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The VE Bulletin Excerpts
'No price is too high to pay for the privilege of owning yourself' Rudyard Kipling
The death of Italian campaigner
On December 21st 2006 an Italian doctor, Mario Riccio, disconnected a respirator that was keeping Mr Piergiorgio Welby alive. Mr Welby who had been suffering from muscular dystrophy had been seeking the right to die from Italian courts and this had generated heated debate. There were calls for murder charges to be laid against Dr Riccio, but Reuters Newsagency has reported (1) that Dr Riccio was cleared of any charges by a committee of doctors in Cremona who voted unanimously that he had not violated any medical ethics. Mr Welby, 60, who had been ‘an eloquent advocate of euthanasia’, was denied a Catholic funeral because he had asked to die, and following Pope Benedict’s intervention in the debate by saying life was sacred until its 'natural sunset'.
In an article in the Guardian Newspaper (2) Professor Peter Singer claimed ‘Welby's death raises two questions - whether a person has a right to refuse life-sustaining medical treatment; and whether voluntary euthanasia is ethically defensible’.
He argued that a patient's informed consent should be a prerequisite for all medical treatment, as long as the patient is competent to make a decision. Forcing medical treatment on a patient who does not want it is equivalent to assault, and this is a decision reflected in law in most countries. Even the Roman Catholic Church holds a position that there is no obligation to use ‘extraordinary’ or ‘disproportionate’ means to prolong life. In challenging the distinction between voluntary euthanasia and withdrawing treatment Professor Singer argued:
This distinction is dubious. Patients [in both situations] knowingly choose a course of action that will lead to death, rather than to a longer but burdensome life. By focusing on the intention to refuse burdensome treatment, rather than the broader implications of the choice, the church avoids the inhumane implication that patients must accept life-prolonging treatment, no matter how painful or costly it may be. But it does so at the cost of rendering incoherent its own vigorous opposition to assisted suicide and voluntary euthanasia.
References:
(1) ‘Euthanasia doctor cleared by Italian medical panel’ Reuters Newsagency 2nd February 2007.
(2) Singer, P. ‘A dubious distinction’, Guardian newspaper London, January 17, 2007.
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