Prize for media distortion goes to the Telegraph. My comments are in italics.
Assisted suicide should be illegal throughout Europe, human rights body rules
Euthanasia and assisted suicide should be banned in every country in the Continent, the Council of Europe has ruled.
'Ruled' - the COE has no power to impose its will. The rule is subsidiarity and every one of the 47 nations will make its own rules.
In a declaration that will have legal implications in its 47 member states, the Strasbourg-based organisation announced that such practices “must always be prohibited”.
It has no legal obligations.
The move will represent a significant setback to assisted dying campaigners who want Britain to follow Holland, Belgium and Switzerland in allowing doctors to help end the lives of their patients.
In your dreams. It wiil have no effect except derision.
But members of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe argued that living wills, which became legal in Britain under the 2005 Mental Capacity Act, were inextricably connected to euthanasia. They successfully moved an amendment forbidding euthanasia by 34 votes to 16 with six abstentions.
The Assembly has 590 members. Only 56 took part in an ambush that was voted on when 90% of the members had left the Hemicycle. The two other votes in 2003 and 2005 were held on Fridays when most members have returned to their own countries.
The amendment said that “euthanasia, in the sense of the intentional killing by act or omission of a dependent human being for his or her alleged benefit must always be prohibited”.
Among those fighting for the amendment was Edward Leigh, the Tory MP for Gainsborough and a member of the assembly. He referred to the case of Kerrie Wooltorton, a 26 year-old from Norwich who died from poisoning in 2007 after her living will prevented doctors from resuscitating her.
But Paul Flynn, the Labour MP for Newport West, fought the amendment, saying it changed the “entire nature” of the report. “Eighty-five per cent of the people of Britain are demanding reforms and demanding change,” he said. “It is an important human right to have the right to die in a manner of our choosing.
This was an ambush organised by far right wing MPs from several countries who organise on issues of this kind. It is very rare for the media to report any decision of the Council of Europe. Publicity for this piece of tomfoolery is part of the stunt.
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