The campaign for euthanasia has been bathed in altruistic claims for several years already.
It relieves the terminally ill of pain. It allows them to die with dignity. It gives them control over their demise, which they otherwise might not have in a hospital or hospice. It is a right they should be allowed to exercise. And more.
But a new report from European Conservative documents that the chief of a health insurance conglomerate in Belgium, Luc Van Gorp, admits it is a “money-saving solution.”
He heads a group that styles itself as “Christelijke Mutualiteit,” or Christian Mutual Insurance.
He is lobbying for changes in the law that would allow people to be allowed to signal that their lives “are done with” and get state help in dying.
The prerequisite right now is that there be evidence of “unbearable suffering.”
The report explained the head of the “Christian-in-name-only” corporation expressed his hopes during a recent interview.
“We have to remove the stigma between life and death,” he said. “I have never understood why we always debate the quantity of life. We want people to get as old as possible, we do everything to accomplish this. But we never ask the question of how quantity relates to quality of life.”
He added, “This debate needs to be placed high on the political agenda. As a society we are going to have to consider how to organize that care [for the elderly] in the future, knowing that we are short on hands already today.”
He said an in-house study confirmed an aging population is becoming an issue in Belgium, because by 2050, the number of people over age 80 will double to 1.2 million.
“How are we going to prepare for that?” he wondered. “Not by building mass residential care centers if they won’t contribute to quality of life. If we are not going to be able to sustain the mass of people who need care, how are we going to engage in a talk with them?”
He insists people “should have the freedom to end their lives” “even if there is no unbearable suffering…”
“What if the quality of care is perfect, but the person still does not experience quality of life? What do you do then, when there are still people who indicate that they are done with life?”
He continued, “We have to remove the stigma between life and death. Not through harsh euthanasia, because that scares people away. But by allowing people to indicate that it [their life] has been good [and that it can end now].”
The Christian Institute explained Van Gorp was bluntly pushing for people who are “tired of life” to be allowed to die to “avert a social funding crisis.”
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