Larry Jacobs, photo via worldcongress.org

World Congress of Families shocked by vote to legalize euthanasia

World Congress of Families Global Coordinator Larry Jacobs expressed "shock and dismay" over Tuesday's vote to legalize euthanasia and assisted suicide in Luxembourg. Euthanasia is currently legal only in the Netherlands and Belgium, reports World Congress of Families.

"Europe is quickly slipping into a new Dark Age, in the words of Winston Churchill, 'made more sinister, and perhaps more protracted, by the lights of perverted science,'" Jacobs observed.

The Luxembourg parliament voted 30 to 28 to allow so-called consensual euthanasia, over the objections of Prime Minister Jean-Claude Juncker and his Christian Social Party.

Proponents are in the process of establishing "guidelines" for euthanasia in Luxembourg. While news sources have reported that the law would apply to the terminally ill, Alex Schadenberg of the Euthanasia Prevention Coalition says the bill would also allow individuals with "grave and incurable" conditions to be euthanized.

"Euthanasia proponents always assure us that the act will be voluntary," Jacobs observed. "But the devil is in the details. Frequently, if a patient is unable to indicate consent, this life-or-death decision is made for them by a relative or a physician."

A 2005 report by the Dutch government concluded that in 2004 there were an estimated 550 killings of individuals who were comatose or otherwise unresponsive in the country.

The Luxembourg bill has gone through first reading. A final vote will come after procedures to implement the measure are devised.

"We hope parliamentarians will have second thoughts about unleashing this lethal measure on the people they serve," Jacobs declared.

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[02/26/2008]

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