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"You will be pleased to hear that, after three years of battling against legalising euthanasia in the Council of Europe, last week the Marty Report on it was voted down. "There was a highly-charged debate on it in the Assembly (in which I took part), and that following a furious session in Committee, the day before. "There were so many speeches that each one was limited to four minutes, but in that time I made it clear that my original objections when I spoke a year ago against the Marty Report still stood, but I wished to use my brief time in outlining two more. "The Report quoted the present law in Holland. I strongly objected to that section of it which permits children from 12 to 17 to ask for euthanasia. Between the ages of 12 and 16 their parents must agree before it is granted but between 16 and 17 the young person can simply demand to be killed. I pointed out that at these ages young people were immature, had no knowledge of how wonderful life can be, and were often plunged into despair: for the most trivial of reasons. Your football team loses; you get a spot on the day you have a date, or an exam is looming up.'I Just want to die,' they moan. I urge the Council of Europe never to adopt such an appalling rule. "Secondly, I pointed out that the BMA and the Royal College of Nursing were against euthanasia. In Britain, none of our NHS hospitals could run without Muslim doctors and many others with strong religious principles. They would either be forced to carry out acts against their conscience or be denied a job. We have before us the experience of the Abortion Act and we know this to be true." |
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