A pair of adult identical twins in Belgium have been legally killed at their request, the men's doctor told journalists.

The 45-years-old men, who were born deaf, spent their lives side-by-side — growing up together and then, as adults, sharing an apartment and working as cobblers together, according to Belgian media reports.

The men’s names have not been released but photographs of the identical twins from the Antwerp region have been made available to some media outlets.

Their doctor, David Dufour, told Belgium’s RTL Television over the weekend that the two men had been losing their eyesight for several years and soon would have been completely blind. The prospect of being blind as well as deaf was unbearable to them, he said.

"They were fully aware of their decision," Dufour said.

After winning approval from the necessary authorities, the two men received lethal injections at a Belgian hospital in December.

Dufour described their last moments: "They had a last cup of coffee and everything was fine. They said goodbye to their parents and brother and all was serene. They waved — and that was that."

Under a 2002 law, Belgians are allowed to end their own lives if a doctor judges an individual has made his or her wishes clear and is suffering unbearable pain.

The case of the twins was unusual because the two men were not approaching the end of their natural lives nor were they terminally ill.

But Jacqueline Herremans, a member of the Belgian Commission of Euthanasia, told RTL that they did meet the legal requirements as their suffering was grave and incurable. When they became blind as well as deaf, he said, they would not have been able to lead autonomous lives, and that with only a sense of touch they had no prospects of a future.

She acknowledged this was an exceptional case.

"Evidently they had a particular destiny. They were two human beings who have lived together, grown up together, worked together and wanted to die together. Their suffering may not have been physical, but there was psychological suffering," she said.

In 2010 and 2011, a total of 2,086 people died by euthanasia in Belgium, according to the country’s Euthanasia Commission.

Belgium is now looking at introducing a legal amendment that would allow children and those with dementia the option of seeking permission to die. If passed later this year, the option of euthanasia will be extended to minors affected by an incurable illness, or suffering that cannot be alleviated.

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Netherlands dispatches mobile euthanasia units 

Dutch riled at Santorum's euthanasia comments

The mobile euthanasia units launched in the Netherlands Thursday may not much resemble Dr. Kevorkian's death van, but they stirred up nearly as much controversy.

The program allows teams of doctors and nurses to visit very sick patients whose primary care physicians have refused end their lives, the Guardian reported. The Netherlands was the first country to legalize euthanasia in 2002.

The program, called Levenseinde, meaning “Life End,” was initiated by the world's largest euthanasia organization, with 130,000 members, based in the Netherlands. The mobile program is free to Dutch citizens.

Program rules say that sick people or their relatives may apply for a mobile unit visit, by phone or email. Patients must be suffering tremendous pain and be able to articulate several times that they want to die.

The team would also interview the primary care physician who would not end their patient’s life.

"They will first give the patient an injection, which will put them into a deep sleep, then a second injection follows, which will stop their breathing and heart beat," said Walburg De Jong, an advocate of assisted suicide, according to the Guardian.

The teams would be allowed one procedure a week because of the emotional toll that each visit takes.

In the Netherlands, each euthanasia case is reported to a commission, made up of a doctor, legal and ethics specialists to make sure the criteria have been followed.

Controversy arose when the members of the Royal Dutch Society of Doctors said they doubt the doctors would be able to form a strong enough bond with patients to properly assess a case, the Agence France-Presse reported.

Currently, the Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, Oregon, Washington and Montana are the only jurisdictions where laws allow assisted suicide, according to the Patients Rights Council.

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Ross D. Franklin / AP

Rick Santorum's recent comments on forced euthanasia are causing a stir in the Netherlands.

A Dutch politician wants his government to publicly rebuke Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum for claiming that forced euthanasia is legal in the Netherlands and that the elderly are being killed against their will.

The Dutch Embassy in Washington has declined to comment on Santorum’s recent remarks, The New York Times reported this week. An embassy spokeswoman said the Dutch government wanted to stay out of the American presidential campaign, the Times reported.

On Thursday, Dutch Member of Parliament Frans Timmermans, a leading member of the opposition left-leaning Labor Party in The Hague, blasted his government’s silence.

He wrote in a post on his Facebook page that he wanted Foreign Minister Uri Rosenthal to rebuke Santorum for his “scandalous accusations,” The Times reported.

“This cannot be allowed to rest,” he wrote, according to The Times.

Earlier this month, Santorum brought up the subject of euthanasia at a forum hosted by conservative leader James Dobson.

“They have voluntary euthanasia in the Netherlands, but half the people who are euthanized every year, and it’s 10 percent of all deaths, half of those people are euthanized involuntarily in hospitals, because they are older and sick,” Santorum said. “So elderly people in the Netherlands don’t go to the hospital. They go to another country. Because they’re afraid because of budget purposes they will not come out of that hospital if they go in with sickness.”

Santorum also said some Dutch wear bracelets saying, “Don’t euthanize me.”

Santorum’s campaign did not respond to a request from The Times to explain his remarks.

FactCheck.org, a nonpartisan project that monitors the factual accuracy of what is said by U.S. politicians, said Santorum “grossly mischaracterized” euthanasia practices in the Netherlands.

It said the former Pennsylvania senator overstated the rate of euthanasia. Government statistics show euthanasia is climbing but represented only 2.3 percent of all deaths in the Netherlands in 2010, it said.

FactCheck.org said Santorum’s claims that the elderly are being killed against their will and wear “do not euthanize me” bracelets are false.

Dutch euthanasia review boards found nine cases in 2010 where doctors “had not acted in accordance with the due care criteria,” mostly for how the procedure was performed — not because it was against anyone’s will, FactCheck.org said. It added that the Dutch government and medical association say no such “Don’t euthanize me” bracelets exist.

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