http://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/world/belgium-set-to-allow/994442.html

Children from the age of 12 in terminally ill situations are to be allowed to decide for themselves whether to ask for euthanasia, provided they are certified mentally competent to decide for themselves. This is already legal in the Netherlands.

I find the implications of this horrific.

Can any child of twelve make such a decision? Who is to decide their competence?

If they are suffering such pain that a decision to ask for euthanasia might seem reasonable, can any child, however mentally competent, be expected to make a rational decision?

Even at age 20 I recall that I got very emotional about a girl who dumped me, and was very close to suicide.

How much worse is it for a child, told he/she is terminally ill, to decide whether to go on or call it quits? there are worldwide criticisms of child soldiers, who are sent out to scout dangerous territory because they have little conception of death - yet here the proposal must consider that 12 year olds do understand both death and the consequences of illness and euthanasia.

I think this is terrible, and demonstrates how far Western society is falling into the hands of people who cannot, or will not, think things through properly. They just have a 'bright idea' and push it into law as it is 'forward thinking' and 'the right thing to do'. This is neither. It offends me greatly. Maybe the ECHR will do the right thing and forbid such monstrosity. Naaah - no chance of that.

I see euthanasia of any kind as a form of suicide. The Christian church has always condemned suicide for a variety of reasons, one of which must surely be that no individual who is sufficiently ill, desperate, or whatever to contemplate suicide is sufficiently in control of their mental processes to make the decision. Least of all a child of 12!