Assisted Suicide

Euthanasia

The Catholic Church opposes policies that promote or encourage euthanasia and assisted suicide and supports efforts to provide compassionate, ethical care to the elderly and ill.

10 Dangerous Myths About Legalizing Assisted Suicide

From the Compassionate Choice website

1. Suicide is a medical procedure that needs to be supervised by a doctor.

Suicide is by definition something you do yourself. If you involve someone else, that person becomes an accessory to murder, even if that person is a doctor.

2. Terminally ill people suffer from excruciating pain, which is why they want to end their lives.

Pain relief for the terminally ill is better than ever. Nurses and doctors use a looser set of rules for morphine and other highly-controlled substances than they do for ordinary care, because terminally ill people do not live long enough to become drug addicts. It is possible to choose to be completely sedated and to shun all visitors while you are dying. Oncologist Dr. Desiree Pardi chose this way when she was dying.[i]

In one study of Oregon patients who wanted assisted suicide, no one wanted to have an assisted suicide because they were in immediate pain[ii]. Their main reasons were depression, becoming a burden, and not having family or friends to help them. The issue of isolation and despair is an issue of compassion that society needs to address. Encouraging people to commit suicide is not a compassionate answer.

3. Physician-assisted suicide is a legal “right”.

You don’t need a doctor to commit suicide, and in that way, it is nothing like abortion rights, gay rights, or civil rights. You already have the power to commit suicide. No one can stop you. No one is going to prosecute you if you succeed.

4. Physician-assisted suicide is a more dignified way of death than dying naturally.

This is a judgment and not a scientific fact.

Final Exit sells a suicide kit that looks like a plastic dry cleaning bag you put over your head.[iii]

How dignified is that?

5. Laws can be written in such a way that there will be no abuse of the elderly or handicapped.

Any lawyer can tell you that there is no way to write a law legalizing assisted suicide without opening the way to abuse, especially elder abuse. The proposed law in Massachusetts provides that two doctors sign off on each case of suicide. Hitler’s regime passed the same law. Doctors rubber-stamped every application, and the Nazis began their killing spree with the terminally ill, and moved on to the insane, the developmentally handicapped, the very elderly, gay people, etc. (F-4)

Today where assisted suicide is already legal, accurate records and follow up on abuses are simply not being done. In several cases where a depressed person should have been examined by a psychiatrist, the family just filled out the psychological test forms themselves.

6. Everyone who opposes assisted suicide does it based on religious beliefs.

We are a motley crew that cannot agree on anything, except that legalizing medical suicide is wrong. Though some of us are nuns and priests, some are doctors and nurses who hate the idea of executing our patients, some are lawyers specializing in elder abuse, some of us are activists in the disability rights movement, some of us are artists, some of us are scholars who oppose legalizing killing based on a study of history, some of us support Obamacare and some of us don’t. We are citizens of the USA, Britain, Belgium, France, Canada, Africa, and every country in the world.

Martin Sheen, who starred as a Democratic president on TV’s West Wing, did commercials for free against legalizing assisted suicide. How cool is it to have him playing with our team?

Compassion & Choices, the group promoting assisted suicide, has a $5 million annual budget. Their director is paid $147,000 a year. [iv]

We are unpaid volunteers.

7. If you are against legalizing euthanasia and assisted suicide, it means that you want to force people to undergo medical care, even when it is expensive and will do them no good.

Many people are against legalizing assisted suicide, but for informed choices by terminally ill people.

While some people voluntarily decide to stop all aggressive treatments and opt only for pain relief and palliative end-of-life care, the majority of people want everything possible done. Whether society can afford all these treatments is a different question than whether society should encourage end-of-life suicides for cost-effectiveness.

8. Offering terminally-ill people suicide is an act of compassion.

Barbara Wagner and Randy Stroup didn’t think so. Both had cancer, and both got letters from the state of Oregon that said the state would not pay for their chemotherapy because they had such low odds of surviving. However, Oregon would pay for their suicide. Wagner and Stroup did not find these letters compassionate. They found these letters outrageous. Offering them suicide only increased their suffering.[v]

9. Assisted suicide will never become mandatory medical treatment.

10. If it does become mandatory treatment, it can’t happen to me.

Massachusetts Ballot Prop Promoting Assisted Suicide Gets OK

Attorney General Martha Coakley announced today the list of ballot proposals that will make their way on the 2012 ballot and one initiative would promote assisted suicide in the state.

