Abstract

On the 16th of May 2002, the Belgian House of Representatives approved of a Bill on euthanasia. Belgium is now the second country in the world, next to the Netherlands, that has legislation which under certain conditions legitimizes euthanasia. In this article the Belgian legislative procedure on euthanasia is looked upon from a political point of view. To be able do so first of all the legal context on euthanasia before the new bill was approved of has to be discussed. Then the political history of the process of legal change with regard to euthanasia is analysed from 1980 onwards. And finally the Belgian process of legal change on this subject is compared with the process of legal change in the Netherlands.