[JURIST] A Belgian man serving a life sentence was granted the right to be euthanized on Monday. Frank Van Den Bleeken, who has spent the last 30 years in prison on convictions of rape and murder, has continuously requested that he be allowed to end his life. Bleeken argued that he could never be set free due to his inability to control his violent sexual impulses, and deserved to be allowed to exercise his right to die according to Belgian euthanasia laws [text, PDF]. This decision is the first time that the country’s euthanasia laws, enacted in 2002 [JURIST report], have been used by a prisoner to commit physician-assisted suicide. “Over recent years, he has been seen by several doctors and psychologists and their conclusion is that he is suffering, and suffering unbearably,” Bleeken’s lawyer stated [Reuters report]. Bleeken first requested euthanasia in 2011, but doctors wanted to pursue every other possible option first.

Euthanasia laws have seen varying approval around the world in recent years. In February the lower house of Belgian Parliament gave final approval [JURIST report] to a bill that would extend the country’s euthanasia law to certain cases of terminally ill minors. In 2006 the US Supreme Court upheld Oregon’s Death with Dignity Act [JURIST report], making Oregon the only US state that allowed assisted suicide at that time. Vermont, Washington and Montana also allow assisted suicide. In 2007 the Federal Supreme Court of Switzerland ruled [JURIST report] that people with serious mental illnesses may be permitted to commit physician-assisted suicide under certain conditions. Also in 2007 the House of Lords in the UK set aside a proposed bill [JURIST report] that would have legalized assisted suicide due to opposition by physician groups. The UK has continued this trend, upholding a law against euthanasia [JURIST report] in a Court of Appeals case in 2013.