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German parliament opens debate on assisted suicide
A debate began at the Bundestag on Thursday 2 July discussing assisted suicide, during which four draft bills were heard. Renate Künast of the Greens and Petra Sitte of the Left party put forward a bill which would give the ‘right’ to die to “any responsible adult who has been counselled by a doctor”. Patrick Sensberg of the Christian Democrats presented a draft that “sought to criminalize any sort of assisted suicide.” Michael Brand of the Christian Democrats and Kerstin Griese of the Social Democratic Party presented the most popular draft which sought a middle ground. The aim is to pass legislation by November. [Deutsche Welle, 2 July]
Scotland: MSPs launch inquiry into 'end of life' care
It has been reported that Scottish MPs will be examining palliative and end-of-life care. Following the rejection of the Assisted Suicide Scotland bill in May 2015, Holyrood's Health Committee will work towards providing “high quality care for the terminally ill”. MSPs Duncan McNeil and Bob Doris launched the inquiry. Mr McNeil said: "The recent debate on assisted dying highlighted that the provision of palliative care in Scotland is not good enough." [BBC, 2 July]
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