Portuguese Parliament Legalises Euthanasia after Long Battle

THE GUARDIAN: Decision to allow medically assisted dying has divided the deeply Catholic country

The Portuguese parliament, which had previously passed the euthanasia bill four times, only to see it sent back every time for a constitutional review due to opposition from the president.Photograph: Antonio Cotrim/EPA
After a long battle, Portugal passed a law on Friday legalising euthanasia for people in great suffering and with incurable diseases, joining just a handful of countries around the world.

The issue has divided the deeply Catholic country and was strongly opposed by conservative president Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, a devout churchgoer.

Under its provisions, people aged over 18 will be allowed to request assistance in dying if they are terminally ill and in intolerable suffering. It will only cover those suffering “lasting” and “unbearable” pain, unless they are deemed not to be mentally fit to make such a decision.

The law will be applicable only to nationals and legal residents and will not extend to foreigners coming into the country to seek assisted dying. » | AFP in Lisbon | Friday, May 12, 2023

Pope Francis Denounces Euthanasia as 'Sin against God'

Pope Francis delivers his speech during a special audience he
held for members of Catholic medical associations

THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: The Pope strongly condemns the 'right to die' movement, and warns against abortion, IVF and stem cell research

Pope Francis denounced the right to die movement on Saturday, saying that euthanasia is a sin against God and creation.

The Latin American pontiff said it was a “false sense of compassion” to consider euthanasia as an act of dignity.

Earlier this month, the Vatican’s top bioethics official condemned as “reprehensible” the death by assisted suicide of a 29-year-old American woman, Brittany Maynard, who was suffering terminal brain cancer and said she wanted to die with dignity.

“This woman (took her own life) thinking she would die with dignity, but this is the error,” said Monsignor Ignacio Carrasco de Paula, the head of the Pontifical Academy for Life.

“Suicide is ... a bad thing because it is saying no to life and to everything it means with respect to our mission in the world and towards those around us,” he said, describing assisted suicide as “an absurdity”. » | Nick Squires, Rome | Saturday, November 15, 2014

Legal Suicide: Belgium Child Euthanasia Law Meets Fierce Opposition

Belgium's recent decision to legalize euthanasia for terminally ill children has stoked fierce opposition across Europe. While some accept the move on humanitarian grounds, others believe it could be abused by parents. RT's Margaret Howell reports.

Belgium to Legalise Euthanasia for Children

THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: Belgium accused of "too much haste and too little fundamental debate" over controversial law extending euthanasia to children

Belgian MPs have been accused of "ideological stubbornness" by pressing ahead with a child euthanasia law that has divided doctors and "challenges the very basis of civilised society" according to critics.

Belgium's parliament is almost certain to pass legislation on Wednesday that will allow “terminally ill minors facing unbearable physical suffering” to undergo euthanasia if they request it.

Euthanasia has been legal for adults in Belgium for 11 years and according to the last annual figures 1,432 people were medically killed in 2012, usually after electing for a lethal injection administered by a doctor.

The extension of euthanasia to children, which enjoys the support of three-quarters of Belgians in opinion polls, has aroused intense opposition from many doctors and has united Belgium’s Christians, Jews and Muslims against the law.

Earlier this week a letter signed by 160 Belgian paediatricians asked MPs to “reflect” and not to rush the law onto the statute books, warning that children lacked “mature discernment” to choose euthanasia. » | Bruno Waterfield, Brussels | Wednesday, February 12, 2014

Inside Story: Who Decides When It Is Time to Die?

As Quebec debates euthanasia, we ask if people should have a choice over the timing and manner of their death.

Allow Assisted Suicide for Those with Less Than a Year to Live

THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: Doctors should be allowed to help terminally ill patients kill themselves – but only if they have less than a year to live, under proposals published in a major report today.

The independent Commission on Assisted Dying, whose members include several prominent peers and medics, wants GPs to be able to prescribe lethal doses of medication for dying people to take themselves.

The report, published today, calls for the “inadequate and incoherent” law against assisted suicide to be scrapped following a series of high profile cases where patients have used the Dignitas suicide clinic to take their own lives.

Although helping someone to die is punishable by up to 14 years’ imprisonment and police still investigate all cases, there have been no prosecutions since landmark guidelines were set out almost two years ago.

The Commission says the situation is “very distressing” for families, “uncertain” for health workers and place a “deeply challenging burden” on police and prosecutors.

Under its plans, doctors would be allowed to prescribe drugs to end the lives of terminally ill patients who have fewer than 12 months to live provided they are judged to have the mental capacity and clear desire to die.

If implemented, it could mean more than 1,000 people a year being helped to die in England and Wales. » | Martin Beckford, Social Affairs Editor | Thursday, January 05, 2012

Australian TV Bans Pro-euthanasia Advert
THE TELEGRAPH: Australia has banned the first televised pro-euthanasia advert which featured a terminally ill man saying: "I did not choose this."



The 45-second advert featured an ill-looking man sitting on a bed talking about the choices he has made in life.

"I chose to marry Tina, have two great kids. I chose to always drive a Ford," the actor says. "What I didn't choose is being terminally ill.

"I didn't choose to starve to death because eating is like swallowing razor blades. I certainly didn't choose to have to watch my family go through it with me. I've made my final choice. I just need the government to listen." >>> | Tuesday, September 14, 2010

Dutch Plan to Let Healthy Elderly People Commit Suicide
THE TELEGRAPH: Healthy elderly people who are simply "tired of living" could be allowed to end their lives with a lethal injection under new euthanasia laws being debated by the Dutch parliament.

