The French Parliament has passed a law on Wednesday giving terminally ill patients the right to end their life by refusing treatment. However it stopped short of legalising "mercy killing" - a controversial practice known as euthanasia.

The law would allow doctors to stop medical assistance when it "seems useless, disproportionate or has no effect other than maintaining life artificially," according to Reuters.

For patients that have already chosen to stop treatment, it would allow the administration of painkillers that could hasten death, according to the BBC. However, the law does not allow doctors to actively end the life of a patient.

In France, the case of Vincent Humber brought euthanasia into the headlines recently. Humber was a mute, blind quadriplegic that was killed at his own request by his doctor in 2003, according to the New York Times. Now, the doctor is being investigated and may face a murder charge.

Humber’s case drew widespread attention when he wrote a book called "I Ask the Right to Die." The book was a call for the legalisation of euthanasia in France.

Critics such as Health Minister Philippe Douste-Blazy and the Roman Catholic Church had fought the initial version of the law, which would have legalised euthanasia. The version that passed on Wednesday stopped short of this.

According to the Times newspaper, Monsignor Jean-Pierre Ricard, the president of the French Bishops Conference issued a statement calling for the medical establishment to draft an additional code of best practices for end-of-life issues to avoid "unethical interpretations of the law."





Francis Helguero
Ecumenical Press