearly the issue of the definition of "consent" was raised in regard to the comment about Steven Hawking and the observations about the general practice of euthanasia brought up just before that, and was not confined to the particular legislation in the first link.

When did Steven Hawking become unconscious?

Has he?

Consent cannot be given by an unconscious person so it's a non issue. No idea what Hawking has to do with any of this.