Updated | Parliament to discuss euthanasia before summer recess

Despite the manifest reluctance by all political parties to take a stand on euthanasia, ALS sufferer Joe Magro’s request to have the delicate subject discussed in Parliament will soon be satisfied.

Speaker Anglu Farrugia told MaltaToday that government whip and chairman of the social affairs committee Godfrey Farrugia will contact Magro to have the issue discussed in Parliament. 

In comments to MaltaToday, Godfrey Farrugia said  “it is my intention to call the Permanent Committee of Family Affairs to discuss this request by a fellow citizen in the immediate weeks before the summer recess.”

Parliament is expected to go into summer recess in the third week of July. 

Godfrey Farrugia added that he would convene a joint meeting which will see the issue discussed by the social affairs committee, the health committee and the family committee.  

“A conjoint committee may be called to address the issue after hearing the request by the fellow citizen. Ownership on the subject is at present within the Family Affairs Committee and I am ready to forward the proposition for a conjoint committee evaluation,” he said.

Farrugia said that in a recent House Business Committee meeting he went on record about his intention to call Magro “to air his views” on euthanasia.

In February, the 56-year-old Magro had told MaltaToday that lawmakers should look at the legislative models in Switzerland, Germany and Canada and said that euthanasia should not be made easy, but should be regulated “by a strict legal framework.” 

So far, Magro has not received any calls and although he coyly welcomed the news he reiterated that the debate needs to take place urgently.  

“I do not mind if the law is very restrictive, but people in my position should have the option to choose. I do not want to impose euthanasia on anyone but at the moment I do not have a choice.”

Most ALS sufferers live between two and five years after the first signs of the lethal disease emerge and only 10% of people with ALS survive at least 10 years.

Magro believes that he suffers from a slow progression of ALS and after meeting a fellow sufferer who is completely paralysed but entirely lucid he is even more convinced that he does not want to live a life without dignity. 

Asked whether he agrees with the introduction of euthanasia, Farrugia said “I am a family doctor with hands-on experience in terminal care. I have devoted my life to being a lifesaver. I am not for euthanasia, but as a politician I am ready to listen.”

While the family committee chairperson, Anthony Agius Decelis, concurred with Farrugia, the health committee chairperson, Etienne Grech, also a family doctor, said “euthanasia is purely a health issue and can be discussed by the health committee. However I will have to consult with my peers, including the ones in opposition, if the time is ripe to discuss this issue.”

He said that he is personally against euthanasia “and as a health professional I keep on doing my utmost to preserve life.” 

However, Grech added he would not use sophisticated methods to prolong agony with terminally ill patients. 

In a letter sent to the Speaker of the House, Magro had requested to have the matter discussed by a conjoint meeting between the three committees, which was held in March. However, the meeting was scheduled to discuss the age of consent and Godfrey Farrugia had expressed his desire to have a separate meeting entirely dedicated to euthanasia. 

‘I don’t want to live in indignity’

In a soul-baring interview earlier this year, Magro had said that unless euthanasia is introduced he is resolute on taking matters into his own hands.  

He was diagnosed with ALS, a deadly neurodegenerative disease that affects nerve cells in the brain and the spinal cord, some 14 months ago. 

“I do not want to be a burden on anyone. I do not want to be dependent on my family to eat, drink, wash or simply go to the bathroom. I will live as long as I can but once it gets to a point where I cannot live life in dignity I will commit suicide,” Magro had said. Magro, who lost his first wife to cancer 17 years ago, says that he has the full support of his second wife and four children. 

Euthanasia can be classified in two categories: active euthanasia, where a person deliberately intervenes to end someone’s life by, for example, injecting them with a large dose of sedatives, and passive euthanasia, where a person causes death by withholding or withdrawing treatment that is necessary to keep the person alive.  

Euthanasia can also be divided between voluntary euthanasia, where a person makes a conscious decision to die and asks for help to do this, and non-voluntary euthanasia, where a person is unable to give consent (for example, because they are in a coma) and another person takes the decision on their behalf, often because the ill person previously expressed a wish for their life to be ended under specific circumstances. 

Active euthanasia is only legal in Belgium, Holland and Luxembourg, where a person’s life can be deliberately ended by their doctor or other healthcare professionals.  

The person is usually given an overdose of muscle relaxants or sedatives. This induces patients into a coma and then death. 

Assisted suicide and passive euthanasia are legal in Switzerland, Germany, Mexico, Canada and some US states.