Following the other regional divisions of the WMA (Asia and South-America), the European Branch convened a meeting in the Vatican. A letter has been discussed that was prepared by the Dutch RDMA (KNMG) and the Canadian sister organisation, which proposed earlier to write an alternative text for the until then usual stance “euthanasia is unethical”. By spreading this letter despite massive global resistance and convening meetings such as those in the Vatican, “a taboo is broken”, said the president of the KNMG. In the meeting in Rome, the Pope and the Vatican also pointed out that an open discussion is important. The Pope emphasized, above all, that “disproportionate treatment must be avoided”, but that that is something other than euthanasia (“which is always wrong”). KNMG and the Canadian sister organization would like to see that in any case doctors who apply euthanasia also deserve respect and should not be ethically condemned. So as yet no change of the side of the WMA in text, but rather a hopeful beginning of change. Read the WMA statement here.
