The Banality of Death Selection

"They were very happy. It was a relief to see the end of their suffering. They had a cup of coffee in the hall, it went well and a rich conversation. Then the separation from their parents and brother was very serene and beautiful.
"At the last there was a little wave of their hands and then they were gone."
Dr. David Dufour 

These are the placidly satisfied words of a medical doctor. Who was engaged in the euthanization of twin brothers, 45 years of age. Born deaf, the brothers were inseparable. They lived together, and worked together as cobblers. Hugely dependent on the presence of one another for comfort and security.

The brothers were diagnosed as being in the position of losing their eyesight. This was a health affliction that both suffered from. And which apparently caused them both mental anguish. They informed doctors the thought of not being able to see one another ever again, once total blindness set in, was simply intolerable to them.

Modern medicine has, and continues to create miracles in advances in health and medical issues that hugely compromise the quality of peoples' lives. Virtually daily there are new initiatives, new understanding, new types of surgery, new pharmaceuticals, new interventions and protocols that have the effect of impacting peoples' health in the most positive of ways.

The glass-almost-empty syndrome belies that there is hope in the fullness of time. A hope that is extinguished when people opt to cease living.  As did these two brothers. Under Belgian law euthanasia is permissible as long as those intent on ending their lives are capable of conveying clearly valid reasons to induce a doctor to believe they are suffering unbearable pain.

Neither of the two men - the twin brothers 45 years of age and fully capable of living out their lives with some adjustment to their routines, exercising new skills that would allow them to continue to be together, irregardless of the new complications in their lives - was in pain.

Most people who become blind adapt to the loss of this important sensory capability, and manage to compromise successfully, developing other, compensatory skills.

Doctors at Brussels University Hospital "euthanized" the two men from Antwerp, as per their wishes, by lethal injection on December 14. One wonders, did their other family members not attempt to dissuade them from such an intemperate decision leading to an early, unneeded departure from life?

At the present time Belgium, which is the second country in the world after Holland to legalize euthanasia, now permits the law to apply only to those over 18. It is, however, prepared to "update" the current law to enable it to be "extended to minors if they are capable of discernment or affected by an incurable illness or suffering that we cannot alleviate".

A change in Belgium's euthanasia law will allow minors and those suffering from dementia to seek permission to die.

Incomprehensible.