Woman Euthanized in Belgium Heard Screaming by Loved Ones as She was Suffocated by Pillow
Thirty-six year old Alexina Wattiez received the devastating news that she was diagnosed with terminal cancer. In 2021, doctors told her she would not survive another year. By the spring of 2022, her health had deteriorated to the point that she chose Belgium’s controversial euthanasia program to end her life in what she hoped would be a more peaceful and less painful way to die. Le Soir reported that Alexina’s partner, Christophe Stulens, and his 15-year-old daughter Tracy were there when a doctor and two nurses came to the home to administer the euthanasia protocol. “After a short night’s sleep, I was woken up by a nurse who told me that Alexina was doing very badly,” Stulens said. “Then the doctor took some syringes and we were asked if we wanted to say goodbye.” Stulens and his daughter were told to wait outside, so they went onto the terrace, but what they thought would be a peaceful death quickly turned horrific: they heard screaming. “I recognized her voice,” he said. “Afterwards we saw her lying on the bed with her eyes and mouth open.” De Telegraph reported that an autopsy found that Wattiez died of asphyxiation, not the euthanasia drug cocktail that was meant to end her life, and that nurses took turns using a pillow to suffocate her.