The bishop of Rottenburg, Msgr. Gebhard Fürst, has commented on the Council of Europe’s rejection of the Marty Report on euthanasia, at Strasbourg on 27 April (see Sir no.33/2005). “In this way the majority of parliamentarians have prevented a weakening of the position of rejection, hitherto adopted by the Council of Europe, on the question of euthanasia”, declared Bishop Fürst in a press release issued on 28 April. If this had not happened, he continued, “the legalization of euthanasia would have been encouraged”. Referring to the speech during the debate of a Dutch parliamentarian, who had recalled the “fundamental Christian virtue of compassion” to justify active euthanasia, Fürst declared that such a position “completely misunderstands the meaning of this virtue”, since “the killing of gravely sick persons is not an act of compassion or of humanity, but the denial of human accompaniment also in suffering and death”.
