Careful!

Paternalism in the Apple Isle

Sat, 09 Feb 2013 06:45:32 GMT

Anyone who follows Australian politics and politics in general knows the old saying: never run an inquiry if you don’t know the outcome. Read more...

Big rise in Dutch euthanasia deaths

Mon, 08 Oct 2012 06:06:20 GMT

Just-released statistics for Dutch euthanasia in 2011 show that the number of psychiatric patients who died has skyrocketed from 2 in 2010 to 13 last year. Euthanasia for people with dementia also rose substantially, to 49. Read more...

Elder Abuse: Our most appalling crime

Sat, 29 Sep 2012 03:29:01 GMT

Congratulations to the Tasmanian Government for their announcements this week of an initiative to fight Elder Abuse in the island state. The 12 month project funded by the State Government to the tune of $120,000 will attempt to gauge the extent of the problem. Read more...

Swiss parliament rejects more regulation of assisted suicide

Fri, 28 Sep 2012 03:19:01 GMT

The lower house of the Swiss parliament has declined to tighten controls on assisted suicide. MPs felt that self-regulation by groups like Exit and Dignitas was enough. Read more...

New first for Belgium: prisoner euthanasia

Sun, 16 Sep 2012 11:24:25 GMT

No doubt about it: Belgium is the place to be for creative applications of legalised euthanasia. Last year Belgian transplant surgeons revealed that they had harvested organs from four people who were voluntarily euthanased. Now it appears that one prisoner, a rapist-murderer, has already died after voluntary euthanasia and another has requested it. Read more...

Tasmania launches elder abuse initiative

Wed, 29 Aug 2012 05:32:40 GMT

It's time for Premier Giddings to rethink her commitment to euthanasia legislation. Read more...

American sailor jailed over assisted suicide

Wed, 15 Aug 2012 03:28:34 GMT

Google "assisted suicide" on Google News and you can scroll through a number of current cases which have been discribed as "assisted suicide" or "mercy killing". As a particularly sordid example of how assisted suicide can be abused, consider the case of Gerard Curran and Paul Stephen Bricker, two American sailors living in Virginia. Read more...

South Australia: going for Gold!

Tue, 14 Aug 2012 03:16:50 GMT

With the London Olympics coming to a close and the questions about Australia’s overall lack of performance against high expectations, two South Australian MPs look certain to make sure that at least one Australian state holds a world record. If The Hon Bob Such Mp and Steph Key MP are true to their words on the ABC 7:30 Report (SA) recently, then they will both be introducing new euthanasia bills into the parliament when sitting resumes in September. These will be the sixth and seventh bills introduced since this parliament began in March 2010. Read more...

Lessons from Bonanza about mercy killing

Thu, 09 Aug 2012 12:48:55 GMT

The classic 60s family-friendly cowboy TV series Bonanza, about a patriarch and his three sons on a half a million acres in 1870s Nevada may not seem like a place to look for lessons about euthanasia. Read more...

Leading Massachusetts doctors go mano a mano over assisted suicide

Sun, 05 Aug 2012 12:11:46 GMT

On election day in November, Massachusetts will also vote on a referendum on assisted suicide – or, as its supporters call it, assisted dying. On July 31 Boston Globe featured parallel statements by a leading advocate of the measure and a leading foe. Read more...

Doubts emerge about Dutch guidelines for terminal sedation

Mon, 23 Jul 2012 11:59:49 GMT

Should deep, continuous sedation at the end of life really be treated as normal medical practice in the Netherlands, ask three Dutch authors in the Journal of Medical Ethics. Although they do not appear to oppose euthanasia, they argue that “morally problematic aspects inherent to palliative sedation do not get the attention they deserve” under current guidelines. Since palliative sedation accounted for more than 12% of deaths in the Netherlands in 2010, this is an important issue. Read more...

Right-to-die movement has split into two warring camps, says Nitschke

Fri, 20 Jul 2012 05:58:40 GMT

The right-to-die movement has split into two warring camps, according to Australian euthanasia activist Dr Philip Nitschke. Speaking at the annual conference of right-to-die societies in Zurich, he complained that half of the world federation’s board were critical of his attempts to create a do-it-yourself suicide technology. Read more...

Muddled picture of Dutch euthanasia

Mon, 16 Jul 2012 10:49:58 GMT

Euthanasia in the Netherlands is nothing much to worry about, according to The Lancet. The latest survey shows that the overall levels of euthanasia and assisted suicide are about the same now as they were in 2002, when euthanasia was legalised. A small increase since 2005 is just due to the fact that more people are requesting euthanasia. At least that was the spin in The Lancet's press release. Read more...

