The Belgium Parliament will vote today on whether or not children in enormous pain have the right to be euthanized; if it is voted through the country will be the first to life age restrictions on euthanasia.
"We aren't speaking about death, we are speaking about the way to die," Philippe Mahoux, a Socialist Party senator and the bill's main sponsor, told USA Today. "What we are giving them is the possibility to die with dignity, without suffering, without intolerable pain."
The bill is widely supported in the country, which first legalized euthanasia in 2002 for those in "constant and unbearable physical or mental suffering that cannot be alleviated," CNN reported. The original proposal included minors, but they were left out of the final legislation.
If approve by Parliament the bill will be sent to the King to be signed.
Mother Linda van Roy is backing the bill because she was not able to help her terminally ill 10-month-old baby, Ella-Louise during the last hours of her life, CNN reported.
Ella-Louise had Krabbe disease, which is a genetic mutation that damages. She died slowly under sedation, with food and water withheld.
"That whole period of sedation, you always need to give more and more medication, and you start asking questions. And you say, 'What's the use of keeping this baby alive?'" van Roy told CNN.
The mother wished she could have sped up her baby daughter's death to end her suffering. Van Roy is now petitioning to allow older children to be euthanized.
"We want for those children to be able to talk about euthanasia and to ask those questions and if they really want to say, 'Stop, this is it, I don't want it any more,' that they can have a choice," van Roy told CNN.
Those who oppose the bill believe minors are not able to make such a serious decision.
"Minors decide more impulsively than adults and they don't have the same perspective of short-term and long-term decisions," Els van Hoof, a lawmakers from the Christian Democratic and Flemish party, told USA Today. "Their brains aren't as developed on an emotional, moral or cognitive level as an adult, and they are more depending on the influence of authority and authority in this case would be the doctors or the parents."
