Sovereign Defiant on Euthanasia Legislation

A devout Catholic, the 53-year-old Grand Duke said that he could not in good conscience sign the Euthanasia bill.

LUXEMBOURG (The Catholic Herald) - The tiny duchy of Luxembourg was rocked by a near constitutional crisis last week when the country's Catholic sovereign said he would oppose the legalisation of euthanasia and assisted suicide.

Grand Duke Henri told leaders of Luxembourg's parliament that he would not sign a bill that would allow for some of those suffering from terminal illness to kill themselves. He is constitutionally obliged, as Grand Duke and head of state, to "sanction and promulgate" the laws which the parliament makes. Legislation only becomes law in Luxembourg once it has been signed by the head of state.

The Grand Duke's decision was broadcast by Luxembourg's Prime Minister Jean Claude Junker on Luxemburgish DNR radio last week.

The bill, which split the parliament, winning narrowly by 30 votes to 26 in February, was due for a second reading and likely approval this week. Doctors would be able to provide both active euthanasia, killing at the patient's demand, and assisted suicide if the bill becomes law.

Under the bill, terminally ill patients and those with incurable diseases or conditions need to ask to die repeatedly and must receive the consent of two doctors and a panel of experts in order to receive euthanasia or be helped to suicide.

A devout Catholic, the 53-year-old Grand Duke said that he could not in good conscience sign the bill. As a result of his decision not to sign the bill and turn it into law the Grand Duke and the country's Christian Democrats-who were also against the bill - have proposed a change to Luxemburg's constitution.

This would remove the clause asking him to "sanction" laws, which he has said he cannot always do in good conscience, and leave him with the duty to "promulgate" the law which would not require his approval. This would reduce his power and make his role more ceremonial.

Mr Junker told the national press that such a move by a monarch was unprecedented and while he had the utmost respect for the Grand Duke, he felt that the ruler had crossed the line. He announced that the state and parliament had come to the conclusion that the only way to solve the problem was constitutional change.

One national constitutional expert, Paul Henri Meyers, told the newspaper Luxemburger Wort that the monarch's decision to follow his conscience was so unusual that it could throw up unprecedented problems.

He said that if the Grand Duke did not sign the law within three months it could invalidate the legislation. It is possible, he said, that the House of Representatives could take no further action because its members' duty to vote will have already been fulfilled. The process of drafting legislation would have to start from scratch.

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This episode in Luxemburg's political life is reminiscent of another incident in the Low Countries. In the 1990s King Baudouin of Belgium, also a devout Catholic, abdicated in order to avoid signing a bill legalising abortion. He was later asked to return to his throne by popular mandate.

The change to Luxembourg's constitution should come into effect by March at the latest.

Luxembourg's neighbours, the Netherlands and Belgium, were among the first European countries to legalise euthanasia, in 1984 and 2002 respectively. In Switzerland assisted suicide, whereby a doctor helps a patient kill himself, has been legal since 1941.

A French doctor and nurse were charged with killing a terminally ill cancer patient in 2007, igniting debate over euthanasia and assisted suicide in France.

In Britain Lord Joffe in the House of Lords and Baroness Warnock as well as Lib Dem MP Evan Harris have been champions for the legalisation of assisted suicide and voluntary euthanasia.

Last month Lord Joffe told the Times he was preparing to re-table the Assisted Dying for the Terminally Ill Bill which was defeated in the Lords by 148 to 100 votes in 2006 after religious and medical groups put pressure on the Lords. Suicide was legalised in Britain in the 1960s but someone aiding and abetting a suicide commits a crime which carries a 14-year maximum penalty.

Recent cases of "death tourism" to Switzerland have opened the debate again. Cases of death tourism have included the paralysed 23-year-old rugby player Daniel James last month and a 90-year-old man named only as Chris last week.