WMA European Region Meeting on End-of-Life Questions
On
Thursday and Friday, 16-17 November 2017, medical professionals, legal
authorities, experts in palliative care and medical ethics, theological
scholars and philosophers from over 30 countries gathered in the Aula Vecchia
del Sinodo in the Vatican for the World Medical Association European
Region Meeting on End-of-Life Questions.
Hosted
by the World Medical Association (WMA), the German Medical Association (GMA)
and the Pontifical Academy for Life (PAV), this two-day event provided a
platform for debating the different policies and perspectives on end-of-life
issues in Europe, for exploring patient rights, treatment limitations, and
palliative care, and for better understanding public opinion on these complex
topics.
On
the first day, the Congress was introduced by a meaningful and rich message
from His Holiness Pope Francis, read by Cardinal Turkson, Prefect of the
Dicastery for promoting integral human development. In his words, Pope Francis
developed a deep reflection about the frailty of life and the need to support
it with good practices.
Opening
remarks were also delivered by WMA President Dr Yoshitake Yokokura, GMA
President Prof. Dr. Frank Ulrich Montgomery and PAV President Archbishop Msgr.
Vincenzo Paglia. The program continued with a look at three different
perspectives on end-of-life questions by Professor Montgomery, Dr René Héman,
Chairman of the Royal Dutch Medical Association, and Dr. Yvonne Gilli, Board
Member of the Swiss Medical Association.
The
subsequent session highlighted insights on end-of-life questions from different
religious and theological backgrounds.
Rounding
out the first day of programming was a session focused on examining legal
aspects of euthanasia and physician-assisted suicide, which included a
contribution from Prof. Dr. Volker Lipp, Professor of Civil Law, Civil
Procedure, Medical Law and Comparative Law at Georg-August-Universität. This
was followed by an overview of the Council of Europe’s Guide on the
decision-making process regarding medical treatment in end-of-life situations
as illustrated by Dr. Laurence Lwoff, Head of the Bioethics Unit of the Council
of Europe’s Human Rights Directorate, and a series of presentations, including
a talk by Prof. Dr. Leonid Eidelman, President of the Israeli Medical Association,
exploring various aspects of compassionate use and conscientious objection.
Day
two of the conference opened with an ethical debate surrounding the question of
whether there is a right to determine one’s own death, after which Dr. Anne de
la Tour, President of the French Society of Palliative Care, shared her
expertise on treatment limitations and end-stage decisions about sedation.
Representing
the patient’s perspective was Dr. Marco Greco, President of the European
Patients’ Forum, who delivered a presentation on public opinions of key
end-of-life issues.
The
final day closed with a plenary panel discussion featuring six speakers from
Switzerland, Italy, Germany and the Netherlands, representing an extensive
range of opinions and policy viewpoints.
The
in-depth discussions held over the course of the two-day conference were
intended to contribute to an overarching debate on end-of-life issues recently
initiated by the WMA’s Medical Ethics Committee. To capture the global scale of
this debate, the WMA set out to co-organize a series of regional meetings on
nearly every continent. Previous meetings have been held in Tokyo and Rio de
Janeiro. The WMA African Region Meeting on this subject will take place in
early 2018 in Nigeria.
(Source:
WMA, November 17, 2017)
