A new coalition has been formed to combat the growing threat of euthanasia across Europe.
The Euthanasia Prevention Coalition Europe was formally announced in
Brussels on Wednesday to fight the proliferation of assisted suicide
laws across the continent.
The EPCE states the following aims:
• to oppose the legalisation of euthanasia and assisted suicide and will work to repeal existing laws allowing it.
• to promote the best care and support for vulnerable people who are sick, elderly, or disabled.
• to affirm life through helping people to find meaning, purpose and hope in the face of suffering and despair.
It brings together, among others, the UK's CARE Not Killing group,
which is presently mobilising to fight a second attempt by independent
MSP and sufferer of Parkinson's disease Margo MacDonald to legalise
assisted suicide in Scotland.
Although the previous attempt in 2010 was defeated by 85 votes to 16,
with two free voting abstentions, Ms MacDonald now believes that cases
such as Tony Nicklinson in England, who had locked-in syndrome, will
help her win the debate.
This despite the opposition to such a change by
the Scottish Government and the widespread concern that Scotland could
become a destination for 'suicide tourism' in a similar manner to
Switzerland.
Dr Kevin Fitzpatrick, Coordinator of EPC-Europe said: "The UK, France
and Germany are currently considering legislation, but overwhelming
evidence from jurisdictions where euthanasia and physician-assisted
suicide is legal, such as Belgium and the Netherlands, demonstrates
beyond doubt, how quickly and easily euthanasia is extended to others,
especially disabled people and elderly people.
"High-profile cases here have provoked international outrage leading
commentators to think of Belgium as the new world leader in exploiting
euthanasia against those with disabilities and mental health issues for
example."
Examples that are particularly concerning to the group are those of
Nathan Verhelst - born Nancy - who was killed on live television.
Verhelst decided to end his life after a series of botched sex change
operations brought on because of his mother's extreme displeasure that
he had been born a girl. His mother said she hated girls, found her
child "so ugly" at birth, and did not mourn his death.
"I was the girl that nobody wanted," Verhelst told Het Laatste Nieuws
newspaper just hours before he died. "While my brothers were
celebrated, I got a storage room above the garage as a bedroom. 'If only
you had been a boy', my mother complained. I was tolerated, nothing
more."
Other cases include Mark and Eddy Verbessem, the 45-year-old deaf
identical twins, who were euthanised by the Belgian state, after their
eyesight began to fail, and Ann G, who had anorexia and who chose to
have her life ended after being sexually abused by the psychiatrist who
was supposed to be treating her for the life-threatening condition.
There is also grave concern over laws such as the Groningen Protocol
in the Netherlands that means disabled newborn babies are killed on
grounds of "their perceived future suffering, or that of their parents".
This includes newborns with spina bifida, the same condition that the
Paralympic athlete and Life Peer Tanni Grey-Thompson has.
Grey-Thompson, who has won 11 Paralympic Gold medals, said: "If that
[the Groningen Protocol] had existed in the UK when I was born there is a
possibility that I would not be alive now. I would never have been
allowed to experience life and my daughter might never have been born."
The number of deaths by euthanasia in the Netherlands has increased
by 64% between 2005 and 2010, at a time when the Dutch population grew
by less than 2% over the same period.
A recent development has been the
introduction of mobile euthanasia clinics in 2012, allowing people to be
killed by lethal injection when family doctors refuse.
Yet the Dutch
are now discussing the extension of euthanasia to people with dementia
despite huge concerns about the ability of sufferers of this condition
to give proper consent.
Dr Fitzpatrick concluded: "EPC-Europe brings people from a wide
variety of backgrounds together to oppose the legalisation of euthanasia
and assisted suicide, promote the best care and support for vulnerable
people and to help people to find meaning, purpose and hope in the face
of suffering and despair. We invite others who share our concerns to
join us and work alongside us."
While talking about the particular case of Scotland, the CARE Not
Killing convener Dr Gordon Macdonald said: "Europe can learn from
Scotland's example as a country which has rejected the view that some
people's lives are not worth living. We believe that society has a
responsibility to protect the most vulnerable."