Civil Code draft provides for legalization of euthanasia
The right to euthanasia, or, as it is also known, to "mercy killing," could soon be recognized in Serbia, with the consent of the patient or their family.
The draft Civil Code (GZ), which will be publicly debated until July 2016, envisages euthanasia as "the right of a physical person to consensual, voluntary and dignified end of life, which can be accomplished as an exception if necessary human, psycho-social and medical conditions have been met."
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"Conditions and procedures for exercising the right to euthanasia will be regulated by a separate law," the draft states.
The proposed text also states that the abuse of the right to euthanasia in order to obtain unjustified financial or other benefits, would provide a basis for criminal liability.
However, as an alternative, the draft "leaves the possibility to the public to decide during the debate to delete entirely this article from the final version of the codification - i.e., not to provide at all for the right to euthanasia."
Currently, "mercy killing" is considered a criminal offense in Serbia and is treated as murder.
This issue was also discussed in mid-December by the Health Section of Kopaonik School of Natural Law, which supported the GZ draft solution.
Doctor Hajrija Muji-Zoric, who is a research fellow at the Institute of Social Sciences and the editor of the Section, told Tanjug that this body will recommend to further debate the possibility of allowing active euthanasia, and to clarify the issue of passive euthanasia, which, as she stated "already exists in practice in some form."
Mujic-Zoric said the section "tends to support the practice of passive euthanasia in strictly defined cases where this is fully justified both medically and legally."
According to her, the attitude of this section is not to, for the moment, go for "extreme solutions that are inappropriate to our legal system."
The right to euthanasia is only one issue related to "patient autonomy" that is currently discussed in Serbia, Tanjug noted.