Terrific new website to combat euthanasia in Tasmania

Fri, 11 May 2012 04:22:19 GMT

The legalisation of euthanasia is a real possibility in the Australian state of Tasmania. But today’s media launch of a stunning new website could tip the balance in favour of opponents. Hopefully it will get widespread publicity. Read more...

Mickey Rooney highlights the danger of elder abuse

Fri, 20 Apr 2012 03:42:59 GMT

Mickey Rooney, the Hollywood icon who testified before the US Congress about his experience with elder abuse, stars in an 82-minute documentary, “Last Will and Embezzlement”. Read more...

Hard cases, great cases, and bad law

Tue, 17 Apr 2012 00:13:13 GMT

The UK case of the plight of Locked-In suffer, Tony Nicklinson, who is seeking to ‘change the existing understanding of the common law’ on assisted suicide (effectively, murder) is by any rendering a hard case. Read more...

Flags of convenience: autonomy, dignity

Wed, 11 Apr 2012 03:20:46 GMT

According to the newly released report, Dying with Dignity, co-signed by nine Quebec politicians, people are now ready to regard death through a new lens. Read more...

How voluntary is “voluntary”?

Tue, 03 Apr 2012 04:59:00 GMT

A criminologist at the University of Tasmania doubts that many people in the community will be able to give full and voluntary consent to ending their lives through euthanasia. The growing prevalence of elder abuse suggests that aged people could easily be manipulated. Read more...

Remembering the Nazi euthanasia of the disabled

Mon, 02 Apr 2012 03:25:00 GMT

The Italian Parliament has declared January 27 a "day of remembrance" for victims of Nazi ideology. In the first place, this means the Shoah, the extermination of 6 million Jews. But thousands of disabled people were also killed between 1940 and 1941 until protests by locals and the Bishop of Münster, Clemens von Galen. This video is a timely reminder of how indifferent we can become to the lives of the disabled. Read more...

Oregon releases murky assisted suicide stats

Wed, 28 Mar 2012 05:21:43 GMT

Oregon’s public health division has released statistics on deaths under its physician-assisted suicide (PAS)legislation for 2011. Read more...

UK locked-in patient may set dangerous euthanasia precedent

Mon, 12 Mar 2012 23:55:15 GMT

Legal action brought by a locked-in syndrome sufferer, who wants a doctor to be able to end his ‘intolerable’ life lawfully, can go ahead following a judge's ruling today. The Ministry of Justice had previously argued that the case should be struck out on the grounds that it is a matter for Parliament, rather than the courts, to decide. But the judge's ruling today means that Mr Nicklinson's case will go to a full hearing, where medical evidence can be heard. Read more...

Questions asked about euthanasia for brain-damaged Dutch prince

Sat, 03 Mar 2012 12:00:09 GMT

Dutch Prince Johan Friso, brain-damaged after being buried by an avalanche in Austria last month, has been transferred to Wellington Hospital, in London. Doctors believe that the 43-year-old is unlikely to recover consciousness, although will be weeks before they have a clear idea of his prospects. Read more...

Santorum sparks controversy over Dutch euthanasia

Fri, 02 Mar 2012 12:44:09 GMT

So when US presidential hopeful Rick Santorum described the state of euthanasia in the Netherlands on February 3 in a forum in Missouri, he failed to kick a goal. In fact, the Washington Post fact checker, who is the son of Dutch migrants and whose uncle was euthanased, disparaged his “bogus statistics” and awarded him four Pinicchios. He was ridiculed in the New York Times and on Radio Netherlands. Read more...

Sarkozy draws line in sand over euthanasia

Tue, 21 Feb 2012 05:07:00 GMT

The two candidates in France’s presidential election are using euthanasia as one of the defining differences in the campaign. In a wide-ranging interview in Le Figaro, President Nicolas Sarkozy explained why he would not back it: Read more...

“Not a good look”

Mon, 20 Feb 2012 04:58:44 GMT

Not a good look” said euthanasia activist Philip Nitschke to an ABC news journalist. He was referring to the fact that Merin Nielsen, the man convicted last week in a Brisbane court of the assisted suicide of Frank Ward in 2009 was the sole beneficiary of Ward’s estate. Read more...

Nitschke in headlines again

Tue, 27 Sep 2011 00:55:20 GMT

For some time now, Philip Nitschke has been claiming that he had ‘discovered’ a ‘loophole’ in the Therapeutic Goods Administration’s procedures and protocols that would allow him to import the drug Nembutal into Australia. Read more...

Bulgarian parliament spurns euthanasia

Mon, 05 Sep 2011 01:09:03 GMT

The Bulgarian Parliament has rejected a euthanasia bill by a vote of 59 to 13, with 29 abstentions. Read more...

