Cannes Film Festival. Death Claus suffered from Alzheimer's disease and requested his life to be terminated through euthanasia, a legal procedure in Belgium, at the Middelheim Hospital in Antwerp on 19 March 2008. Bert Anciaux, then Flemish Minister of Culture, stated "I knew him well enough to know that he wanted to depart with pride and dignity." Former Belgian Prime Minister Guy Verhofstadt said that he imagined the onset of Alzheimer's must have been "inevitable and unbearable torture". "I can live with the fact that he decided thus," he said, "because he left us as a great glowing star, right on time, just before he would have collapsed into a Stellar black hole." His death by euthanasia has received criticism from the Roman Catholic Church and the Belgian Alzheimer League. The Roman Catholic Church criticized the media coverage; Belgian Cardinal Godfried Danneels referred to Claus' euthanasia in his Easter Homily. The Belgian Alzheimer League respects Claus' decision, but believes the media coverage of his death neglects other options for Alzheimer's patients. Prizes Amongst others: 1950 – for 1952 – Arkprijs van het Vrije Woord for De Metsiers 1964 – August Beernaertprize for De verwondering 1965 – Henriëtte Roland Holst-prize for all his plays 1967 – Edmond Hustinxprize for all his plays 1979 – Constantijn Huygens Prize 1985 – Cestoda-prize 1986 – Herman Gorterprize for Alibi 1986 – Prijs der Nederlandse Letteren 1994 – Prijs voor Meesterschap for his complete oeuvre 1994 – VSB Poetry Prize for De Sporen 1997 – Libris Prize for De Geruchten 1998 – Aristeion Prize for De Geruchten 2000 – International Nonino Prize for La sofferenza del Belgio Bibliography Claus wrote over a thousand pages of poetry, more than sixty plays, over twenty novels and several essays, film scripts, libretti and translations. Only a small part of this œuvre has been translated into English: Prose: The Duck Hunt, 1955 (De Metsiers, 1950) Sister of Earth, 1970 (De Metsiers, 1950) The Sorrow of Belgium, 1990 (Het verdriet van België, 1983) () The Swordfish, 1996 (De Zwaardvis, 1989) () Desire, 1997 (Het verlangen, 1978) () Wonder, 2009 (De verwondering, 1962) () Poetry: with Karel Appel: Love Song, 1963 (written in English) Four Flemish Poets: Hugo Claus, Gust Gils, Paul Snoek, Hugues C. Pernath / edited by Peter Nijmeijer. (1976) () with Pierre Alechinsky and Karel Appel: Two-brush paintings: Their poems by Hugo Claus, 1980 (Zwart, 1978) An Evening