En Belgique, l’euthanasie peut être appliquée légalement par des médecins à la demande expresse et répétée d’un patient qui se trouve dans une situation médicale sans issue et fait état d’une souffrance physique ou psychique constante et insupportable qui ne peut être apaisée et qui résulte d’une affection accidentelle ou pathologique grave et incurable. Au cours des deux dernières années, 17 demandes d’euthanasie ont été formulées par des détenus belges pour cause de souffrance psychique insupportable. Ils purgent tous une longue peine de prison ou une mesure de protection pour malades mentaux à durée indéterminée. Les auteurs examinent les questions éthiques, juridiques et criminologiques soulevées par ces demandes, car si les normes nationales et internationales garantissent aux détenus un droit à l’équivalence des soins médicaux, l’impact potentiel du contexte pénitentiaire sur leur souffrance psychique doit être pris en compte.Belgium is one of three countries in the world where euthanasia can legally be used by physicians at the explicit and repeated request of a patient who is in a hopeless medical situation and experiencing unbearable and continued physical or mental pain and suffering that cannot be relieved and is the result of a serious and incurable injury or pathological condition. Over the last two years, 17 requests for euthanasia due to unbearable mental suffering were made by inmates in Belgium. All inmates were either purging a long prison sentence or a indeterminate protection measure for mentally ill offenders. The authors examine the ethical, legal and criminological issues raised by these cases. Indeed, while both national and international human rights standards guarantee inmates the right to equal medical care, the potential impact of the prison context on their mental suffering must be taken into account.En Bélgica, la eutanasia puede ser aplicada legalmente por médicos, bajo la petición expresa y repetida de un paciente que se encuentre en una situación médica sin esperanza y que esté en estado de sufrimiento físico y psíquico constante e insoportable, que no pueda ser aliviado y que resulte de un trastorno accidental o patológico grave e incurable. Durante los dos últimos años, 17 peticiones de eutanasia fueron formuladas por detenidos belgas por causa de un sufrimiento físico insoportable. Todos ellos están pagando largas penas o tienen una medida de protección para enfermos mentales de duración indeterminada. Los autores examinan las cuestiones éticas, legales y criminológicas planteadas por estas peticiones, porque si las normes nacionales e internacionales les garantizan a los detenidos un derecho a la equivalencia de la atención médica, el impacto potencial del contexto penitenciario sobre el sufrimiento psíquico debe ser tenido en cuenta

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Over the last 30 years, prisoners’ dignity and fundamental rights have increasingly been protected by European human rights bodies such as the European Court of Human Rights and the European Committee for the Prevention of Torture and Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment. This protection is aimed particularly at the traditional power relations between prisoners and uniformed staff. More recently, social reintegration of prisoners has also been recognized by these European human rights standards as a fundamental element of human dignity and an equally important aim of imprisonment as retribution and deterrence. However, it is also accepted that some offenders may be too dangerous to be returned back to society. Psychiatric/psychological assessments are a major element in this decision-making. This “new penal power” receives much less attention in human rights protection. This article compares three intertwining perspectives on this issue: the European human rights perspective on dignity and social reintegration; the experiences and mental suffering of Belgian prisoners who find themselves being stuck in prison as a result of structural problems in the risk assessment and risk management practices; and the professional perspective on how professional standards and good practices based on scientific insights might alleviate some of these threats to human dignity.

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