Belgian Twin Brothers Assisted in Suicide

Two deaf twin brothers in Belgium were put to death by their doctor on Dec. 14, though the hospital that performed the euthanasia waited a month to announce the action, WORLD News Service reports. The 45-year-old men were legally put to death by lethal injection at the Brussels University Hospital in Jette; their names were not released. Belgium legalized euthanasia in 2002 and the number of cases has risen every year since. In 2011, more than 1,100 people engaged in assisted suicide, most of whom suffered from cancer. The men in this case were going blind, and said they did not want to face the world without being able to see each other. This incident is thought to be the first assisted killing involving people who were neither terminally ill nor in physical pain, but who simply wanted to die.