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Health

Deaf Twin Brothers in Belgium Euthanized After Finding Out They Were Also Going Blind

Jan. 14, 2013 2:47pm Liz Klimas

Twin brothers in Belgium who were deaf since birth, lived in the same apartment and worked as cobblers were euthanized by lethal injection last month after they learned they were losing their eyesight as well.

The identical 45-year-olds couldn’t bear the thought of eventually not being able to see each other any more, the Daily Telegraph reported. It was an unusual cased based on Belgium’s law, which allows euthanasia by request if the doctor also considers the patient in unbearable pain. New additions to the law also allow for euthanasia of children and patients with Alzheimer’s, according to the Telegraph.

These men, though, were not terminally ill or physically suffering in the traditional sense.

Deaf Twins in Belgium Euthanized After They Began to Go Blind

The picture of Marc and Eddy Verbessem were shared on RTL TV. (Image: RTL via Daily Mail)

Here’s more from the Telegraph featuring Dr. David Dufour, who presided over the euthanasia decision that was carried out on December 14, 2012:

“They were very happy. It was a relief to see the end of their suffering,” he said.

“They had a cup of coffee in the hall, it went well and a rich conversation. The separation from their parents and brother was very serene and beautiful. At the last there was a little wave of their hands and then they were gone.”

After its initial report, which did not name the brothers, the Telegraph in a separate article identified them as Marc and Eddy Verbessem. The story had an added controversial twist at this point as the Telegraph reported the first time the twins requested euthanasia, they were denied. They sought out a hospital that would consider their argument that they were in fact in unbearable pain at the thought of not seeing each other and would allow for the mercy killing they requested.

Here’s what the twins’ older brother Dirk Verbessem told the Telegraph:

“Many will wonder why my brothers have opted for euthanasia because there are plenty of deaf and blind that have a ‘normal’ life,” he said. “But my brothers trudged from one disease to another. They were really worn out.”

Mr Verbessem said his twin brothers were going blind with glaucoma and that Eddy had a deformed spine and had recently undergone heart surgery.

“The great fear that they would no longer be able to see, or hear, each other and the family was for my brothers unbearable,” he said.

The Telegraph pointed out that in 2011 about 1,133 patients were euthanized. If euthanasia as a practice wasn’t controversial enough, it also noted that some of the organs of patients euthanized in the country were being harvested. With a shortage of some organs for transplant, this would raise the issue of patients who might not otherwise be candidates for euthanasia potentially being cleared anyway.

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(H/T: Daily Mail via Drudge Report)

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Comments (117)

rsanchez1
Posted on January 14, 2013 at 10:15pm
Didn’t stop Helen Keller.

Suicide is the weakest any human being can go. There is just no excuse for assisted suicide.

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SarahBeALightInTheDarkness
Posted on January 14, 2013 at 10:02pm
so very sad..

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brigott
Posted on January 14, 2013 at 8:31pm
I absolutely 100% suspect that both brothers now horribly regret their decision.

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Textinstar
Posted on January 14, 2013 at 7:42pm
I do not agree with it but if you want to end your life that’s your own choice. But did anyone else catch the “new addition” to the law that allows children to be euthanized? How in the hell do you justify killing a child? I am speechless…. We put down a dog, not children. Any society who can not see the difference between the two have completely lost their soul.

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GuruMeditation
Posted on January 14, 2013 at 6:59pm
Pure evil… and coming to your neighborhood.

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raderby
Posted on January 14, 2013 at 6:32pm
their “suffering” – scroow me – maybe they were crazy.

No reason except progressive BS leading them to suicide.

God, what a world we have wrought.

Europe is lost. We are next, in a very short amount of time.

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dabbob
Posted on January 14, 2013 at 6:22pm
I will take death any day over being both deaf and blind.

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Tigress1
Posted on January 14, 2013 at 6:08pm
This is sickening! Next they will be made into Soylent Green.

What if they were misdiagnosed? There are lots of treatments for various forms of progressive blindness, such as Macular Degeneration, etc. Unbelievable.

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datsanono
Posted on January 14, 2013 at 6:05pm
This is what happens when the Govt. takes all hope out of society. You think you’re hopeless …and you are for the most part in socialism and marxism. We also need to put back fault in marital divorces. The family dynamics are being ripped at the seams by manipulative, heartless govt. leaders. This is a sick story and if you know anyone who thinks this is normal on any level, you should be wary of them.

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Fitzzz
Posted on January 14, 2013 at 6:02pm
How totally INSANE
They were 45 years old,a lifetime ahead of them
Everyday new discoveries in hearing , and sight restoration being found

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waspanglosaxon
Posted on January 14, 2013 at 5:33pm
Euthanasia is the ultimate sickness and the ultimate insanity. The Lunatic Left has for decades led a propaganda campaign to exterminate the White race through miscegenation, through homosexuality and now, they’re actually encouraging White people to kill themselves. And, just like they have followed suit by engaging in miscegenation and homosexuality, White people are marching along to the suicide chambers just like the brain-dead zombies that the jews-media has caused them to be.

