Christian, Muslim and Jewish religious leaders in Belgium have jointly denounced the planned extension of the current euthanasia law to cover children and mentally ill people.  

Apart from Brussels Archbishop Andre-Joseph Léonard, who has already criticised the planned law, the group included the Brussels grand rabbi, the leader of the Belgian Muslim Executive, the Orthodox metropolitan and the heads of the United Protestant Church, the Anglican Church and the Synod of Protestant and Evangelical Churches in Belgium, the Tablet reports.

In the rare joint statement, they expressed deep concern about the bill under discussion and the “mounting banalisation” of euthanasia.

Allowing minors to be euthanised “misrepresents their ability to judge” and doing the same for the mentally ill “is a denial of their dignity”, the statement said.

Yesterday in Brussels a new coalition was launched to combat the growing threat of legalised euthanasia across Europe.  

The Euthanasia Prevention Coalition Europe, (EPC-E) brings together organisations and individuals from across Europe to campaign against the erosion of laws that protect the elderly, disabled, vulnerable and even the poor.

Meanwhile, euthanasia legislation sponsored by the Quebec Government has been approved “in principle” by the parliament there. Just 26 MPs opposed the measure, but opponents expected the number of votes to be even lower.

Living with Dignity (Vivre dans la Dignité) president Dr. Marc Beauchamp said the vote “was a very pleasant surprise” despite the bad news the majority of Quebec legislators supported the bill.

“We didn’t expect that many people would oppose the bill at such an early stage of the process,” said the Montreal-based orthopedic surgeon of the 84-26 tally on Oct. 29. The grassroots coalition had expected perhaps five or 10 MNAs opposing the bill, the Catholic Register website reports.

The minority Parti Quebecois government and the Quebec Solidaire party both whipped their members to support the bill, but a majority of Liberals voted against it. The Liberals allowed a free vote.

“A lot of people are starting to feel the unease of being part of such a project,” said Beauchamp.

The vote represented clear proof that claims made by the Parti Quebecois that the whole political class is behind Bill-52 are “totally false,” Beauchamp said. He noted Social Services Minister Veronique Hivon “has been working very hard to convince people to follow a consensus that was already there.

“She pretended the whole National Assembly was behind the project,” he said. “We knew it was false. Until yesterday we did not have any proof of that.”

Beauchamp said he expects opposition to rise. While 26 publicly oppose the bill, many are holding their final decision “because they want to see what goes on with the analysis of the law point by point.”

Euthanasia Prevention Coalition executive director Alex Schadenberg noted many MNAs had said they did not like the way Bill-52 was worded, so the government “took that off the table and said you could vote on principle.”

“Eighty-four to 26 is nothing to celebrate,” he said. “This is still an unconstitutional bill. The government has to realise this bill will be challenged by the (federal) government, and by several physicians groups that are talking about challenging it.”