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/ Rate This Message: http://www.cryonet.org/cgi-bin/rate.cgi?msg=8658