NETHERLANDS: FRANCE'S HEALTH MINISTER ADMITS EUTHANIZING PATIENTS HURT IN WAR

AMSTERDAM -- French Health Minister Bernard Kouchner was quoted Wednesday
as admitting he had practiced euthanasia on dying patients. He also urged
the decriminalization of marijuana in France.

Kouchner, a founder of the Nobel Peace prize-winning aid group Doctors
Without Borders, told the Dutch weekly Vrij Nederland that he had ended the
lives of patients during wars in Lebanon and Vietnam.

The minister said he took it on himself to end the lives of suffering
patients, and claimed the practice was secretly done often in France. But
he did not say he himself had practiced euthanasia in France, where it is
illegal. Euthanasia was legalized in the Netherlands earlier this year.

In war, faced with "situations of extreme suffering, of destitution, what
is one to do?" Kouchner said. "It is evident that one must behave in the
best possible way to ease pain," and that "this has nothing to do with the
debate over euthanasia."

He also admitted that he had used marijuana and said cannabis is less
dangerous than alcohol or cigarettes.