All proposals now much be backed by the signatures of 68,911 states residents, which backers of the assisted suicide imitative must obtain by mid-November in order to move ahead to the next step. If they receive enough signatures, members of the state legislature can decide whether or not to pass any of them as legislation. Those that do not receive legislative approval must obtain another 11,485 signatures in order to qualify for the 2012 election.

The certification from Coakley’s office today is not an indication that she endorses the measure, merely a rubber stamp of approval that it meets the legal requirements necessary of all ballot proposals.

The so-called Massachusetts Death with Dignity Act would allow doctors to prescribe lethal drugs to patients with less than six months to live — officially making Massachusetts the third state, following Oregon and Washington, to legalize assisted suicide. read more LifeNews

US assisted suicide group opens campaign for voluntary starvation

Campaigners for voluntary euthanasia and assisted suicide seem to be trying to make them more acceptable by blurring the moral boundaries. In the Netherland, terminal sedation – death by starvation under heavy sedation – is an increasingly ppular with doctors. Now Compassion & Choices, an American lobby group, has launched a public relations campaign for VSED, voluntarily stopping eating and drinking.

Barbara Coombs Lee, its president, says that this method is “universally available, legal, safe, painless and suitable for a gentle parting in one’s own home with loved ones present.”

Hunger-striking or fasting to death is a familiar political tactic, and is popularly regarded as suicide. In India Anna Hazare has just begun a hunger strike in New Delhi to force the government to crack down on corruption. In Guantánamo Bay, detainees were force-fed to keep them from starving to death. Bobby Sands and nine other IRA activists died in prison of self-imposed starvation in 1981.

So when Armond and Dorothy Rudolph, a New Mexico couple in their 90s, began VSED in January, the staff of their assisted living facility evicted them. They moved into a home where they continued fasting. They died about ten days later. read more BioEdge

Billionaire Alki David Pays Rights to Brodcast Legally Assisted Suicide

Broadcast Live From the BattleCam website Eccentric Billionaire Alki David has paid for the Rights to Live Stream the Legal Assisted Suicide of a Terminally Sick Brain Cancer Patient on the website http://www.Battlecam.com/alkidavid

On Friday July 29th at 9 PM EST Eccentric Billionaire Alki David will stream the legally assisted suicide of Nikolai Ivanisovich (62), who is terminally sick with brain cancer from a clinic in Switzerland with the use of lethal injection administered by a physician.

Recently in June 2011, the BBC documentary chronicling the assisted suicide of 71-year-old Peter Smedley which was aired in the UK. "The BattleCam broadcast which will stream the end of life in real-time, live and as as it happens. Thi is a breakthrough in consciousness on what we watch and how we watch it" said Claude Haraser VP of BattleCam Operations.

The terminally ill man Mr. Nikolai Ivanisovich said in an interview with Russia Today that, "I am grateful to Mr. David and his team for making this possible. My family will be able to live in prosperity after I pass. May God bless Mr. David for his kindness and generosity." read more

"We are creating a new form of interactive special interest with Battlecam's unique voting system," said Alki David. "the online audience will actually vote whether they want to see the suicide or not."

Finding a Justification for Assisted Suicide that Trades on Our Worst Fears

An op-ed for TIME magazine by two bioethicist from a notoriously anti-life think tank lays out the case that when reliable tests can detect the very beginnings of Alzheimer’s, it will be “time to listen to and take seriously those people who, upon seeing their own parents spend years, even decades, suffering with Alzheimer’s, say that they refuse to expose their partner or children to the same.”

Erik Parens is a Senior Research Scholar at The Hastings Center and Josephine Johnston is a Research Scholar at the same think tank. The headline to their op-ed tells the reader where they are headed: “As Tests to Predict Alzheimer’s Emerge, So May Debates Over the Right to Die.”

They tell us—way too happily for my taste—that “Tests are coming that promise to detect the beginning of Alzheimer’s before symptoms of dementia have developed, when the individual is still lucid and competent.” There is a throwaway paragraph explaining why such a diagnosis does not necessarily mean a baby boomer should have a “frank discussion” about assisted suicide and a second about a possible “slippery slope.” But that’s just filler. read more NRTL News

Oregon Governor Signs Bill Banning Sale of Suicide Kits

Governor John Kitzhaber has put the state of Oregon in the position of allowing assisted suicide but stopping the sale of so-called suicide kits — hoods or other items people can use to kill themselves.

