Pro Life Europe

The PACE resolution deals specifically with living wills and advance directives, documents crafted by healthy patients intended to guide their care when incapacitated. Advocates like Gregor Puppinck, who runs the Strasbourg-based European Center for Law and Justice, point out that living wills and advance directives are often used against patients and allow for “backdoor” mercy killings. The new resolution sets out a series of principles that should govern the practice in the member states of the Council of Europe. One of the principles is that “in case of doubt, the decision must always be pro-life and in favor of the prolongation of life.”