Filenews 25 January 2022 - by Marios Demetriou
The right to euthanasia, i.e. the choice between a peaceful death without pain and a painful death for patients with incurable diseases who are in a final stage, was discussed yesterday for the first time in the Human Rights Committee of the Parliament with a joint recommendation of AKEL MPs Irene Charalambidou and George Koukoumas, DISY Ritas Superman, Fotini Tsiridou and Marios Mavridis and the Movement of Ecologists Alexandra Attalidou.
There was a sober and productive dialogue on this existential issue that is of serious concern to many countries in Europe and the world and it was attended at the invitation of the members of the Committee by the General Director of the Ministry of Health Christina Giannaki, the President of the Human Rights Committee of the Cyprus Bar Association Achilleas Dimitriadis, the Secretary of the Pancyprian Medical Association and President of the Ethics Committee of the PIS Michalis Anastasiades, the President of the Cyprus National Bioethics Committee Konstantinos Fellas, Archimandrite Georgios Christodoulou on behalf of the Holy Synod of the Church of Cyprus, Dr Aristotelis Konstantinidis, Associate Professor of International Law and Human Rights Law of the University of Cyprus and Dr. Stergios Mitas assistant professor at the Law School of the University of Nicosia.
As the President of the Committee, Irene Charalambidou, stated after the meeting, "Our discussion was not about a choice between life and death, but about a choice between a painful death for incurable diseases when it will be diagnosed that unfortunately the patient will end up in a dignified death. At the same time, key legal issues have been raised that at some point need to be settled.
The discussion will continue with patient associations, non-governmental organizations, with people who offer palliative care to terminally ill patients." During the discussion, MP George Koukoumas mentioned, among other things, that "at this stage in AKEL we do not have a position, but only concerns" and raised the issue of whether some critically ill patients from the poorest social strata will make the choice of euthanasia so that it is not a "financial burden" of the family. On behalf of DISY, Rita Superman said that "in DISY we do not yet have as a party a clear opinion on the issue, we are waiting to listen to the experts and people who will be affected by the issue, which is still taboo in our society and must be clearly raised, since it has legal, ethical, religious and philosophical aspects". Alexandra Attalidou mentioned that "in the countries where euthanasia is legally permissible, the percentage of citizens who applaud it is high and reaches 70-80%" and spoke "about the right of individual dignity, of free choice, of self-determination in the body and life of each of us. There must – he said – be self-determination even in death, provided of course that it is legislated and if any possibility of abuse of the law is ruled out."
Is it happening "underground" in Cyprus?
In her statement, Christina Giannaki mentioned, among other things, that "the patient's decision for the right to death is taken not by the patient, but by his close relatives since he is not in a position because of the medication he receives. I believe – she added – that patients' rights should be defined and the medical community should answer some questions raised by the Bioethics Committee in order to continue the debate in the House based on the medical opinion." Dr. Constantinos Fellas said that "the public debate comes at a very important time because our society refuses to discuss the issue of death, has marginalized the issue of loss, lament, mourning, grief, suffering and focuses on well-being". Moreover, according to Dr. Aris Konstantinidis, "there are more and more states that study the issue very seriously, but the states that have not regulated the matter, either allow the criminal prosecution (even with extenuating circumstances and reduced penalties) of those who are proven to have euthanasia, or in most cases leave the doctors silently to do the so-called passive euthanasia. It is left to the medical crisis for doctors to withdraw the technical support that ends the lives of patients who are in the final stage and have no prospect of life, but experience the irreversible end of life in an excruciating and undignified manner. The representative of the PIS can tell us whether this is done atypically in Cyprus and talking to doctors, we realize that it is something that happens underground precisely because it is unregulated". In his own statement, the representative of the PIS, Dr. Michalis Anastasiades, said that "you will find us in a position of waiting and reflection on this multilevel issue on which the PIS will clearly position itself, after exhausting all the aspects that need to be studied, namely the individual human right to life, the right of every human being to health, the right of relatives to the care and care of their relatives, the rights of minors – since there are also children who are in terminal stages of illness – the right of the doctor to practice his medicine undistracted, the legal framework that will cover all this reform, the social environment, the moral and philosophical aspect". From the Pancyprian Bar Association, Achilleas Dimitriadis said that the discussion was a continuation of the event on euthanasia and the right to a healthy environment organized on December 10, 2021 by the Association in cooperation with the Council of Europe, under the auspices of the President of the Parliament Annita Demetriou. After a question, he replied that "from the point of view of criminal law, assisted suicide is a criminal offence, so within the framework of this procedure the amendment of the penal code will be necessary".
In his own statement, Archimandrite Georgios Christodoulou, among others, invoked the ancient Greek tradition and the medical oath of Hippocrates, as well as the Greek-Christian tradition. "All this," he said, "has been discussed in a spirit of dialogue, and I come back with a more optimistic note, that in this metaphysical absence, where despair is essentially favoured, especially in the moments of the peak of pain and death, there is the faint hope and expectation of the godly man for the afterlife, and this hope gives more endurance and fortitude."
* We note that on behalf of the Cyprus Bar Association, Alexandros Clerides referred to a major investigation he did on euthanasia following an opinion requested by his clients in a 2017 case. He said he prepared a multi-page text on the implications of euthanasia internationally and in Cyprus which he handed over for study to the Human Rights Committee, stating that "Cyprus needs a legal framework that safely allows people who choose euthanasia to proceed with it".
