Belgium had passed a law in 2002 that states euthanasia is only allowed if a patient gives out explicit consent or request.
But now, a recent study has revealed that Belgian doctors have been illegally conducting euthanasia on patients, violating the Euthanasia Act as a result and killing 1.7 of patients in 2013 in the process.
Raphael Cohen-Almagor, the author of the study, said that 52.7 percent of the patients euthanized were 80 years of age or older.
In 77.9 percent of these cases, euthanasia was not discussed with the patients because they were either comatose, have been diagnosed with dementia, or discussing it would have been detrimental to the best interest of the patient, CNS News.com reported.
Additionally, doctors often would not discuss the matter with the patients' families, as the doctors feel that it is a "medical decision" that must be made by them alone.
"It is worrying that some physicians take upon themselves the responsibility to deliberately shorten patients' lives without a clear indication from the patients that this is what they would want," Cohen-Almagor stressed.
The data also indicates that deaths that were hastened without request were rarely reported, even though reporting is a requirement of the Belgian euthanasia law.
The study also shows that deaths being sped up without request were not often reported, despite the Belgian euthanasia law making it very clear that reporting of the act is required, the Daily Mail reported.
The study, entitled "First Do No Harm: Shortening Lives of Patients without Their Explicit Request in Belgium," was published in the latest issue of the Journal of Medical Ethics.
