The fragile unity of Belgium’s new coalition government is being threatened by a debate over euthanasia. The leader of the Belgium Liberals, a key party in the new government of Prime Minister Yves Leterme, wants to extend the benefits of doctor-assisted suicide to teenagers. Under current legislation, patients have to be under 12 months or over 18 to qualify for euthanasia. Bart Tommelein has also pledged to provide euthanasia for people who qualify for euthanasia but are so demented that they are incapable of asking for it.

Judging from the publicity given to recent death of one of Belgium’s leading writers, Hugo Claus, the Belgian media supports euthanasia. His decision to ask for it after his facility with words failed him -- which was diagnosed as the first symptoms of Alzheimer’s diseease -- was treated sympathetically. Former Prime Minister Guy Verhofstadt described the onset of Alzheimer's as "inevitable and unbearable torture". "But I can live with the fact that he decided thus, because he left us as a great glowing star, right on time, just before he would have collapsed into a black hole," he said.

The Dutch-speaking Claus was a well-known figure in Belgium and the Netherlands, and was often touted as a potential Nobel laureate. He revelled in controversy and dealt with provocative themes like incest and homosexuality. In the 1970s he was briefly married to the star of the erotic film Emmanuelle. ~ Telegraph, Mar 27