Here is the link to the petition
28 non-governmental organizations focusing on end-of-life and civil liberties across Europe have decided to join forces in a pan-European action, launching an unprecedented initiative to strengthen the right to self-determination within the European Union. This involves a petition addressed to the European Parliament (accessible at this link), aiming to urge the European Union to adopt the following measures:
- the inclusion of the right to voluntary assisted dying in “The Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union”;
- an EU legislation to enforce the “individuals right to decide by what means and at what point their lives will end, provided this person is capable of freely reaching a decision on this question and acting in consequence”, which is considered by the European Court of Human Rights as “one of the aspects of the right to respect for private life”, in particular, proper professional assistance to end of life decisions should be provided in the EU;
- the mutual recognition of living will declarations and advanced directives within the EU, for those arrangements compatible with the law of the member state where the person is at the moment of need; to this end, a EU database will be created in order to facilitate access to national living will depositories when needed, in full compliance with the fundamental right to privacy;
- the convening of a European Citizens’ Assembly by sortition to discuss and propose possible European measures to approach the issue of the right to die in a dignified way.
The petition was presented during an online press conference this morning and will be proposed to all candidates from every political spectrum for the upcoming European elections.
“The European Union must increasingly become a space of freedom and fundamental rights. On voluntary assisted dying, each Member State must be able to legislate based on its own legal and administrative tradition (particularly regarding the healthcare system), but always respecting the principles recognized by the European Court of Human Rights, according to which every individual has the “right to decide by what means and at what point their lives will end, provided this person is capable of freely reaching a decision on this question and acting in consequence”, which is considered by the European Court of Human Rights as “one of the aspects of the right to respect for private life”. This is why European organizations dealing with the issue have decided to join forces for a common initiative, addressing the European Parliament, to demand that this freedom of choice be recognized in the fundamental Charter of Human Rights. Given that the European Union is also a space of free movement of people, it is crucial that it is also concerning the right to health in end-of-life choices. If, during the COVID-19 pandemic, it was possible to create a system of mutual recognition of vaccination information in a few weeks, this means that there are no technical obstacles to the mutual recognition of living will at least for those conforming to the law of the country where the sick person may find themselves in need of demanding respect for their own will, previously expressed in the country of their citizenship. Today marks the beginning of the signature collection across the European Union. We will ask candidates for the European elections, regardless of their political orientation, to endorse the petition” said Marco Cappato, a former member of the European Parliament and leading member of the Luca Coscioni right-to-die association and Eumans, who has been helping people to get assisted suicide in Switzerland, risking up to 12 years jail.
The organizations supporting the petition are:
- Associazione Luca Coscioni (Italy)
- Eumans (Italy)
- ÖGHL “Austrian Society for a Humane End of Life” (Austria)
- Association pour le Droit de Mourir dans la Dignité (Belgium)
- Secular Studies Association Brussels (Belgium)
- Palliative Care (Belgium)
- Centre d’action laïque – CAL (Belgium)
- RTD (Denmark)
- Union of Freethinkers of Finland (Finland)
- Association pour le Droit de Mourir dans la Dignité (France)
- Ultime liberté (France)
- Humanist Union of Greece (Greece)
- Lífsvirðing, félag um dánaraðstoð (Iceland)
- End of Life Ireland (Ireland)
- Humanist Association of Ireland (Ireland)
- Allianz vun Humanisten, Atheisten an Agnostiker zu Lëtzebuerg (Luxembourg)
- Humanists Malta (Malta)
- NVVE – Nederlandse Vereniging voor een Vrijwillig Levenseinde (The Netherlands)
- Volt Europa – Nederland (The Netherlands)
- Freedom from Religion Foundation (Poland)
- Kazimierz Lyszczynski Foundation (Poland)
- Association for Republicanism and Secularism (Portugal)
- Asociația Secular-Umanistă din România (Romania)
- Derecho a morir dignamente – DMD SPAIN (Spain)
- Dignitas – To live with dignity – To die with dignity (Switzerland)
- Lifecircle (Switzerland)
- My Death, My Decision (United Kingdom)
- World Federation of Right to Die Societies