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americangrammy
Posted on January 14, 2013 at 5:27pm
This is so sickening. There are many reasons why Europe would tolerate or even encourage people to allow themselves to be put down like dogs, but I’m wondering if crowding people into cities is one of the primary ones? When we lived in Europe a long while ago, it was virtually impossible for ordinary people to own their own home or to own land. Most had to live in or just outside cities so as to use public transportation because cars were so expensive. Apartments were very small and so were salaries. You had cradle to grave socialism and the state decided if you were good enough to have a college education. This was decided for you at the age of 12. If you didn’t pass the test, you knew that you were locked into a low wage job for the rest of your life. I remember my friends young daughter sobbing for days after being told that she had not made the grade.
The wait time to see your assigned doctor was a minimum of 5 hours so you didn’t bother going to a doctor if you could possibly avoid it. You just toughed it out. Unless you weren’t actually sick, but wanted the Dr to give you a paper saying that you needed a couple of days off. Very common.
I decided I wasn’t going to permanently live in Europe! What I saw was hopelessness on a grand scale. You lived your life, but it was empty. You worked but it was really for nothing. I was happy to get home to America. This is what will happen here if the socialists get their way.

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TEARS FOR AMERICA
Posted on January 14, 2013 at 5:10pm
The Agenda 21 propaganda machine has been injected all over the world and soon coming to a clinic near you…thanks to Mr. Obama and his socialist progressive deathcare. Sara Palin had it right again.

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ECOMCON
Posted on January 14, 2013 at 5:02pm
Following this logic, and considering that most of congress, the senate and certainly all of the administration are deaf and blind, with the added feature of being dumb too, they should all do us a favour and off themselves.

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Tom K
Posted on January 14, 2013 at 4:59pm
Belgium has had ” ObamaCare and Death Panels ” for quite some time. Get Ready America !

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eagledown
Posted on January 14, 2013 at 4:58pm
Mr. and Mrs. *****,

[Obama Care]

….sorry, we had to put your mother down, she was complaining about constant headaches and it was determined by our panel that she was a burden to the system.

Her organs were not of use to us, but we donated her skin will be used for lamp shades in our new recycling program. Mien Fuehrer would be proud. No more useless bread gobblers as he / Obama would say.

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Paulhgreenbay
Posted on January 14, 2013 at 4:51pm
“Mr Verbessem said his twin brothers were going blind with glaucoma and that Eddy had a deformed spine and had recently undergone heart surgery.”
———Glaucoma surgery much?
My guess all the latest and greatest medicine for hearing implants or vision ailments is not available in some of these countries with socialized medicine.

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Magyar
Posted on January 14, 2013 at 4:49pm
This is beyond SICK! but certainly relieves the Belgium health care system from an additional drag on the system….. SICK SICK SICK!!!

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Misha
Posted on January 14, 2013 at 4:24pm
Wow.

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Metallicat
Posted on January 14, 2013 at 4:21pm
What sickens me is that the older brother seems to have abandoned his duty to his younger siblings by being there for them and helping them to survive,adapt and overcome. He abandoned them,so they would no longer burden his life. As a brother of two,that breaks my heart.

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tnman65
Posted on January 14, 2013 at 4:00pm
I to think its a sin to take your own life. Having said that, it was their chose. Not yours, not mine,theirs. You can say all the ugly stuff you want, you know people with this problem and they are doing fine. Or I know someone who is a lot worse off and they struggle through it. The truth is, everyone is different. None of you, including myself have no idea what going on in their mind. We are not all the same and apparently this was more than they could take. And above all it was no ones business but theirs.

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Metallicat
Posted on January 14, 2013 at 4:00pm
They werent terminally ill or suffering physically? Does the family stand to profit from the harvesting of their organs? Their family gave up hope on them,and allowed this to happen? What a disgusting family.

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NigelTufnel
Posted on January 14, 2013 at 3:58pm
Sounds like there was more to their pain than just what was reported. The idea here is that Belgium has a law that allows one to choose to die IF the doctor agrees they are in pain. That’s a pretty lofty decision. Much like the ones a judge would make. I can’t comment on the doctor’s decision for it sounds like there was much more than what was reported. This was the doctor’s decision. Not theirs. The idea here is that socialized medicine surrenders some serious power. The other variable in play is cohersion. Over the course of 45 years of treatment, did their doctors constantly advise them that they should consider this? We don’t know. At what point will American doctors advise patients not to fight their cancer? That will be when American doctors take their marching orders from the people that run the enitre health care system. It’s called Obamacare and it has just arrived.

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.rjk
Posted on January 14, 2013 at 3:58pm
these dutch surrender faster than the french.

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LeadNotFollow
Posted on January 14, 2013 at 3:56pm
Asian countries have allegedly been killing newborn female babies for hundreds, even thousands of years, by drowning them in a bucket of cold water placed next to the mother’s birthing bed.
Where’s the outcry? Where’s the justice for these innocent babies?

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