Euthanasia Threatens to Spread in Europe.(Brief Article)

When the Netherlands passed a law last April formalizing its euthanasia regulations, anxious eyes scanned the rest of Europe, fearing that other countries might follow the Dutch lead. Recent developments in England and Belgium have proven that concern was warranted.

Government bodies in both countries are involved in processes that may well conclude by legalizing euthanasia.

Diane Pretty is a 42-year-old, terminally ill woman living in England who wants to ensure that her husband will not be prosecuted if he helps her take her own life. When the director of public prosecution refused any such immunity, Mrs. Pretty argued and lost in the high court October 18.

But on November 1, The Guardian newspaper of London reported that a three-member committee of the House of Lords had agreed to bring Mrs. Pretty's case on appeal before the full House of Lords.

Lord Bingham, one of the three members, told The Guardian, "We are conscious of the fact it raises issues with which the courts in this country have not had a previous occasion to deal."

Mrs. Pretty has argued that England's blanket ban on assisted suicide denies her the right to die with dignity and is in violation of the European convention on human rights. The article did not disclose when the House of Lords will reach a decision on the matter, but the agreement to consider her appeal came just one week after a major push toward euthanasia in Belgium.

On Thursday, October 25 the Belgian Senate voted by a margin of 44 to 23 to pass a bill that would legalize euthanasia. Sources differ in predicting when the Belgian chamber of deputies will take up the legislation. Some say it will pass by year's end while others believe it will happen in 2002. Either way the consensus seems to be that passage in the lower house is a foregone conclusion.