CZECH REPUBLIC: Euthanasia bill defies international law

PRAGUE (Prague Daily Monitor), July 23, 2008: Ms. Dzamila Stehlikova, Czech Minister in charge of human rights and minorities, said Tuesday the senatorial bill on the introduction of euthanasia in the Czech Republic contradicted international conventions on human rights and was in conflict with people's fundamental right to live. She told journalists that a wider public and expert discussion prior to the submission of the bill was lacking. "The feeling that there is only one choice which is either to suffer or to accept the death from the hands of a doctor is false," she said. Quality and affordable hospice and palliative care is a solution, Stehlikova said. The bill designed to legalise euthanasia has been submitted by Senator Vaclava Domsova with lawyers from the Liberal Reform Party (LiRA). The Senate, the upper house of the Czech parliament, is expected to start debating the bill in the autumn. However, given the reactions it is not clear whether the bill will gain necessary support in the Senate. LiRA Tuesday presented a petition in support of the proposal for the legalisation of euthanasia to journalists. The petition will be placed on the website www.euthanazie-dobrasmrt.cz. LiRa chairman Milan Hamersky said that the Czech public supported the introduction of euthanasia which is confirmed by public opinion polls. According to a May poll by the Centre for Public Opinion Research (CVVM), two-thirds of Czechs firmly believed that euthanasia should be legalised. Euthanasia is legal in the Netherlands and Belgium, and tolerated in the U.S. state of Oregon and in Colombia and Switzerland. Copyright 2008 Czech News Agency (ČTK).