A 39-year-old gay, Belgian man identified only as Sebastien has asked to
be euthanized because he cannot accept his sexuality. Under Belgium’s
controversial euthanasia laws, people experiencing sexual difficulty or
who see themselves as sexual misfits have the right to request
euthanasia.
The man claims he is enduring extreme psychological suffering and that his sexuality has made him ‘a prisoner in his own body’.
die is in line with the country’s 14-year-old euthanasia laws.
and medication revealed he is attracted to young men and adolescent boys
and that he is scarred from a difficult childhood, during which his
mother was ill and he was brought up according to a strict Roman
Catholic ethos.
‘My whole life has led me to this, really,’ he said. ‘My mother had
dementia so I wasn’t right, mentally. All that was instilled in me, so I
was extremely lonely, very inhibited physically โ scared to go out,
hugely shy. I didn’t want to be gay. I have always thought about death.
It is a permanent suffering, like being a prisoner in my own body. A
constant sense of shame.’
who was born Nancy, the right to die because of his suffering after a
botched sex-change operation.
The shift to allow death on request for those with sexual difficulties
is controversial among doctors in Belgium, who last year saw the number
of recorded euthanasia cases pass the 2,000 a year mark.
