LUXEMBOURG (BP) — Lawmakers in Luxembourg voted Feb. 19 to legalize euthanasia for terminally ill patients and people with “grave and incurable” conditions. The country joins the Netherlands and Belgium as the third European country to legalize euthanasia.
Luxembourg's prime minister, Jean-Claude Juncker, met with Pope Benedict March 7 to discuss the law, which must pass a second reading before becoming law, which is expected to happen in late spring, according to the Zenit news agency. Juncker's Christian Social Party tried unsuccessfully to block the legislation, which narrowly passed on a 30-26 vote.
The new law allows euthanasia only when a patient asks repeatedly to die and requires the consent of two doctors and a panel of experts, but critics warn those decisions often are made by others.
“Euthanasia proponents always assure us that the act will be voluntary,” said Larry Jacobs of the World Congress of Families, an international network of pro-family organizations from more than 60 countries. “But the devil is in the details. Frequently, if a patient is unable to indicate consent, this life-or-death decision is made for them by a relative or a physician.”
Jacobs pointed to a 2005 government report from the Netherlands that said 550 people in that country who were comatose or otherwise unresponsive were put to death in 2004.