The Czech Republic still lacks a separate law on palliative care. Would enacting euthanasia help Czech patients in a hopeless situation? How to ensure that assisted death cannot be abused? “I would be very happy if there was a so-called register of wishes expressed in advance, from which we would learn which of the patients in the terminal stage does not wish to be resuscitated,” says Věra Procházková, a doctor and senator for the ANO movement, in Dvaceti minutých Radiožurnál.
Twenty minutes of Radiojournal
Prague
0:10 April 25, 2024
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In neighboring countries where euthanasia was legalized, the law on euthanasia was always linked to the law on palliative care (illustrative photo) | Source: Shutterstock
The Czech Republic still lacks a separate law on palliative care. What does palliative care include? And why do we need such a law at all?
Palliative care is the care of patients at the terminal stage of life provided by hospice facilities, mobile or brick-and-mortar, or palliative beds in hospitals. The law is absolutely necessary because today we do not have a precisely defined palliative patient. We do not know which patient it is who needs palliative care.
Our society is not advanced enough to provide euthanasia to children. The law should only apply to terminally ill adults who are sane, suggests doctor Věra Procházková
And why is it necessary to have it legislated? Is it to protect medical personnel?
A palliative patient is at a stage where they no longer have health care, but palliative care. And that’s a big difference. Health care still assumes that we treat the patient, that he has hope that he can continue to live thanks to the intervention of health professionals.
A palliative patient, on the other hand, is a patient in the terminal stage of life who has no hope of recovery or cure, but is only helped symptomatically so that the end of his life is of the highest possible quality.
Does the aforementioned law also include the possibility of voluntary withdrawal from life, i.e. euthanasia?
In neighboring countries where euthanasia has been legalized, the law on euthanasia has always been linked to the law on palliative care.
Impact of covid-19
You came up with the bill four years ago as a member of ANO. Why didn’t you manage to implement it then?
Because covid came and because we had to pass covid laws quickly. It was urgent, we were not prepared for it, of course the laws took precedence. And secondly, there was no consensus across the coalition at the time.
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You have now dusted off the idea and are trying to return it to the public space…
I have been dealing with euthanasia for a very long time, mainly because of relatives who died of cancer and whom I accompanied at the end of their lives, but mainly because of my mother, who died of cancer and with whom I unfortunately experienced a situation where she wanted to commit suicide, which she eventually did succeeded.
The second reason is that as a doctor I specialized in pain management.
You still work part-time as a paramedic and at the same time you work in a hospice in Nejdek. Can you say that they are opposite poles of the same thing?
No, definitely not. But in the emergency room, we still have a problem with ending life, when to resuscitate. Today, the decision is still up to the attending physician. But why should only a doctor always decide on life?
Therefore, I would be very happy if there was a so-called register of wishes expressed in advance, from which we would learn which of the patients in the terminal stage does not wish to be resuscitated.
How are other countries doing?
You and your fellow presenters have chosen the Luxembourg law as a model. Why?
Luxembourg was the last to approve euthanasia at the same time as the Palliative Care Act from the Benelux countries. Moreover, unlike the laws in the Netherlands or Belgium, it is much stricter.
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One of the countries that introduced euthanasia among the first is Canada. But not all Canadians are happy with the practice. There have been reports in the press about the abuse of euthanasia in patients with reduced autonomy.
I am not in favor of such a law for patients with reduced autonomy. In my opinion, our society is not even advanced enough to provide euthanasia to children. My law should apply to terminally ill, sane adults who are able to say what they wish, or who have determined the course of their end of life by a pre-spoken wish.
It should be about patients who suffer unbearably permanently, physically or mentally, with no hope of improvement, who themselves consider euthanasia the only possible solution to their own situation…
How do the representatives of the coalition of five view the possibility of voluntary retirement? Why is the legislative combination of euthanasia and palliative care unacceptable for some experts and politicians? Listen to the entire Twenty Minutes of Radio Journal in the audio recording above.
Vladimir Kroc, bro
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