Voters may show no ‘mercy’ to Left

Poll time misinformation is at its best at a cathedral in Kochi. During a Good Friday mass, Auxiliary Bishop Joseph Karikkasseri told the faithful: “Satan has always been with Jesus... The government has introduced a bill to kill terminally-ill patients...”

The Kerala law reforms commission’s recommendation to legalise euthanasia is perhaps the subtlest of all in the Opposition’s armoury. While Catholic priests are doing their bit to castigate the LDF government, Congress workers have started a whisper campaign against the communists’ decision to “kill all aged and ailing people”. Evidently, the Left is in a fix.

The government, which appointed the commission when it came to power in 2006, has been trying to play down its recommendations, which include the formation of a trust to man the church’s riches.

The Kerala Catholic bishops’ conference issued a pastoral letter exhorting the flock to “use their votes with discretion”. It also asked them to choose “rulers who resist evils like abortion and euthanasia”. Law reforms commission chairman VR Krishna Iyer, however, clarified in a letter to Cardinal Varkey Vithayathil that the commission was “an independent body and was not influenced by state policies”.

The IPC (Kerala) amendment bill seeks to abolish section 309 (which penalises attempt to suicide) to legalise euthanasia. The bill clarifies that euthanasia will be considered homicide unless three state-recognised doctors certify that “death is the only salvation and preservation of life will be medically impossible”.

The Kerala terminally ill patients (medical treatment and protection of practitioners) bill states: “Every patient has a right to take an informed decision for withholding or withdrawing medical treatment supplied.”

Cardinal Vithayathil, however, stood his ground. “Active euthanasia cannot be morally justified. No man has a right to take a life,” he wrote to justice Iyer on April 7.