A victim of the 2016 Brussels Airport terror attacks in great mental suffering obtained euthanasia

At 17, Shanti De Corte miraculously survived the terrorist attack at Brussels airport. But she never recovered from her post-traumatic syndrome and her mental pain was deemed incurable by a college of doctors.

The young student was waiting for a plane to Rome on 22 March 2016 with her classmates. A few metres away, one of the two suicide bombers detonated a high-powered bomb. Miraculously, Shanti De Corte, 17 at the time, was not injured, but she never recovered from her post-traumatic syndrome.

She attended a psychiatric hospital in her home town of Antwerp for rehabilitation, and also took a range of anti-depressant medications, but attempted suicide on two different occasions in 2018 and 2020. Her mother Marielle told Belgian television channel VRT of her daughter’s pain earlier this week and said: “That day really cracked her, she never felt safe after that. She didn’t want to go anywhere where other people were, out of fear. She also had frequent panic attacks and she never got rid of them.“

The 23-year-old young woman, constantly immersed in great mental suffering and supported by her family and friends, decided to request euthanasia in April. This was performed on 7 May but revealed only a few days ago.

Shanti De Corte’s mental pain was deemed unbearable and incurable by a college of doctors and psychiatrists, which made the act possible under Belgian law. An investigation opened by the Antwerp public prosecutor’s office concluded that the rules had been respected.

We will therefore not hear the testimony of Shanti De Corte at the trial of the alleged perpetrators of the double attack in Brussels (at the airport and at metro station Maelbeek) when the hearings will begin on 5 December. Her name should be added to the list of 32 victims of the Islamist attacks.