In August the Dutch Ministers of Health and Justice rejected a call from the attorney general, Joan de Wijkerslooth, for “terminal sedation” to be covered by the same legal controls as (voluntary) euthanasia.

Mr de Wijkerslooth, who is head of the public prosecution service, argued that because terminal sedation can have the same effect as euthanasia it should be subject to same external controls.

On 2nd October, Christine Malèvre began her controversial appeal against her sentence for the murder of six terminally ill cancer patients.

On 26th September Vincent Humbert died after his mother Marie Humbert injected a lethal dose of barbiturates into his intravenous drip. Four days later, his doctor claimed responsibility for his death. The publicity that has ensued from the case of Vincent Humbert has revitalised national debate on the subject of mercy-killing and prompted the French National Assembly to set up a Commission to investigate issues relating to the ‘end of life’.

One year of enforcement of the law, by Jacqueline Herremans

In another news article you can read about plans to include Article 1-51 in the new constitutional treaty for the European Union.

On the 3rd September the European Parliament voted to omit from an annual report on fundamental rights an article which raised the issue of assisted dying in Europe. The report on fundamental rights in the European Union in 2002 was prepared on the ‘own-initiative’ of the Committee on Citizen’s Freedoms and Rights, Justice and Home Affairs. Whilst the report is mostly concerned with other human rights issues and abuses, its draft form had contained one article which:

a) Summary

On the 5th September, the Council of Europe’s Committee on Social, Health and Family Affairs voted by a narrow margin to adopt the Report on Euthanasia prepared by Dick Marty.

In the last year, Dignitas in Switzerland has attracted great media coverage, in the UK and in Europe at large, for assisting the suicides of people who are not Swiss citizens.

On 17th June 2003, Mr David Taylor, a Labour/Co-op MP with a Christian Socialist background, introduced a Ten Minute Rule Motion:

On 6th June, Lord Joffe’s Patient (Assisted Dying) Bill was, in keeping with tradition, given an unopposed second reading by members of the House of Lords.

The growing notoriety of Dignitas’ work has prompted members of the Swiss parliament to introduce two Private Member’s Bills to prevent “suicide tourism” to Switzerland. These Bills also threaten the availability of assisted suicide for Swiss citizens.

Following the publication in June of a report by the University of Zurich, the Swiss Senate has decided to put forward a new proposal for a law on euthanasia and assisted suicide.

The University of Zurich’s new report, which forms part of the European Commission-sponsored study of end-of-life decision making in six European countries (see above), examined 3,350 deaths in German-speaking Switzerland and found that half were preceded by an end-of-life decision. Compared with its European neighbours, Switzerland was also found to have the highest number of cases of assisted suicide.