Austria: palliative medicine instead of euthanasiaThe world congress on hospices was held in Vienna from 7 to 10 May. It was also an occasion to reaffirm a rejection of any legalization of active euthanasia, against which Professor Lukas Radbruch, President of the European Society for Palliative Medicine, had eloquently warned. “The killing of patients by doctors without consent or even again the express wish of the patient could sooner or later become acceptable”, declared the expert during the inaugural press conference, as reported by the Austrian Catholic press agency Kathpress. “We need – insisted Radbruch – to work to counter these developments on medical, legal, social, ethical and religious grounds”, adding that, “from an ethical point of view, the killing of a person is not even justifiable on the grounds that the patient himself has requested it”. Radbruch pointed out that “in our work with patients subjected to palliative treatments, those who ask for euthanasia, no longer express this desire once they obtain suitable palliative medical care”. Moreover, “if a patient continues to express this wish”, he added, “it’s usually a plea for help”, motivated by the “fear of losing self-sufficiency, of being left alone or being a burden on someone else, as well as the fear of pain and losing one’s own dignity”: all these fears, he explained, “can be allayed by good palliative assistance”. The Viennese physician Hans-Georg Kress, chairman of the organizing committee of the Congress, also spoke on the issue of euthanasia, criticizing the opinion polls according to which half of the Austrian population are allegedly favourable to the legalization of euthanasia: “That cannot be scientifically proved”, he said, citing a study conducted by a Viennese hospital, the Wiener Wilhelminenspital, on patients subjected to palliative treatments. The result of the survey demonstrated, he said, that out of 778 patients interviewed, only 2 expressed their wish to be subjected to euthanasia: “And when they saw what palliative medicine could do for them, they no longer expressed this desire”, he concluded.England: Catholic schools at risk The Catholic Church of England and Wales will have to find approximately 100 million pounds (over 111 million euros) to respond to the requirements of a public programme calling for the refurbishment and modernization of a number of Catholic primary schools funded by the State. If the dioceses fail to find the funds called for by the programme, the schools could lose their “voluntary-aided” status, and hence the State funds that cover all the costs of running the schools. According to a report published by the Catholic think-tank, the “Las Casas Institute”, called “Common futures: Ed Balls, Michael Gove and the challenge to Catholic schools”, the richer dioceses could find the funds to pay for the work requested by the State, but the poorer ones would find themselves in difficulty and could be forced to close their schools. The dioceses that are likely to be hit the hardest include Northampton, Portsmouth, Nottingham, East Anglia, Brentwood and Salford. “An incentive to close the Catholic schools was built into the system”, says the report. It’s a situation made even more difficult by the cost of insurance on school properties against fire or flooding, which has hitherto been paid by state funds but which the schools themselves will now have to cover.Luxembourg: doctors against euthanasiaDoctors in Luxembourg are protesting against the new law on euthanasia, now in force in the country. As reported by the Austrian Catholic press agency Kathpress, sixteen doctors have made an appeal to their colleagues asking them to sign a petition against the law. Since 17 March, when the new law came into force, doctors in Luxembourg have been able to practice active euthanasia without being liable to any criminal prosecution. According to reports of the media in the Principality, the promoters of the appeal wish to promote instead a high quality standard of care for patients, as a way of counteracting euthanasia. Doctors should demonstrate to politicians “in what the task of a physician consists” and make people understand “that ethical norms can never be subordinated to a political line”, says the appeal. The Parliament of Luxembourg had approved the law by a narrow majority shortly before Christmas, following a lengthy debate: 31 MPs had voted in favour, 26 against, and 3 had abstained. In the meantime an attempt by opponents of euthanasia to submit the question to a referendum had failed. So Luxembourg has become, after the Netherlands and Belgium, the third EU country in which active euthanasia practised by doctors is no longer considered a penal offence.
