In a moving essay, the parents of three-and-a-half year old Annukke, who died from a brain tumour, disagree with the Belgian law on euthanasia for children and ask rather for all doctors to be trained in palliative care.
In the light of the recent law passed by the Belgian government to allow active euthanasia of children, a brave German couple have written a very personal essay describing the loss of their daughter to an aggressive brain tumour. The essay, written exclusively for the German newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung, gives the reader insight into the harrowing experiences and the difficult decisions parents must make when faced with the imminent and unpreventable death of a child.
The moving essay concludes with a call for palliative medicine and related psychology to be a part of every doctor’s mandatory medical school curriculum.
Read a summary of the essay on the International children’s edition of ehospice.