French parliamentary committee advocates passive euthanasia
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《英国医生杂志》
Doctors' associations in France have welcomed a report by a parliamentary committee recommending that passive euthanasia should be allowed.
In a landmark report, the cross party committee of 31 deputies recommended that terminally ill patients should be given the right to refuse treatment in certain circumstances. The committee said, however, that active euthanasia—that is, when a doctor acts deliberately to cause a patient's death—should not be legalised.
The health minister, Philippe Douste-Blazy, said that the government was ready to accept the committee's recommendations and give terminally ill patients a greater right in deciding whether to end their lives or not.
Jean Leonetti, the committee's chairman, told the weekly French current affairs magazine L'Express that only a "patient with a serious and incurable illness" would be allowed to ask doctors to be left to die and given only palliative treatment.
Mr Leonetti said that the current law needed to be changed because it was "divorced from the facts."
He said that most deputies continued to be opposed to decriminalising active euthanasia because regulating it effectively would be too difficult.
"It is simpler, more moral, and more logical to leave the penal code as it is," he said.
The parliamentary committee was set up after the death of Vincent Humbert, a 21 year old fireman who was paralysed after a car crash and who wrote a book, I Ask for the Right to Die, in which he said that the life he was forced to lead was not worth living.
Mr Humbert died on 26 September 2003 after his doctor and mother helped him to end his life.
The committee's report, which took eight months to write, emphasised the importance of safeguards to prevent any abuse of passive euthanasia.
Under the proposals, patients must be conscious, and make a written request. A second opinion must be obtained to ensure that the patient's decision really is made of their own free will and is "thought through." If the patient is not conscious, the members of his or her family must make the request.
The report also floated the idea of introducing a "testament of life" in which people could state how they wanted to be treated in "end of life" care situations.
In addition, the report strongly recommended improving palliative care for elderly and sick people, including better training for doctors and nurses.
The push to revise legislation to allow passive euthanasia comes after it emerged in May that 14 "assisted suicides"—both active and passive—had been carried out on patients at the Besan?on Hospital between 2000 and 2001.
The case emerged after doctors and nurses and trade union representatives clashed over how to treat the growing number of seriously ill patients, prompting their respective unions to lodge official complaints.(Jane Burgermeister)
In a landmark report, the cross party committee of 31 deputies recommended that terminally ill patients should be given the right to refuse treatment in certain circumstances. The committee said, however, that active euthanasia—that is, when a doctor acts deliberately to cause a patient's death—should not be legalised.
The health minister, Philippe Douste-Blazy, said that the government was ready to accept the committee's recommendations and give terminally ill patients a greater right in deciding whether to end their lives or not.
Jean Leonetti, the committee's chairman, told the weekly French current affairs magazine L'Express that only a "patient with a serious and incurable illness" would be allowed to ask doctors to be left to die and given only palliative treatment.
Mr Leonetti said that the current law needed to be changed because it was "divorced from the facts."
He said that most deputies continued to be opposed to decriminalising active euthanasia because regulating it effectively would be too difficult.
"It is simpler, more moral, and more logical to leave the penal code as it is," he said.
The parliamentary committee was set up after the death of Vincent Humbert, a 21 year old fireman who was paralysed after a car crash and who wrote a book, I Ask for the Right to Die, in which he said that the life he was forced to lead was not worth living.
Mr Humbert died on 26 September 2003 after his doctor and mother helped him to end his life.
The committee's report, which took eight months to write, emphasised the importance of safeguards to prevent any abuse of passive euthanasia.
Under the proposals, patients must be conscious, and make a written request. A second opinion must be obtained to ensure that the patient's decision really is made of their own free will and is "thought through." If the patient is not conscious, the members of his or her family must make the request.
The report also floated the idea of introducing a "testament of life" in which people could state how they wanted to be treated in "end of life" care situations.
In addition, the report strongly recommended improving palliative care for elderly and sick people, including better training for doctors and nurses.
The push to revise legislation to allow passive euthanasia comes after it emerged in May that 14 "assisted suicides"—both active and passive—had been carried out on patients at the Besan?on Hospital between 2000 and 2001.
The case emerged after doctors and nurses and trade union representatives clashed over how to treat the growing number of seriously ill patients, prompting their respective unions to lodge official complaints.(Jane Burgermeister)