Published in Nacional number 770, 2010-08-17

Autor: Plamenko Cvitić

Amnon Carmi: 'Human cloning should be banned and euthanasia permitted'

AMNON CARMI photographed last week in Zagreb's Westin Hotel during the World Congress of Medicine and LawAMNON CARMI photographed last week in Zagreb's Westin Hotel during the World Congress of Medicine and LawAmnon Carmi (80) president of the World Medical Law Organisation, has over the last three decades been involved in the creation of some of the most internationally important laws relating to closing, stem cell research and artificial insemination. The culmination of his career was holding the post of president of the UNESCO Bioethics Committee. In Israel he chaired a committee that permitted the use of euthanasia several years ago. In 1964, he became the youngest judge in Israel, while paralleling building a career in international organisations, and he is considered to be the world's foremost expert in the fields of bioethics and medical law issues. Carmi was the most recognised expert to attend the recent World Congress of Medical Law held in Zagreb for 400 participants from 57 countries. Though he almost never gives interviews, he agreed to speak for Nacional on the greatest bioethical issues in world medicine.

NACIONAL: In the mid 1990s, you were part of a group of leading world legal experts who proposed to governments that human cloning should be prohibited. Is there a real danger of human cloning?

It is understood that this threat exists, moreover, due to this threat, the international legal systems have prohibited human cloning. The exceptions are a handful of countries that permit the cloning of organs for the purpose of treatment of disease. It is a question of how these people will be, physically and mentally, and how they will integrate into society. If you clone the first human, you will have opened a door that can no longer be closed, and will have dramatic implications for human society.

NACIONAL: More than a quarter of a century has passed since you published a book on euthanasia in 1984. What do you think about this issue today?

In one old text in which I wrote on the topic of euthanasia, I cited a phrase from the Bible "Live like a king and die like a king". In the Jewish faith, euthanasia is impermissible because my life does not belong to me, but to God. The issue of whether or not our body belongs to God in the final days, hours or minutes of our lives. There is also the issue of the pain these people are suffering. Just how humane is it to let them suffer until the final moment, if we know that medicine cannot help them, except to end their suffering. Today, it is implied that we live in a liberal society in which many believe that every person should personally decide how to live, and how to die. For me, the only intellectual and logical conclusion is to respect everyone's decision on how to end life. What makes me different from others who think the same way I do is that I respect the perspective of believers who believe that their lives belong to God and reject euthanasia. But we cannot wave our flags of liberalism and individualism, if all around us are there are people who think differently because of our faith.

NACIONAL: How is this issue solved in Israel?
We have made an experiment in which we are a unique country in the world. Several years ago, our government formed a committee with 60 experts in four areas. There were 15 each of leading legal experts, medical experts, philosophers and representatives of religious communities in Israel. I led the legal group and we met for an entire year to discuss the implications associated with the issues of euthanasia. Ultimately, we prepared a draft of the act on dealing with terminally ill patients, and the act was forwarded to the parliament. I personally will support euthanasia and those people who are ready to take a pill that would end their suffering. On the other hand, we also had to take into account the psychological dimension, because the job of doctors is to treat, and not to kill patients, just as we cannot ignore the possibility that the immediate family members might oppose the euthanasia of the person they love.

NACIONAL: And what was the solution you proposed?
Euthanasia is permitted in the new law.

NACIONAL: You were a judge for 27 years. Did you encounter such cases?
Never as a judge, but I am president of the Hospital Ethics Committee which decides, in some cases, on what to do with patients. One year ago, we received a request to accept the end of treatment for a terminally ill 70-year old patient. He was a prominent physician and head of a ward in a hospital, but unfortunately, he found himself in a terminal phase of illness and made it very clear to us how he wanted to die. I decided to ask his wife, which was one of the most difficult emotional situations I've ever experienced. We spoke at length and she told me that they had been together 50 years and respected one another their whole lives, and then she asked me how I could ask for her permission. But then there was their son, who listened through the whole conversation and at the end, told his mother that he would hate her for the rest of his life if she did not permit his father's euthanasia. After a long discussion, the Ethics Committee gave its consent but it was a very difficult experience.