Belgian euthanasia law ‘monstrous’

Cardinal Christoph Schönborn of Vienna has sharply criticised the new Belgian euthanasia law that allows minors to seek physician-assisted suicide, writes Christa Pongratz-Lippitt.

Calling the new law “monstrous”, Cardinal Schönborn said he knew a paediatrician in Munich who had accompanied more than 400 dying children, not “a single one of whom had asked for active assisted suicide”. He himself would never forget a 12-year-old boy who eventually died of cancer after fighting against it for six years. “With tears running down his cheeks, he turned to me and said, ‘I want to live.’”

The president of the Swiss bishops’ conference, Bishop Markus Büchel of Sankt Gallen, said the step Belgium had taken was “extremely worrying”. The Swiss Church above all criticised the activities of the so-called “suicide organisations” which were recognised in Switzerland, he said.