De Caluwé not to mention palliative filter in Catholic hospitalsPosted at 18:35h in health care, Chamber of Deputies by Ilse De NutteOpen Vld MP Robby De Caluwé condemned this afternoon in plenary the way Catholic hospitals deal with euthanasia applications.

Many Catholic hospitals still use grey zones in the law to discourage euthanasia. "Unacceptable. The mandatory palliative filter is not human and is driving out the law,' says The Caluwé.De 'palliative filter' is a concept put forward by the bishops' conference as an idea when the euthanasia law was introduced in 2002. The filter means that euthanasia questions need to be filtered. After all, not every question of euthanasia is a real question for ending life, but rather a demand for help to make that end of life bearable. De Caluwé: "This practice is unacceptable and inhumane. People have to be able to decide their own end of life. I find it incomprehensible that powerful Catholic hospitals want to erode the right to euthanasia and a dignified end of life and even thwart people. Moreover, this practice is not legal. The patient rights law is very clear. A patient has the right to refuse treatment. If he doesn't want to go through that palliative filter, it must be respected. So catholic hospitals have clearly broken the law here." De Caluwé: "Whether you are conservative, progressive, Catholic or liberal: euthanasia is an acquired right that should no longer be taken away from us. What's more, we need to expand that ourselves for, for example, people suffering from dementia. Out of conviction, because there is broad support for it and because self-determination is a right. Give another his/her free self-determination, even if you're against it yourself. That's acting correctly."