PARIS, November 28 (IslamOnline.net) - The French parliament is presently debating a draft bill legalizing euthanasia in the case of incurable illness.

The bill, a copy of which was obtained by IslamOnline.net, stipulates that a doctor must respect the wish of a person suffering from an incurable disease to stop the treatment, even if that leads to his death.

It also entitles the same right to the family of comatose patients.

According to the bill, if a patient suffering from an incurable illness is conscious, he can say when he wants to end the treatment.

He can also express a written order to be followed in case he becomes comatose.

Such orders must date from within three years of being implemented. Otherwise the decision will be taken by family members in consultation with doctors.

The bill also says doctors can prescribe pain-stopping drugs for a terminally ill patient, even if the medication, such as morphine, increased the patient's risk of dying.

The parliament is expected to vote on the new bill on Tuesday, November 30.

French health Minister Philippe Douste-Blazy believes the legislation will clarify existing medical practice in French hospitals.

“In 2004, 100,000 life-support machines will be switched off in France although there is no legal framework to say how it should be done,” he said.

Reacting to the draft law, members of the sizable Muslim community said the euthanasia draft bill is of no concern for them because it is a personal decision.

“The only case of euthanasia approved by the European Council for Fatwa and Research is when the patient is brain-dead and his case is absolutely incurable,” Ounis Qarqah, a council member, told IOl.

“This is the only case when the life-support equipment can be switched off,” he added.

Mohammad Al-Mastiri, the director of the Paris-based institute of Islamic thought, said euthanasia is a clear example of problems facing Muslim minorities in the west.

He said as long as it remains a personal decision Muslims in France, and Europe in general, would not have any problem with the bill.

Euthanasia become a national issue in 2003 when Vincent Humbert, a 22-year old crippled man sent a letter to President Jacques Chirac begging to allow his mother to end his life.

Humbert, a fireman, was injured in a road accident, leaving him blind, mute, paralyzed and in constant pain.

Marie Humbert, Vincent's mother, tried to kill her son with a lethal injection.

When she failed, Humbert’s doctor, Frédéric Chaussoy, took him off a life-support machine. He died in September last year.

Dr Chaussoy has been placed under formal investigation over his patient’s death and faces the prospect of trial.

The issue was raised once again in France when the late Palestinian President Yasser Arafat was admitted to the Percy military hospital for treatment.

Tayseer al-Tamimi, Chief Palestinian Judge, visited the veteran leader in hospital and said it was forbidden to switch off life-support machines he had reportedly been kept on.