Prague - A doctor will have to speak with a patient and ask three times "Do you really want to die?" before helping someone end his or her life.
That is one of the conditions set out in the first officially proposed legalization on euthanasia, which is due to be debated in the Czech Parliament.
Aktuálně.cz obtained 19 paragraphs of the proposed "law on a dignified death".
The authors of the proposal - a selection of liberal politicians - have taken another step in seeing the law approved Tuesday.
They announced that they will publicize a petition for the legalization of euthanasia shortly after midday that voters can support.
Being helpless isn't enough
How do these liberals suppose that suicide will win the blessing of the state?
Not everyone will be able to opt for euthanasia, as they had hoped. The law does not consider being elderly or infirm as sufficient grounds for medically assisted suicide.
According to the proposed legislation, "A dignified death can only be had on the basis of a request for help or can be chosen by a patient only in a situation when his health condition is hopeless and when he is in a condition of permanent physical or psychological pain, which is the result of contingent or long-term and incurable illness."
It is for the notaries
A request for euthanasia must be written by hand by a legally competent person and must include a notarized signature.
The document, also called a living will, goes into effect four weeks after being written, at which time it becomes a part of the patient's health records. A patient can retract the request at anytime.
"If the patient cannot read or write or is blind, he can make a formal request for a dignified death in a document which will be read aloud in the presense of three witnesses signed by those persons. At the same time, the patient must confirm in the presence of the witnesses that the document contains his request for a dignified death. The writer and reader of the document may also be witnesses, but the writer cannot also be the reader," the proposal explains.
The proposal doesn't state that the right to euthanasia is granted automatically.
A doctor can refuse the request and no one can force him to carrying out the procedure. Every case will require the agreement of a second, independent doctor, though not another doctor in the same department, for example.
According to the proposal, euthanasia request would be evaluated by a special commission. If a doctor breaks any regulations, the case will be handed over to the state prosecutor.
Currently it is not exactly clear what doctor-assisted suicide or the termination of life would look like. That will be decided by an executive ordinance.
Too liberal for ODS
The first official proposal of the law on euthanasia, which was put forward by Senator Václava Domšová, will not have an easy time going through parliament. The proposal goes much farther than the biggest proponents of euthanasia in the Civic Democratic Party (ODS) would like to see.
A patient must write his own request and have his signature notarized.
Here is one problem: The proposal, which was drawn up by the right-wing Liberal Reform Party (LiRa), currently assumes that in extreme cases the doctor would euthanize the patient himself. It would not be a case of assisted suicide, but a pre-agreed killing the patient.
ODS MPs along with Doctor Boris Šťastný find death at the hands of a doctor upsetting.
"It destroys the idea of empowering human freedoms and lacks any safeguards against abuse. It is ethically unacceptable," asserted Šťastný.
Domšová: Doctors are already doing it. Only illicitly
Even for those responsible for the proposed law, the patient's suicide with expert assistance is a top priority.
"In second place then, for those who find themselves in, among other things, a condition of irreversible coma and who have previously requested a dignified death, the proposed law sets out the eventuality that the doctor would be called in to [administer] the dignified death himself," states the proposal.
According to Senator Václava Domšová (SNK), the objections of its opponents are most concerned with alibis.
"Doctors don't want to have anything to do with it, but at the same time they know of many cases of illicit euthanasia. Whether [the decision would be made] ultimately be doctors, the family or some sort of organization is something to be debated," said Domšová to Aktuálně.cz.
A lack of quality care for the dying
Human Rights Minister Džamila Stehlíková (SZ) has also come out against the proposed legislation.
"The only acceptable solution to the position of the severely ill and dying is not the choice between suffering and death at the hands of a doctor, but a lessening of suffering and the provision of a helping hand. The dying and severely ill need quality, accessible care and not legalized euthanasia, which contradicts the spirit of a doctor's profession," said Stehlíková.
According to Domšová, there wouldn't be any need to legalize euthanasia if there was an acceptable level of care for long-term and terminally ill patients and the dying.
"If the outcome of this debate led to an improvement in care, the creation of more hospices and higher quality of services from LDN (treatment centers for people with long-term illness - ed.), then I will be happy," she attested.
LiRa (Liberal Reform Party) Chairman Milan Hamerský believes that senators could support the law.
"According to our polls, about half of all politicians across party lines are in favor of the euthanasia solution. There is a chance here," he told Aktuálně.cz.
