Publicaties

This contribution offers a historical case study of medical uncertainties related to patient rights and end-of-life decisions through Belgian advanced care directives of the 1980s. The goal of the right to die movement, which had established living will databanks, was to support the individual’s desire for their end to be hastened. As active euthanasia was punishable by law, submitters hoped that handing in the living will annually would ...

Abstract not available.

Although Belgium has been a pioneer in dynamics related to the legalisation of euthanasia since the early 2000s, the historical work done on the subject is still very limited. Quite some work has however been done on the legal and ethical aspects and implications of euthanasia laws. Questions about societal dynamics in end-of-life issues’ acceptance and debate in the twentieth century in Belgium are to this day unanswered. It is clear however ...

As in recent years the interest in and development of tools measuring and monitoring religious freedom has been on the rise, so has a tool been developed to examine the freedom of thought for the nonreligious and those people affiliated to religions occupying positions on the periphery. Since 2012, the NGO Humanists International publishes the Freedom of Thought Report. This annual report, also available as an online tool, the report looks at ...