Lighting the spark?

Euthanasia, pluriform in its content throughout history, has been a part of human society. Although the practice of actively shortening the life of a fellow human being – whether as mercy-killing or at his or her request – was punishable by law in Belgium, ethicist and advocate of a self-chosen end-of-life Hugo Van den Enden argued that legal convictions were strongly decreasing from the 1960s and 1970s onwards by making use of the options of 'irresistible moral pressure' [onweerstaanbare morele druk] or 'murder-with-extremely-mitigating-circumstances' [moord-met-extreem-verzachtende-omstandigheden]. This paper examines the wider societal context and legal reasoning used in three cases that were prosecuted before the Liège Court of Assizes. The trials took place between 1960 and 1974 and each resulted in the defendants' acquittal. In addition to the internationally (in)famous 'Softenon trial', mercy-killing cases from 1972 and 1974 are also examined. For Belgium, this period constitutes somewhat of an intermediate stage when looking at the issue of euthanasia. On the one hand, end-of-life advocacy groups would only emerge in the early 1980s, with the French-speaking Association pour le Droit de Mourir dans la Dignité (ADMD) in 1981 and the Dutch-speaking Recht op Waardig Sterven (RWS) in 1983. On the other hand, significant levels of acceptance for mercy killing practices already existed among the secular part of the population since 1950.