BRUSSELS — Negotiators forming Belgium's new government said June 13 that the right to euthanasia must exist in all hospitals. The move was made to counter opposition by some Catholic hospitals that have refused to permit assisted suicide on their premises.
The negotiators stated that every hospital must have a team of doctors prepared to apply euthanasia. Doctors will be afforded a protected status after reports that a Catholic hospital dismissed a doctor after he performed an act of euthanasia at the hospital.
(This update courtesy of LifeSite News.)
Swiss Study Shows 70% of Terminally Ill Euthanized
Geneva, Switzerland — A new study shows that Switzerland has one of the highest rates of euthanasia in Europe. The report by the University of Zurich found that seven out of ten terminally ill people ended their lives through different types of euthanasia.
This was higher than in any other country in the European Union-sponsored study, which also included Belgium, the Netherlands, Denmark, Italy and Sweden.
The study examined 3,350 deaths in German-speaking Switzerland and found that half of them involved some form of euthanasia.
In almost one in three cases, passive euthanasia was applied, where doctors cut off life support.
However, active euthanasia, where specific steps are taken to end a patient's life and which is still illegal in Switzerland, was more common in the Netherlands, where 2.6 percent of deaths are related to this type of euthanasia.
Compared with its European neighbors, Switzerland also has the highest number of cases of assisted suicide, a fact that is partly due to the presence of various groups in the country offering to kill people, such as Dignitas or Exit.
Whereas active euthanasia is illegal in Switzerland, assisted suicide is not.
About 0.4 percent of the 60,000 deaths in German-speaking Switzerland each year are related to assisted suicide, amounting to around 500 people. In the Netherlands, 0.2 percent of deaths were linked to assisted suicide and in Belgium the figure is 0.01 percent.
There were no recorded cases of assisted suicide in Sweden or Italy.
In the wake of the report, the Swiss Senate has decided to put forward a new proposal for a law on euthanasia and assisted suicide. It has commissioned the Swiss Ethics Commission to draw up a document.
Last year Dignitas, one of four pro-euthanasia organizations offering assisted suicide in Switzerland, came under fire for bringing foreigners and the mentally ill to Switzerland to die.
Since then, the Zurich authorities have voiced their anxiety that Switzerland might become a center for people wishing to take their own lives.
Most of the people who have used the group's services have been terminally ill but, controversially, some have been suffering from mental illnesses.
(This article courtesy of Steven Ertelt and the Pro-Life Infonet email newsletter. For more information or to subscribe go to www.prolifeinfo.org or email infonet@prolifeinfo.org.)
