PN supports ‘living will’ proposal, in principle
Law will allow terminally ill patients to make decisions about the care they want to refuse if they are unconscious
The Nationalist Party is on board with the government’s plan for a living will but wants to see the details in the parliamentary bill before it gives a final position, MP Graziella Attard Previ said.
Last week, reforms junior minister Rebecca Buttigieg announced a new law that will allow terminally ill patients to make decisions about the care they want to refuse if they are unconscious.
Via a notarial declaration made beforehand, the law will allow a patient to refuse treatments such as CPR and artificial hydration and feeding at the point of becoming non-responsive.
Asked by Times of Malta about her party’s position, Civil Liberties shadow minister Graziella Attard Previ said the proposal will ensure that the right to patient autonomy will continue to be respected when the patient is no longer able to express their wishes.
“In principle, we are in favour of the proposed reform,” she said.
“However, the government’s bill has not yet been tabled in parliament, and we must review its full contents before taking a definitive position.”
While Buttigieg provided details of the government’s bill in a press conference early last week, its full contents are still not in the public domain.
It will be published on the parliament’s website and in the Government Gazette shortly before it is debated in parliament.
Last week, the junior minister stressed that the law was not introducing euthanasia into Malta but said it was the result of discussions during the government’s public consultation on introducing voluntary assisted dying in Malta.
More than 15,000 submissions were received during the two-month public consultation on voluntary assisted euthanasia, but Buttigieg said in November that the PN did not submit its opinion during the process.
Asked why the PN had not, Attard Previ said: “The PN’s reaction to the public consultation on assisted voluntary euthanasia has already been made clear: we will declare our official position once the government tables its bill in parliament and we are able to examine its contents in full.”
“At the same time, we have emphasised that we have taken note of all public statements made on this issue, and we remain firmly committed to the strengthening and expansion of palliative care.”