The country's MPs will discuss the "right to die" proposals after a campaign forced a debate by collecting over 100,000 signatures in support.

The influential Dutch "Right to Die" campaign, active since 1973, has launched new "vrijwillig levenseinde", or "of free will" [sic] [ending one’s life voluntarily], demands to extend euthanasia beyond assisted suicide for terminally ill people.

The group has proposed training non-medical staff to administer a lethal injection to healthy people over the age of 70 who "consider their lives complete" and want to die.

Under the plans, the suicide assistants would be certified and would be required to make sure that patients were not temporarily depressed and had a "heartfelt and enduring desire" to die. >>> Bruno Waterfield in Brussels | Wednesday, March 10, 2010

Pope Benedict XVI Criticises 'Tide of Secularism' in UK and Support for Euthanasia
THE TELEGRAPH: Pope Benedict XVI has criticised the “increasing tide of secularism” in Britain, in his second comments on the country in a week.

The pontiff condemned support for euthanasia, which he said goes directly against the Christian understanding of the dignity of human life, and recent developments in embryo research.

He also said that too many people see the Roman Catholic Church in terms of “prohibitions and retrograde positions” but ignore its positive vision of the world.

The pope added that faith schools are a “powerful force” for improving society.

It comes just days after Benedict XVI made an unprecedented attack on Labour’s “unjust” equality laws, claiming that they restricted religious freedom. >>> Martin Beckford | Saturday, February 06, 2010

Luxembourg Monarch Muzzled over Euthanasia
Photo of the Grand Duke Henri of Luxembourg and his wife, the Duchess Maria-Theresa, courtesy of The Independent
THE INDEPENDENT: The people of Luxembourg stripped their beloved monarch of his political powers today after he tried to veto a bill that allows for the legalisation of euthanasia and assisted suicide.

Grand Duke Henri, ceremonial ruler of Luxembourg's 470,000 inhabitants, provoked an unprecedented crisis in the sedate territory two weeks ago when he refused to sign the law, apparently for reasons of conscience.

Henri is a devout Catholic. The hereditary monarch's powers are largely nominal but, under the Grand Duchy's constitution, no new legislation can come into force without royal assent. Until a fortnight ago, no member of the dynasty had ever challenged the parliamentary process.

A constitutional amendment approved by parliament yesterday limits the monarch to announcing decisions of parliament, in effect, muzzling the Grand Duke but the move has provoked a debate about the monarchy's future.

"It's just one article in our constitution that's changing but it represents an enormous loss of monarchical rights," Professor Paul Margue, a historian, said. "You might be right to ask what then is the point of having a Grand Duke at all?"

Henri, a handsome, affable 53-year old, has previously seen off a string of scandals, including an affair, but the constitutional crisis triggered by his attachment to traditional Catholic values may have irredeemably tarnished his image. "He's badly overstepped his mark by meddling in politics. No Grand Duke has ever dared to block a law before it's been approved by the parliament," said Lucien Montebrusco, political editor of the Luxembourg daily Tageblatt. Like many, Montebrusco believes Henri may have been egged on by the Catholic Church and by his Cuban wife, Maria-Theresa, a great-niece of the former dictator Fulgencio Batista. >>> By Vanessa Mock in Luxembourg | December 11, 2008

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Leonetti : «Il est inutile et dangereux d'introduire dans la loi l'exception d'euthanasie»
LE FIGARO: Jean Leonetti, médecin, député maire d'Antibes, remet mardi à François Fillon le rapport parlementaire d'évaluation de la loi fin de vie de 2005, qui s'oppose une fois de plus à la légalisation de l'euthanasie. >>> | 2.12.2008

SPIEGELONLINE INTERNATIONAL: Grand Duke of Luxembourg Will Lose His Veto

Photo of Gand Duke Henri of Luxembourg courtesy of SpiegelOnline International
Luxembourg's parliament looks ready to strip the Grand Duke of his last lawmaking power as a controversy over euthanasia comes to a head. One of Europe's last royals with political sway may lose his formal veto by taking a stand against a law legalizing euthanasia.

The Grand Duke of Luxembourg, who has said he would interfere with a decision by parliament, will likely be stripped of his veto in a historic decision after a heated showdown over a bill to legalize euthanasia.

Grand Duke Henri of Luxembourg protested the bill and threatened to kill it next week by refusing to sign it into law.

Since parliament is expected to pass the bill, Luxembourg Prime Minister Jean-Claude Juncker said the Grande Duke has overstepped his role. Juncker personally opposes the euthanasia bill but says he will propose a change to the constitution to deny the Grand Duke his veto. His role by the end of 2008 could be reduced to rubber-stamping parliamentary decisions, instead of deciding whether to approve them.

"That means he will only technically enact laws," Juncker said, according to Reuters.

The euthanasia bill passed a first vote by parliament in February. It looks set to pass a second and final vote next week, but the Catholic Grand Duke announced on Tuesday -- in a closed-door meeting with leaders of Juncker's ruling Christian Socialists -- that he would refuse to enact the law.

His position tipped the tiny nation into the worst constitutional crisis in its history. The Luxembourg royal house has tried to block a decision by parliament only once before, when the Grand Duchess Marie-Adelaide refused to sign an education bill in 1912. >>> msm -- with wire reports | December 4, 2008

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