On June 3, 2021, the Russian Christian Humanitarian Academy in St. Petersburg hosted a roundtable discussion, “Secular and Christian Humanism: Pro et Contra. The Challenge of Euthanasia.” The participants tried to outline the boundaries and contents of the said topic based on a secular or religious worldview.Hosts:
Religion expert Vladimir Yegorov
Philosopher Kira Preobrazhenskaya
Guests:
– Ivan Laptev, Bishop of The Evangelical Lutheran Church of Ingria.
– Vera Tsys, Christian minister, psychologist with TBN public TV channel, TV host.
– Mikhail Monkevich, Cand. Sc. (Philology), head of the research department of The Union of Christians, an association of evangelical Christian churches.
– Pannyaavudho Topper thera, monk of Theravada.ru Buddhist community.
One of the reasons for the meeting was the legalization of euthanasia in Spain. Spain has become the world’s sixth and Europe’s fourth country to legalize euthanasia. Previously, this was done by Belgium, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Canada, and Columbia. Euthanasia is also allowed in some of the US states. In January 2021, the Portuguese parliament passed a euthanasia legalization bill, however Portugal’s constitutional court blocked it on March 16.