On May 13th, the MPs in Finland rejected a draft bill to legalize euthanasia by a vote of 129 to 60.
This bill had been submitted by a member of the National Assembly following a citizens’ initiative calling for euthanasia to be legalized. The Parliament preferred to support the Social Affairs and Health Commission’s recommendation to create a working group to improve palliative care, and thus voted against legalizing euthanasia.
In Europe, euthanasia has only been legalized in a small minority of countries: the Netherlands, Belgium and Luxembourg.