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In Belgium, a decision taken by the Commission fédérale de contrôle de l’euthanasie (CFCEE - Federal Commission for Euthanasia Control) has led to the resignation of one of its members - a consultant and advocate of euthanasia.

The decision in question concerned a female patient suffering from dementia and Parkinson's disease. She was euthanized "at her family's request", without even asking for her opinion or the opinion of a second doctor who was consulted only after the patient's death. Given this "manifest double violation of the law", the Commission did not take the case to court because the required two-thirds' majority was not reached: "It seems that the 6 (out of 16) members who did not want to take this case to court did not do so based on belief that they were acting in accordance with the law, but because of a political desire to defend euthanasia under any circumstances whatsoever, even in cases of severe dementia. They also feared that legal referral would slow down the practice of euthanasia even more in Wallonia".

For Willems Lemmens, Professor of Philosophy at the University of Antwerp and member of the Belgian Bioethics Advisory Committee, "this case confirms the ‘unhealthy sacralisation’ of euthanasia in our society. Neither the doctors nor the family of the deceased considered their behaviour as reprehensible and the Commission proved them right despite the fact that legal conditions had been violated".