X-Message-Number: 8658
Date: Sun Oct 05 00:42:11 1997  PST
Subject: Fwd: Another right-to-die country?
From:  (Edgar W Swank)

10:01 AM ET 10/03/97

Colombia court upholds euthanasia ruling


  BOGOTA (Reuter) - Colombia's Constitutional Court has upheld
a previous ruling legalizing euthanasia for some terminally-ill
patients, court officials said Friday.
  The court voted 6-3 Thursday to reject an appeal filed by
Monsignor Alberto Girlado, president of Colombia's Episcopal
Conference, against its original ruling to decriminalize
euthanasia handed down in May, officials said.
  Before the May ruling, Colombia's penal code set a maximum
six-year prison term for anyone who helped seriously ill or
injured people to die.
  Court magistrate Carlos Gaviria, a leading proponent of
allowing euthanasia, has said that Colombia's Congress will be
asked to set the precise terms under which euthanasia can be
carried out.
  Colombia is a predominantly Roman Catholic country and
church officials have said they hope Congress will overturn the
court ruling, just as Australia's did after the world's first
euthanasia law was passed by the Northern Territory government
in July 1996.

-
Edgar W. Swank   <>
President - American Cryonics Society
http://www.jps.net/cryonics/

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