Oregon is the first state to pass legislation prohibiting the kits and the new law goes into effect immediately now that Kitzhaber has signed it into law. The new law makes it a Class B felony to “knowingly sell, or otherwise transfer for consideration, any substance or object to another person for the purpose of assisting the other person to commit suicide” and those who violate the law face 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine.

Sen. Floyd Prozanski, a Eugene Democrat, introduced the measure following the death of a 29-year-old Oregon resident, Nick Klonoski, who, Euthanasia Prevention Coalition director Alex Schadenberg said “lived with chronic depression and died of suicide after ordering a suicide kit from a group called GLADD in California.” read more LifeNews

Jesuit University Professors Promoting Assisted Suicide

Although the nation’s Catholic bishops recently released a new statement condemning assisted suicide and promoting efforts to help patients and the elderly find positive alternatives, a new report from a Catholic educational watchdog group finds assisted suicide advocates are teaching at Jesuit universities across the country.

The Cardinal Newman Society report shows the promotion of the anti-life practice despite the release last Thursday by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops of the paper called “To Live Each Day with Dignity: A Statement on Physician-Assisted Suicide.” The bishops cautioned about an “aggressive nationwide campaign” promoted by “assited suicide proponents.”

Published Tuesday in Crisis Magazine, the Cardinal Newman Society report has CNS president Patrick Reilly uncovering scandalous associations between the assisted suicide movement and current and recent professors at four major Jesuit universities: Georgetown University, Marquette University, Santa Clara University and Boston College. read more LifeNews

Oregon Votes to Outlaw Sale of Suicide Kits

Sales of suicide kits, like the do-it-yourself asphyxiation hood used by a man to kill himself late last year, could soon be outlawed in the state of Oregon.

The state's House of Representative passed the bill on Monday to ban the products. It must now be considered in the state Senate, which passed similar legislation in May.

Sponsors say the bill would in no way impinge on a landmark 1997 state law legalizing physician-assisted suicides for terminally ill individuals in Oregon.

Washington is the only other state with such a statute on the books.

The newly passed Oregon bill was sparked by notoriety surrounding an elderly California woman who sells self-asphyxiation kits through a mail-order business, and the December suicide of one of her customers from Eugene, Oregon, 29-year-old Nicholas Klonoski. read more FoxNews

Assisted Suicide Support Drops to Lowest Level in 8 Years

Gallup released the results of its latest poll today evaluating the views of Americans on various controversial issues or decisions and whether Americans believe they are morally wrong or morally acceptable.

It found the percentage of people who say “doctor-assisted suicide” is morally acceptable has dropped to its lowest level in 8 years. Currently, 48 percent of Americans say “doctor-assisted suicide” is morally wrong while just 45 percent say it is morally okay. The views of Americans on the subject has bounced around slightly over the years with a majority of 51 percent in 2008 saying the practice is morally acceptable. The last time just 45 percent of Americans said it was all right was 2003. read more LifeNews

How We Will Fight Not to Die in Vermont

We are about to be subjected to multiple HBO screenings of a
film called “How to Die in Oregon” that won the prize for best documentary at
the Sundance Film festival this year in spite (or perhaps because?) of being a
transparent ad for assisted suicide.

Yesterday, a pro-assisted-.com-suicide Vermont website, www.vtdigger.com, ran a video clip that shows our governor
speaking after a showing of the film, insisting once again that he hopes to sign a bill legalizing it during this legislative biennium. The governor notes that Shap Smith, the Speaker of the Vermont House, is in the audience and supports the bill. Here we have another clear warning that we cannot afford to lose our focus or will to fight during the legislative recess.

We were offended by the governor’s filmed jokes about how his apparently healthy but aged parents haven’t responded as he would have. read more TrueDignityVermont

Oregon Senate Votes to Stop Sale of “Suicide Kits,” Hoods

Assisted suicide is perfectly fine in Oregon, the first state to legalize the grisly practice, but the sale of so-called “suicide kits” — hoods or other items people can use to kill themselves — has been prohibited.

Members of the Oregon Senate on Monday voted to ban the sale of the kits in a bill passed unanimously in response to the death of 29-year-old Eugene resident Nick Klonoski, who killed himself after using a kit he purchased from a company in California. The bill prohibits the sale or transfer of “any substance or objects to another person knowing that the other person intends to use” it to commit suicide.

