Watch: Hospice Malta Founder Endorses Euthanasia – ‘Let Terminal Patients Choose A Dignified End’
Hospice Malta co-founder Dr Peter Muscat has endorsed a proposal for Malta to legalise voluntary euthanasia for patients suffering from terminal conditions.
“As a doctor, my main goal is obviously to help cure people and ease their suffering, and as a psychiatrist, it is also help eliminate the mental disturbances that people might pass through,” Muscat said at the launch of a public consultation this week.
“First and foremost, I will help ensure that people have peace of mind, treatment and hope – but sadly, in some cases of terminal illness, there is no hope left, only relentless physical and emotional suffering, with death as the only solution.”
He said that while palliative care should be widely accessible, some patients might choose not to live till their final breath in agony.
“They might decide that enough is enough, and I believe that we can help those people choose their own path in a dignified manner.”
Muscat recounted when his own wife Helen, a palliative nurse who helped found Hospice Malta, passed away in 2013 after weeks suffering from terminal cancer.
“The hardest bit was the last few weeks, when she asked her oncologist how much time she had left and he informed her that she would die in six to eight weeks,” he said.
“There was no talk of euthanasia back then, only palliative care and the support of loved ones and medical professionals. My wife did her utmost to make this path as easy as possible for herself and her loved ones, but the final weeks were very tough and it could be that she didn’t want to continue living.”
“I don’t know for sure, but she had said that she was tired of waiting for death. Friends of mine who are also terminally ill have told me the same thing. They are suffering both physically and emotionally as they wait for death.”
“The only way to help these people is to ensure that their wishes are respected in a dignified manner. This is why there must be all the necessary safeguards that this White Paper is proposing – they must be in their right senses, there must be no coercion, and they must be ready for it.”
Should Malta legalise voluntary euthanasia?
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