The Dignity in Dying blog has opted for assisted suicide after apparently suffering unbearably

Mon, 08 Aug 2011 07:00:15 GMT

The Uk's Dignity in Dying blog has opted for assisted suicide after apparently suffering unbearably from a terminal condition. Read more...

Will British Medical Assoc spurn “bogus” commission on assisted dying?

Tue, 28 Jun 2011 00:06:05 GMT

Former Lord Chancellor Charles Falconer (pictured) appeared on the Radio Four Sunday programme this morning. His controversial ‘commission on assisted dying’ will begin to consider the ‘evidence’ it has gathered this coming Wednesday. Read more...

Why the disabled fear assisted suicide: Dominic Lawson

Thu, 23 Jun 2011 19:43:07 GMT

Last week’s BBC broadcast of the suicide of 71-year-old Peter Smedley in Switzerland was a public relations triumph for campaigner Sir Terry Pratchett. “This has been a happy event,” he told the BBC. But journalist Dominic Lawson took issue with this in the Independent: Read more...

Advice from Vermont

Wed, 22 Jun 2011 07:25:48 GMT

True Dignity Vermont represents citizens opposed to the legalization of assisted suicide in their state. For a small site it packs a lot of punch, with well-reasoned posts. Check it out! Here TDV lists six reasons why assisted suicide should not be supported: Read more...

Russian Orthodox church speaks out on euthanasia

Mon, 20 Jun 2011 01:41:37 GMT

Euthanasia does not appear to be a very lively issue in Russia, although it has appeared in the media from time to time. Recently Archpriest Vsevolod Chaplin, a spokesman for the Moscow Patriarchate gave the position of the Russian Orthodox Church: Read more...

Catholic bishops in Australia and US slate assisted suicide

Sat, 18 Jun 2011 14:30:38 GMT

The Catholic Church, one of the most consistent opponents of assisted suicide and euthanasia, has fired two broadsides in Australia and the US. In Sydney Cardinal George Pell, an Oxford PhD with a high profile, issued a letter denouncing euthanasia, as it is on the agenda in several Australian parliaments. He warned of a slippery slope: Read more...

20 things you might not know about assisted suicide in Europe

Thu, 16 Jun 2011 06:58:03 GMT

The Sunday Times, in line with its new editorial policy, ran a typically effusive article last weekend about last night’s ‘documentary’ in which we saw a British man, Peter Smedley, kill himself on screen by drinking poison at the Dignitas suicide facility near Zurich. Earlier this year I suggested that the BBC was acting in the role of cheerleader for assisted suicide through its partisan coverage of this issue; and I blogged earlier about how this particular programme was further evidence of BBC bias and would fuel more suicides by way of the Werther effect. But I was also interested to see Mr Pratchett’s (brief) description in the Sunday Times about how the documentary came to be made in the first place. ‘Late last year the BBC, which had earlier transmitted my Dimbleby lecture on assisted dying, asked me to "learn something about assisted dying practices elsewhere in Europe" and also to speak to Britons who had signed up with Dignitas… Of course I said yes.’ Here are twenty things the programme did not tell us about assisted suicide and euthanasia in Europe: Read more...

Belgian doctors are using organs from euthanased patients

Mon, 13 Jun 2011 08:35:36 GMT

Using organs from euthanased patients seem to have become a well established procedure in Belgium, only nine years after it was legalized. A press release from a team at a hospital in Leuven announced last week that it had successfully transplanted lungs from four euthanased patients between 2007 and 2009. Read more...

BBC to broadcast Swiss suicide

Wed, 08 Jun 2011 02:32:33 GMT

The BBC’s decision to screen a man's dying moments at the Dignitas suicide facility in a documentary fronted by Terry Pratchett has already come under heavy criticism. A five-minute sequence in the BBC2 programme, due to be shown on 13 June, shows celebrity author Pratchett witnessing Peter, a British man in his early 70s who has motor neurone disease, taking his own life at the controversial Swiss facility. Read more...

Suicide hero Kevorkian dies at 83

Mon, 06 Jun 2011 01:35:36 GMT

At the age of 83, after helping at least 130 people to commit suicide, medical pathologist Jack Kevorkian, has passed away in a hospital bed in Michigan. He died without "assistance". Read more...

London Times errs in backing assisted suicide

Thu, 02 Jun 2011 00:26:20 GMT

The Times newspaper has this week devoted two whole pages and an editorial to the pro-assisted suicide cause just as Dignity in Dying (formerly the Voluntary Euthanasia Society) is launching its latest propaganda barrage on parliament with the mailing of a new booklet to all MPs and Peers. Read more...

What we all need is a user-friendly euthanasia clinic, says Nitschke

Thu, 19 May 2011 13:47:09 GMT

Euthanasia activist Philip Nitschke has reiterated his determination to set up “Exit clinics” where people can organise their deaths – as soon as legislation is passed in Tasmania or South Australia. Writing this week in Online Opinion, an Australian web magazine, Dr Nitschke says: Read more...

