Malta lacked proper legislation on end-of-life care, Pierre Mallia told a conference yesterday.
Prof. Mallia, coordinator of the university’s bioethics research programme and chairman of the medicine and law programme, said Malta had laws against euthanasia and medical malpractice but lacked legislation on end-of-life care.
He spoke of the challenge in converting acceptable moral issues and standards into clinical practice. Citing an example, he said medical practitioners were allowed to give pain relief to patients even if it hastened death.
He said most religions were in agreement that removing what was termed as extraordinary treatment at the end of a person’s life would not count as passive euthanasia.
Converting acceptable moral issues and standards into clinical practice is a challenge. For example, medical practitioners are allowed to give pain relief to patients even if it hastens death
Extraordinary treatment is often defined as such if the burdens outweigh the benefits or it offers no hope of benefit for the patient.
Prof. Mallia said the debate on such matters was not always straightforward and his wish was that the conference would issue a joint consensus statement between the medical, law and theology faculties on end-of-life care.
Assisted suicide has been discussed in Malta lately, though Prof. Mallia made it clear the aim of the conference was not to debate euthanasia.
Last July, Joe Magro, who suffers from a neurodegenerative disease, made his case for the introduction of euthanasia before Parliament’s Family Affairs Committee. Both the Labour and Nationalist parties pledged to discuss euthanasia internally.
Labour MP Godfrey Farrugia, who chaired the committee, told this paper a patient’s right to die imposed an obligation on the doctor to become an “executor”. “Apart from opening avenues for abuse, the doctor’s right not to be part of this has to be recognised,” Dr Farrugia said.
Anna-Marie Duguet, from the Paul Sabatier University in France, stressed the need for good communication skills among medical practitioners.
She said communication skills were an essential prerequisite for quality palliative care. Communication was vital between patients and healthcare professionals, as well as between patients and relatives. She said the Council of Europe’s bioethics committee stated that doctors must not dispense treatment that was needless or disproportionate in view of the risks and constraints entailed.
The Council of Europe advised that the main party in the decision-making process with regard to medical treatment was the patient, Ms Duguet added. She said that when patients could not be involved in the decision-making process, the Council of Europe advised that a collective discussion take place in the best interest of the patient.