An urgent appeal against the legalization of euthanasia was made on 4 November by the Most Rev. Klaus Küng, Bishop of St. Pölten. In a comment published in the daily paper “Österreich”, Küng, himself a physician, said that a society that instead of helping the old, the poor and the disabled, “killed them on the basis of particular criteria”, is profoundly “inhumane and repugnant”. In this sense, the bishop cited the cases of Belgium, Holland and Switzerland as “negative examples”. “Wherever euthanasia is legalized, pressure is exerted on the old and the sick, even on the disabled and their parents; suspicions and fears are spread about particular hospitals and doctors”. “In the current discussion, the concept of euthanasia is used in a vague way”, emphasized Küng, underlining the need to distinguish between “acts of active euthanasia” and “the administration of painkilling medicines and sedatives even if this could curtail life”. “Great progress – said Bishop Küng – has been made in this field, so that the patient does not have to support intolerable sufferings in the final phase of life”. “It is equally legitimate and ethically justified to expressly refuse a particular therapy”, said the bishop, citing as an example the case of Mother Teresa of Calcutta who had expressly refused to submit to a heart operation. “But from this situation the consequence cannot be drawn of authorizing the deliberate killing of a patient, even if the patient himself should desire it”, he added.
