Legalising euthanasia in Albania? To Act or Not To Act: That Is the Question
Legalising euthanasia in Albania? To Act or Not To Act: That Is the Question

Summary/Abstract: Legalising euthanasia and helping others who are suffering to die is debated throughout the world. Whether to permit assisted suicide and euthanasia today is among the most contentious legal and public policy questions. The right to life is a non-derogable right, Indivisible and inalienable. It is difficult to imagine a more fundamental human right than the Right to Life. But we have to recognize that life and death are two sides of the same coin. There can be no life without death and no death without life. The two are absolutely inseparable. If life is a fundamental human right then death is too? This article presents a comparative analysis of euthanasia in several states. Few countries have changed their law’s traditional prohibition on euthanasia. The best known public policy shift occurred, of course, in the Netherlands with the acceptance of the practice of euthanasia and this has led, most recently, to its formal decriminalisation by the Dutch Parliament. The only other changes have been the short-lived legalisation of euthanasia and assisted suicide in the Northen Territory of Australia and of the latter practice in the State of legal change have fallen on deaf ears despite the knowledge that euthanasia does take place undetected. We present in this article the debate on legalising euthanasia in Albania, which has been ongoing for a considerable length of time. Albanian law is clear on legal consequences of euthanasia. It is illegal, in the sense that it offends the criminal law. Deliberately taking another person’s life amounts to the crime of murder and carries a mandatory life sentences. Perhaps the most important aspect of this debate concerns the meaning of words. It has not proved easy for citizens, jurists, theologians, health professionals and bioethicists to reach agreement in relation to the manner of designating the various possible actions that may take place at the end-of-life: patient refusal of treatment, with holding or withdrawal of futile therapies, palliative sedation, etc. The authors conclude that euthanasia violates the right to life and socio-economic aspects in Albania are obviously not suitable to legalise euthanasia and assisted suicide. Oregon in America. Elsewhere in the world, the arguments in favor of, and pleas for, legal change have fallen on deaf ears despite the knowledge that euthanasia does take place undetected. We present in this article the debate on legalising euthanasia in Albania, which has been ongoing for a considerable length of time. Albanian law is clear on legal consequences of euthanasia. It is illegal, in the sense that it offends the criminal law. Deliberately taking another person’s life amounts to the crime of murder and carries a mandatory life sentences. Perhaps the most important aspect of this debate concerns the meaning of words. It has not proved easy for citizens, jurists, theologians, health professionals and bioethicists to reach agreement in relation to the manner of designating the various possible actions that may take place at the end-of-life: patient refusal of treatment, with holding or withdrawal of futile therapies, palliative sedation, etc. The authors conclude that euthanasia violates the right to life and socio-economic aspects in Albania are obviously not suitable to legalise euthanasia and assisted suicide.

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