Belgian court dismisses civil case regarding woman euthanized due to mental illness

A family seeking justice for their loved one, a victim of euthanasia, has suffered a devastating setback after a judge dismissed a civil case against the doctor who committed the euthanasia.

In 2010, Tine Nys was euthanized by a team of three doctors, who claimed she was autistic. Her family said she was heartbroken and suicidal after a relationship ended badly, so she went to two doctors and a psychiatrist, saying she was autistic and had “unbearable and incurable” suffering. She was killed just two months later.

According to her family, Nys had been battling mental illness for 15 years, had previously undergone an abortion, and had never received treatment. They also said Nys was not autistic. In 2020, all three doctors were cleared of any wrongdoing; disturbingly, the judge declared afterward, “I’ll sleep well tonight.”

The doctors involved were likewise seemingly callous about Nys’ life; Lieve Thienpont, the psychiatrist who diagnosed her with autism, said that her life had been a “failure,” while general practitioner Dr. Frank de Greef blamed Nys for his misdiagnosis of her, saying she was “manipulative and looking for conflict.”

After their previous complaints were dismissed, Nys’ family filed an appeal – and a judge just ruled against them.

READ: A Belgian woman was set to be euthanized. Then loved ones heard her screaming.

Dr. Joris Van Hove, who committed the actual act of euthanasia, was forced to be tried again by the Court of Cassation after the public prosecutor refused to retry the charges against him. The new case would determine if Van Hove was civilly liable and if the Nys family deserved damages for her death. Yet the court ruled that Van Hove was guilty of no “wrongdoing,” even though they acknowledged Nys’ lifelong struggle with mental illness. Instead, they used that mental illness to justify her death.

“She also had relatively good periods during her life,” the ruling read, adding, “But these relatively good periods were always followed by bad, difficult episodes that were accompanied by suicide threats and multiple suicide attempts. The pattern of these episodes could not be broken.” Essentially, the court decided that anyone who suffers from mental illness does not have a life worth protecting.

Nys’ family said they will continue fighting.

“We are considering it,” their lawyer, Joris Van Cauter, said of an appeal. “To date, the legislature has not done what it should do, namely write a new law in which every condition is linked to a penalty provision. It has not been respected, but due to defective legislation it cannot be sanctioned here.”