Children will have to be interviewed by a paediatric psychiatrist or psychologist, who must determine that the child possesses "the capacity of discernment", and then certify that in writing.
The amendment, which was passed after much debate – notably over the meaning of a required "capacity of discernment" – offers the possibility of euthanasia to children "in a hopeless medical situation of constant and unbearable suffering that cannot be eased and which will cause death in the short term".
In her millenarian "calls to the Jews", For Manasseth Ben Israel and A Loving Salutation, Fell emphasizes that while the spirit of the Lord might be divinely implanted, turning to the light requires a certain capacity for discernment, a firm resolution of will, and a natural bravery and courage on the part of the individual.
Further study shows that Ghd7 and Ehd1 can respectively set a daylength threshold for Hd3a expression, which is usually observed in SD plants but not in LD plants (Itoh et al., 2010; Takimoto and Ikeda, 1961), and this capacity of discernment in critical day length in rice greatly enriches the daylength-dependent regulated mechanism of florigen gene expression.
Each patient's capacity for discernment was evaluated during the process, by LT in consultation with the patient's practitioner(s), according to explicit criteria described in the Belgian Legal Doctrine.
1 Based on Belgium's expanded Euthanasia Law (2013), a request for euthanasia from a "minor with the capacity of discernment" is also eligible for consideration, but only if the patient is "in a medically futile condition of unbearable physical suffering" due to an untreatable terminal illness.
The four-track approach implies that patients are compos mentis that is, they can make a rational choice; under the Euthanasia Law it is required that patients are legally competent and so their capacity for discernment is thoroughly assessed before any request for euthanasia is considered.
Kohlberg (1981) charted moral development, the capacity for autonomous discernment following from less sophisticated, more relational forms of discernment.
* We have a greater capacity to bring discernment to our decisions and choices.
The Yoga Sūtras of Patañjali say that the cultivation of discernment is so powerful that it has the capacity to destroy ignorance and address the very source of suffering.
The goals of capacity building within the organization included promoting ethical sensitivity and discernment, increasing ethics knowledge and skills and enhancing ethical behavior in the delivery of healthcare.
