Euro MPs discuss euthanasia

Euthanasia should not be a question of health policy but of human rights across Europe, campaigning Euro-MP Chris Davies has said.

Only two EU countries - the Netherlands and Belgium - permit medically-assisted dying.

And while the issue is a matter for national governments only, a hearing in Brussels urged EU member states to respond to evidence of growing public demand to be given individual choice.

Liberal Democrat Mr Davies said afterwards: "It is heartless that British law should not only force people to travel abroad if they are determined to end their suffering, but also to threaten with criminal prosecution any loved ones who assist them."

"The patients concerned experience a living nightmare of suffering. Giving them the chance to make a choice for themselves about the time to die should not be regarded as part of health policy but as a matter of human rights."

Italian Radical Party MEP Marco Cappato commented: "We have a legally very unstable situation in Europe where medically assisted dying is legal in two EU countries as well as in Switzerland yet the practice is against the law in others."

"Empirical evidence from Belgium and the Netherlands has shown that there is no 'slippery slope' to increased suicide. Rather the reverse. What we are campaigning for is the right of the individual to decide for themselves in full knowledge of the facts."

He added: "There is no question of harmonising law on an EU level as it is not a European competence but it is a reality and Member States need to confront the matter in their own parliaments and not bury their heads in the sand,"

The hearing, organised by Liberal Democrats and the World Federation of the Right to Die Societies, was told medically-assisted dying was now a "phenomenon" which existed across Europe, either legally or clandestinely.

Countries currently banning the practice were urged to collect and analyse data on end-of-life medical decisions and review their legislation.

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