TV soaps and real life quadriplegics

Thu, 19 May 2011 02:06:42 GMT

The problem with television dramas is that they make rare events appear common and so distort public opinion on key issues. It's true of death from heart attacks. And it's true of suicide after paralysis. Read more...

Rollercoaster to death

Wed, 18 May 2011 00:36:00 GMT

“And now for something completely different” is a Monty Python catch phrase which seems both true and inadequate for the brainchild of a Lithuanian inventor at Imperial College London. Julijonas Urbonas has designed a euthanasia roller coaster. Read more...

Don’t pull down the fence!

Tue, 17 May 2011 11:43:23 GMT

On May 17 I was invited by the Sydney University Union to speak at a ‘Q & A style’ debate on the issue of euthanasia & assisted suicide. With me on the ‘no’ side was Dr. Andrew Pesce, President of the Australian Medical Association who spoke exceptionally well about why the AMA does not support euthanasia & assisted suicide. On the ‘yes’ side were Dr Philip Nitschke and NSW Greens MLC, Cate Faehrmann. Following is my text: Read more...

Zurich voters want assisted suicide to stay

Tue, 17 May 2011 00:27:11 GMT

Voters in Zurich, Switzerland, have today rejected proposed bans on assisted suicide and ‘suicide tourism’. A proposal to restrict access for foreigners to assisted suicide only to those living at least one year in the canton was rejected by 78.4 percent of voters. Read more...

Scotland’s “assisted dying” campaigner back in saddle

Sat, 14 May 2011 08:41:08 GMT

I see that Margo MacDonald has been re-elected as a member of the Scottish Parliament (MSP) and has vowed to revive proposals for a law to legalise ‘assisted dying’ (a specious euphemism for assisted suicide and euthanasia). Her previous End of Life Assistance (Scotland) bill was overwhelmingly voted down by an 85-16 majority in November 2010 during the last parliament amidst concerns about the dangers it posed to elderly and disabled people. Read more...

Disabled people fear change in UK assisted suicide law

Sat, 14 May 2011 08:32:07 GMT

LONDON: Changing the law on assisted suicide would put pressure on disabled people to kill themselves, according to new research. The new Comres poll found that 70 per cent of disabled people were concerned that such a change would lead to ‘pressure being placed on disabled people to end their lives prematurely’ Read more...

South Australian euthanasia bill has a competitor

Fri, 13 May 2011 08:24:09 GMT

Last week’s headline in the South Australian Advertiser: “Bill to allow euthenasia (sic) in limited circumstances” looks likely to fail in Parliament was a welcome, if not entirely true, statement. The bill in question, Steph Key’s Criminal Law Consolidation (Medical Defences—End Of Life Arrangements) Amendment Bill, has indeed taken some heavy blows of late. I’ve reported before of the doctor’s group publicly opposing the bill and the Law Society expressing their reservations. Into the mix Dr. Nitschke’s interventions seem to have played against the bill and the rushed second reading vote (later rescinded) must surely have added to MPs’ reservations. Read more...

The faulty diagnosis trap

Fri, 13 May 2011 03:44:56 GMT

An incredible story reported in this week's press underscores yet again why we never should legalise euthanasia. It is in fact a bittersweet story, because it could have ended up with such a horrible outcome. Instead it was a delightful and joyous outcome. The story concerns an Australian woman who was reported to be brain dead, and was about to go six feet under, were it not for the intervention of her concerned husband. Here is how the story goes: Read more...

Hullo, how can we help you today?

Fri, 29 Apr 2011 05:03:55 GMT

Why is an offshoot of a UK euthanasia pressure group launching a ‘how-to-die’ helpline? Read more...

From a doctor who changed her mind

Sat, 09 Apr 2011 07:07:41 GMT

Dr Diane E. Meier is one of America’s leading palliative care physicians. She is Director of the Center to Advance Palliative Care (CAPC) at the Mount Sinai Medical Center in New York City and is the recipient of numerous awards. She was once an advocate of assisted suicide, but has changed her mind. Here are some remarks she made last month at a community seminar in Vermont. Read more...

Nurses union boss endorses euthanasia

Thu, 07 Apr 2011 04:48:09 GMT

Nurses are the front line of health care so their views on euthanasia matter a lot. That’s why it was so surprising to read an editorial in the Australian Nursing Journal by the president of the Australian Nursing Federation, Coral Levett, which endorses it wholeheartedly. It is a personal endorsement, but since her union has 200,000 members, her personal views are likely to influence policy-making within the Australian Labor Party, and even in the Gillard government. Read more...