Twins allowed to commit suicide together

Brussels - Belgian identical twins were allowed to take their lives together after their dwindling eyesight became an unbearable burden for the two men, the daily Het Laatste Nieuws reported on Saturday.

The men died on December 14, in what the newspaper reported as the first case in the world of twins using the legal right to euthanasia.

The 45-year-old men, who were born deaf, had spent their entire lives together, the newspaper reported. They grew up in the same room, both qualified as shoemakers and later moved into the same apartment in Putte, 30 kilometres north-east of Brussels.

But their dwindling eyesight meant that within a few years they would lose their only means of communication. They found the prospect of only being able to touch one another intolerable, the newspaper wrote.

Belgian law permits euthanasia if the wish is expressed by the patient and doctors detect an unbearable degree of suffering.

The brothers had no terminal illness or physical pain, but the doctors at the UZ hospital in Brussels agreed to their request. - Sapa-dpa