Russian parliamentarians have asked Russia’s foreign ministry to study the recently passed law allowing child euthanasia in Belgium to decide if its citizens should be legally banned from adopting Russian minors.
The initiative comes from Deputy Roman Khudyakov, a member of the Liberal Democratic Party of Russia.
«Before we continue cooperation with Belgium, allowing our children to be adopted by their citizens, we should understand on what grounds a child can be killed in this country and if there is a danger for our kids to lose their lives in a foreign country,» the lawmaker said.
Khudyakov added that the majority of Russian children’s rights groups organizations would support the ban on adoption of Russian children by Belgians.
The European Institute for Bioethics, which reported on the Russian concerns, says this is “an immediate consequence” of last week’s vote in the lower house of the Belgian parliament to allow euthanasia for terminally ill children. The law states that children seeking euthanasia must be terminally ill and in an «unbearable» state of suffering. The bill has to be signed by the King to come into force.
The controversy over the Belgian child euthanasia law spread to Russia where euthanasia is completely illegal.
From 2003 up to 2012, 68 children were adopted by Belgian French-speaking parents, the EIB says.
