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Euthanasia draft law presented

Critics say the legislation could be misused by patient families

July 16th, 2008 issue

(Updated July 21, 2008) Senator Václava Domšová has presented a draft law legalizing euthanasia to the senate, which will start addressing the legislation this fall, Mlada fronta Dnes wrote on Monday.

Whether the law has a chance of passing is doubtful. Critics say it is too easy to be misused by relatives -- and that it doesn't clarify the role of the physician, whose job it is to save, and not to take, lives. Rather than a law on euthanasia, they say it would be better to improve the care for the dying, said ODS senator Boris Šťastný.
According to Senator Domšová, the possibility of euthanasia usage should only apply to patients whose condition is hopeless, and only when they "are in a state of constant physical or psychological suffering, which is the result of a long-term grave and untreatable disease, and only when the patient himself has asked for the euthanasia in writing."

The law should allow both assisted euthanasia and suicide, where the patient should be able to take his own life, as well as "active euthanasia" which people could arrange in advance using a living will, in case they ended up in a state of unconsciousness.

Statistics show that most people die in hospital, but doctors can only sufficiently quell the pain for one fifth of them.


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