By Jacqueline Herremans, ADMD, Belgium / Vice-President, World Federation of Right-to-Die Societies
On 27 April 2005, the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe rejected a draft resolution on assistance for patients at the end of life : 138 members voted against, 26 in favour, and 5 abstained. The author of the report, Dick Marty (Switzerland) himself voted against the amended draft resolution. Marty, after intense work since September 2001 to propose a text of compromise which takes account of the different perceptions about the end of life, realised at the last meeting that the opponents adopted an attitude to block any vote on a satisfactory text. At the last minute, 71 amendments were introduced when it was no more possible to discuss them seriously. The draft resolution adopted on 17 December 2004 by the Committee on Social Affairs in December 2004 was intellectually destroyed. Hypocrisy is not dead!