Mom who killed her 5 children in 2007 euthanized in Belgium at her request
A 56-year-old Belgian woman who killed all five of her children was euthanized at her request earlier this week, on the 17th anniversary of her kids’ death.
Genevieve Lhermitte killed her son and four daughters in their home in Nivelles, Belgium, just south of Brussels, on Feb. 28, 2007. She also attempted to take her own life at the time, but failed. She was later charged with murder.
Her former husband and the father of the five children, Bouchaib Moqadem, was traveling abroad at the time.
During her trial, the court heard how she had slashed her kids’ throats with a kitchen knife, in a process that could have taken up to one hour, according to The Brussels Times.
Her lawyers argued that she shouldn’t go to prison because she was mentally disturbed. However, a jury found Lhermitte guilty of premeditated murder and she was sentenced to life in prison in 2008.
In 2019, she was moved from the Forest-Berkendael prison to a psychiatric hospital.
Belgium legalized euthanasia in May 2002. The law allows terminally ill patients, as well as people with “unbearable and untreatable” suffering, to choose to end their lives. Patients must be able to demonstrate they are conscious of their decision.
“It is this specific procedure that Mrs. Lhermitte followed, with the various medical opinions having been collected,” her lawyer said, according to the BBC.
Lhermitte died at Leonard de Vinci hospital in Montigny-le-Tilleul, according to Belgian news site Sudinfo.
Her mother, Marina Lhermitte, told the outlet that “my daughter wanted to join her children,” adding that she had been “in unbearable pain’” for the past 16 years.
