Bulgarian Parliament Committee Resolutely Rejects Euthanasia Bill

Last week socialist MP and professor of law Lyuben Kornezov tabled the first euthanasia bill in Bulgaria, which was effectivelly killed by the Health Committee of Parliament Thursday. Photo by BGNES

The Health Committee of the Bulgarian Parliament almost unanimously rejected a draft bill to legalize euthanasia in Bulgaria tabled last week by socialist MP, law professor Lyuben Kornezov.

The committee voted with 12 members against and 1 abstention, with Kornezov's fellow MPs from the Bulgarian Socialist Party also being widely against.

Vanyo Sharkov and Hasan Ademov from arch-rivals rightist Blue Coalition and ethnic Turkish Movement for Rights and Freedoms united in an all-out rejection of euthanasia as going against the principles of beneficence in medicine.

Ruling center-right GERB party Djema Grozdanova said that euthanasia could be introduced only after an extensive and deep debate within the whole society, something which has not happened in Bulgaria.

Socialist Yanaki Stoilov argued that euthanasia could be introduced only in a country where the health system is at a sufficiently high level, which he saw as plainly not being the case in Bulgaria.

Kornezov defended his legislative proposal, arguing for the right to die with dignity, and defending it as a case of well-doing in extreme cases.

Committe MPs nevertheless were firmly against the bill and went on to reject it.

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