Newsgroup: it.politica.internazionale
Titolo: Euthanasia law moves closer - The Guardian

Quanti anni prima di vedere una legge simile in Italia?
Am.
Euthanasia law moves closer 
  Hélène Mulholland
Monday April 4, 2005 
  A law allowing doctors and relatives to assist terminally ill people 
to end their lives moved a step closer after the publication today of a 
Lords report.
The Lord's special select committee, set up last year to scrutinise Lord 
Joffe's patient (assisted dying) bill, urged the next parliament to 
debate the issue at "an early opportunity".
The bill passed through the parliamentary scrutiny procedures relatively 
unscathed and could now be set for further serious consideration after 
the expected general election.
The committee was aware that the bill will be a casualty of the expected 
dissolution of parliament later this week. Introduced last year, it 
proposes making assisted dying lawful for people with a terminal illness 
who are undergoing "unbearable" suffering and are competent to make 
their own decision.
A parliamentary joint committee on human rights had approved the bill on 
the grounds that it protects the interests and rights of vulnerable 
patients. The criteria also stipulated that the individual would have to 
be over 18 and should be a resident in England and Wales for not less 
than 12 months, to protect any proposed new legislation from attracting 
"health tourists" from other countries.
Today's publication tweaks some aspects of the bill, which had reached 
its second reading in the House of Lords. Under the select committee 
recommendations, a clear distinction should be drawn between assisted 
suicide and voluntary euthanasia to reach a view on whether a future 
bill should be limited "to one or the other or both".
Assisted suicide is where someone helps an individual end their life 
because they are no longer physically capable of doing it on their own, 
whereas voluntary euthanasia requires a doctor to administer the lethal 
dose.
The panel of peers also proposed replacing the criteria for allowing 
people to die which the bill defines as "unbearable" suffering, with 
"unrelievable" or "intractable" suffering or distress.
Doctors would also require a detailed explanation of the actions they 
would be able to take in providing assistance to suicide or in 
administering voluntary euthanasia. A conscience clause would protect 
medical practitioners who were opposed to implementing the new law.
In light of those also suffering from a psychological or psychiatric 
disorder, the report also calls for a definition of mental competence to 
be specified.
The select committee toured the US state of Oregon, the Netherlands, and 
Switzerland, where legislation is in place, to look at the different 
models that already exist. The report supersedes a previous 
parliamentary report published 10 years ago by the Lords medical ethics 
committee which rejected proposals to introduce legislation on assisted 
dying.
 The issue attracted significant interest last year following the case 
of motor neurone disease sufferer Diane Pretty, who was denied the right 
to seek help from her husband to end her life.
 The Voluntary Euthanasia Society described today's report as "very 
powerful". "It is a huge step forward and it brings the possibility of 
changing the law in this country forward by many years," said spokesman 
Mark Slattery.
Select committee chairman Lord Mackay of Clashfern said a wide range of 
views had been taken on board before compiling the report, which he said 
was premised on the principle of "patient autonomy".
"The message is the need to recognise that assisted dying and voluntary 
euthanasia can be regarded as simply alternative ways of legally ending 
a terminally ill patient's life," he said.
 Debbie Purdy, who has suffered from chronic progressive multiple 
sclerosis for the past 10 years, welcomed the bill. Ms Purdy said making 
assisted dying lawful would help her live her life to the full until the 
last possible moment.
The issue is likely to split parliamentary opinion, however, and is 
likely to prompt heated debate within the pro-life lobby. Even Lord 
Mackay himself, current patron of the Lawyers Christian Fellowship, 
refused to confirm whether he was for or against the report's findings.
Opinion is also split in the medical profession with both the British 
Medical Association and the Royal College of Nursing opposed, while the 
Royal College of General Practitioners and the Royal College of 
Physicians take neutral stanc

 Monday April 4, 2005
Articolo pienamente in sincronia con due eventi simili di questi ultimi
giorni( io ci metterei oltre alla Schiavo, anche le sofferenze inutili di
GPII) e sempre di acutissima attualita`.
Purtroppo ci vorrebbe il finimondo in Italia e in tutti i paesi ad alta
percentualita`cattolica, per arrivare ad avere avere una legge simile.
Troveresti àncore dappertutto; persino tra i medici ci sarebbe una grande
schiera che si opporrebbe a divenire gli strumenti di cio`.
Speriamo nella maturita`di tutti e anche se cio`dovesse avvenire lentamente
, che ci si muova verso quella direzione.
Giano