Belgian murderer Van Den Bleeken wins ‘right to die’:
A Belgian man serving a life sentence for rape and murder will be allowed to have doctors end his life, after a landmark ruling.
Unable to control his violent sexual urges, Frank Van Den Bleeken, who is 50, argued he would never be freed.
The decision follows a three-year legal battle by the prisoner, who was convicted in the 1980s.
The ruling is the first involving a prisoner since the assisted dying law was introduced in Belgium 12 years ago.
Van Den Bleeken will soon be transferred to a hospital where the medical procedure will take place, his lawyers told reporters.
“But I cannot say when or where that will happen,” Jos Vander Velpen added.
Shocked? Not me. In one of my more whimsical moments, I drafted and sent out a phony press release regarding a similar scenario, but set in the US and with a slightly more convoluted set of circumstances.:
Los Angeles – April 1, 1998
Affiliated PressAt a press conference today, the American Civil Liberties Union Announced
it would be supporting the request of a death row prisoner to obtain assisted
suicide. Sid Nasty, who has been on death row for 5 years awaiting the outcome
of appeals in his death sentence in the slaying of 5 girl scouts, has applied
for assistance in committing suicide.
Nasty, in an appeal filed yesterday, contends that his present quality of
life is unacceptable and seeks to voluntarily end his “suffering” and
“meaningless existence”. Nasty says that even if his death sentence is
commuted, the best he can hope for is a life sentence with no hope for parole.
Nasty, in a taped presentation, explained: “Hell, I figure the ACLU has
helped cripples in nursing homes to escape being locked up with no hope of
parole. Why should they get the right to die and I don’t? The food may be a
little better in here than in a nursing home, but aside from that, it’s pretty
much the same”.
This action of the ACLU stands in stark contrast to its actions in the case
of Gary Gilmore, who asked that all appeals on his behalf be withdrawn so he
could be executed by a firing squad. The ACLU argued that Gilmore was
depressed by the circumstances of his incarceration and could not be making an
informed choice in the matter. ACLU spokesperson Sol Phistry explained that
the ACLU was firm in opposing the death penalty then and now.
”Nasty’s appeals for a commutation of sentence will stay in place. Gillmore
was asking for the state to execute him. Nasty is asking the state to allow
him to release himself from an untenable existence. He will be administering
the lethal injection to himself, not some flunkie hired by the prison. This is
about choice.
“Jack Kevorkian, a pioneer in the right to die, said it best; to paraphrase
him: “The voluntary self-elimination of murderers, rapists and other felons,
taken collectively can only serve to enhance the public health and welfare.”(emphasis added.)
On one of the email lists this got posted to at the time, an ACLU board member (don’t remember if it was a state or the national board) commented that the author had an “overactive imagination.” Who knew that I was actually exhibiting – totally unconsciously – clairvoyance, my least known superpower.