Shanti De Corte, who was present at the Brussels Airport attacks in 2016, was psychologically traumatized by the attack. Six years later, two psychiatrists accepted his request for euthanasia due to irreversible psychiatric suffering.
A victim of the 2016 Brussels attacks, Shanti De Corte was euthanized at the age of just 23 due to irreversible mental illness, RTBF reports. On March 22, 2016, the young Flemish was scheduled to fly to Rome for a graduation trip. She was in the departure hall of Brussels National Airport with 90 other students from the Sint-Rita College in Kontich in the province of Antwerp when the terrorists detonated their explosive devices. Shanti De Corte was not physically injured but was traumatized by the events.
A “fragile” profile
“Shanti De Corte was one of those fragile students. It is clear to me that she had serious psychological problems even before the attack. So I referred her to psychiatry,” the school psychologist told our Belgian colleagues. A few weeks after the attack, Shanti De Corte was admitted to a psychiatric facility in Antwerp, where she had been before March 22, 2016.
Despite several attempts by her family, friends and therapists to get her back on track, particularly by participating in support groups, the student refuses and turns to Leif, an association that defends the right to a dignified death. In April 2022, Shanti De Corte made a new request for euthanasia for irreversible psychiatric distress and it was accepted by two psychiatrists. On May 7, 2022, the young girl was put to sleep at the age of 23 surrounded by her family. The Federal Commission for the Control and Evaluation of Euthanasia explained to our colleagues that the law had been respected and that “the young girl was in such mental distress that her request was logically accepted”.