Judgement is still awaited in the Dordogne case, which has already led to the creation of two support associations – one for the nurse, the other for the doctor involved. The doctor tried to take all the responsibility since she prescribed the action concerned.
On 9 June the national consultative committee on ethics (CCNE) presented an opinion on “the refusal of treatment and the autonomy of the person”. The CCNE has formulated a number of recommendations seeking to reconcile new rights for patients with the duties of doctors. It insists on the absolute need “to respect individual liberty” and states “the refusal of treatment clearly expressed by a person over the age of majority who still has control of their faculties has to be respected, even if it leads to death”.
This year marks the 25th anniversary of the French ADMD. Founded in April 1980 by Michel Landa, the ADMD held its first General Assembly on 2nd June that year.
The Danish society En Vaerdig Dod (EVD) was established only five years ago. It is still small, with only some 300 members.
The Federal Service of Mediation established within the “Patients’ Rights” Committee has published its report on 2004. A major part of this deals with the difficulties in applying the law as regards patients’ rights, part of the problem being that the law is not well enough known by the public and resented by the medical profession. ADMD strongly supports the call for a major publicity campaign, but points out that public information so far has avoided the question of euthanasia.
There is an initiative of drug company Multipharma, which has decided to make available in all its pharmacies a pack containing all the products a doctor would need in carrying out an approved euthanasia.
First one should note that a challenge to the Belgian euthanasia law, sent by the groups Pro Vita and Jurivie to the European Court of Human Rights, still awaits a response.
The Vatican recently issued the French version of a “lexicon of ambiguous and controversial terms concerning the family, life and ethical questions”. The chapter devoted to euthanasia is supposed to contain the following:
Another case from the past has been resumed. A nurse who was imprisoned for three months in 2000, with her parents, after having given a lethal injection to an aunt suffering from a liver disease has recently been told by her lawyer that the case is to be referred to the courts where she will be accused of manslaughter. This will be the first time a case involving medical practice and an ethical problem concerning euthanasia will go before a jury.
Source: Newsletter RtD-Europe, September 2005.
A GP from Ostend was arrested on 29 July and imprisoned for four days, accused of having ended the lives of 5 patients in a care home over the last 3 years by increasing their doses of morphine. The management of the home brought the case. The case remains open.
A criminal case was launched on 8 July 2000 after the suicide of Jean-Marie Lorand, who was accompanied by his doctor. On 6 June 2005 the Appeal Court of Mons finally dismissed the case.
FATE Council Member Dr Michael Irwin to be ‘Struck Off’, & erased from Medical Register. He attempted to help a terminally ill friend die.
The WMA maintains the condemnation of euthanasia and physisian assisted suicide.
