Lawyer claims euthanasia activists approaching vulnerable patients

Lawyer Tonio Azzopardi has alleged that pro-euthanasia activists are being allowed to approach vulnerable patients in hospitals in an effort to convince them to sign a petition in favour of the introduction of euthanasia. 


The lawyer filed a judicial protest this morning in his personal capacity, calling on the ministry of health to immediately end the practice.

“This attitude runs contrary to the right to life guaranteed by the European Convention act which transposes the European Convention on Human Rights into Maltese law,” the protest reads.

The court document claims that the ministry is trying to persuade people who are “burdened with illness, pain, fragile and with little hope” to “start professing a belief in favour of euthanasia and sign a petition in favour of the introduction of euthanasia in Malta.”

The document does not state on what information Azzopardi is basing the allegation on.

Azzopardi called on the defendant's Permanent Secretary to halt the alleged practice, arguing that strengthening a person's resolve to act illegally with the aim of bringing an end to a human life amounted to complicity in the act.