OFFICIALS PROBE EUTHANASIA OF AUTISTIC WOMAN

Belgian officials are investigating whether doctors improperly euthanized a woman with autism, the first criminal investigation in a euthanasia case since the practice was legalized in 2002 in the European nation.

Three doctors are being investigated on suspicion of having “poisoned” Tine Nys in 2010. The 38-year-old had been diagnosed with Asperger’s syndrome, a mild form of autism, two months before she was euthanized by a doctor in an apparently legal killing she had asked for.

Belgium is one of two countries, along with the Netherlands, where euthanasia for psychiatric reasons is allowed if people can prove they have “unbearable and untreatable” suffering.