The kits cost about $60 and contain a plastic bag that fits over a person’s head and a tube the person can use to connect the bag to a tank of helium gas. Although the Oregon assisted suicide law requires a doctor to write a prescription for the lethal drugs people used to take their lives, the kits can be purchased without a prescription, mental health evaluation or any other safeguards. read more Life News

Boston billboard promotes euthanasia

Drivers exiting the Callahan Tunnel in East Boston this month could view a billboard suggesting that in order to die with dignity one must do so on one's own terms.

Paid for by the Final Exit Network, the black sign with white letters reads, "Irreversible Illness? Unbearable suffering? Die With Dignity." It is part of a nation-wide campaign to legalize physician-assisted suicide.

"Obviously, they are targeting Massachusetts and New England states, trying to find some low hanging fruit to get some kind of suicide bill on the agenda," said Kristian Mineau, president of the Massachusetts Family Institute. "Hopefully the citizens of this state are wise enough to understand the horrific dangers of this."

Mineau said that such legislation would turn doctors into executioners.

The assisted suicide group's views and those of the Church could not be more diametrically opposed. The Catholic faith affirms the inherent value and dignity of all people, including those who are suffering and dying. Also, the Church teaches that God, the author of life, chooses our time of death.read more BostonPilot

Idaho Senate passes bill clarifying that assisted suicide is illegal

An article in the Idaho Statesman reported last Friday on the vote on the Idaho Senate on bill SB 1070, the bill that clarifies in the Idaho criminal code that assisted suicide is illegal. Bill SB 1070 passed by a vote of 31 to 2 in the Idaho Senate.

My previous article reported that SB 1070 was unanimously supported in the Idaho Senate Affairs committee.

The article stated:

After a sober and emotional debate, the Idaho Senate on Friday passed a bill making assisted suicide a felony punishable by 5 years in prison on a 31 - 2 vote Friday.

Idaho Senator Russ Fulcher (R - Meridian) who sponsored the bill, told the media that now the bill will go to the house.

The senators who voted against the bill were Sen. Nicole LeFavour, D-Boise, and Sen. Diane Bilyeu, D-Pocatello who stated that the measure goes too far.

Bill SB 1070 is supported by the Idaho Medical Association. The bill clearly states that withholding or withdrawing medical treatment and the aggressive use of pain management drugs are not assisted suicide and are not discouraged by the bill.

The bill clarifies that intentionally prescribing a lethal dose or counseling a person to commit suicide is a crime in Idaho. lifesite

Hospice Under Financial Pressure as Advocates Push Assisted Suicide

Connect the dots: Legalized assisted suicide costs about $100 for the drugs, and perhaps $1000 for the medical review. Assisted suicide is pushed unremittingly across the country, and is currently a big fight in Vermont.

Hospice, costs much more, because rather than discarding the patient to a drug overdose, hospice doctors, nurses, chaplains, home health care workers, social workers, and others care for the whole patient–providing palliative symptom management, spiritual and social services, suicide prevention, personal hygiene assistance, and the like. But pending cuts are threatening hospices, particularly in rural areas. From the National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization’s warning:

An independent study focusing on the projected margins of the hospice community found that, as a result of two recent cuts to Medicare reimbursement, the first regulatory and the second statutory, the overall median Medicare profit margin for the hospice community could decrease from 2 percent in 2008 to -14 percent by 2019. Further, analysis concludes that 88 percent of hospice programs could have negative margins by the same date.

Montana Lawmakers Will Consider Bills on Assisted Suicide

After the Montana Supreme Court made the state the third to allow the practice of assisted suicide, state lawmakers want their say and will consider legislation on both sides of the debate.

The high court did not determine if the Montana constitution guarantees a right to assisted suicide but said nothing in state law or the precedent of the court prevented assisted suicide.

The decision essentially had Montana joining Oregon and Washington as the only three states in the nation to allow assisted suicides. It declared assisted suicide as legal and could prevent doctors from almost any prosecution for engaging in them.

Rep. Dick Barrett, a Missoula Democrat, will introduce legislation this session to implement the decision, according to a Missoulian report. LifeNews read more

Minn. Judge Refuses To Dismiss Aided Suicide Case

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) - A former Minnesota nurse who prosecutors say sought out depressed people in Internet chat rooms and encouraged two of them to kill themselves won't get his case dismissed on free speech grounds, a judge ruled Tuesday.

William Melchert-Dinkel, 48, of Faribault, is charged with two counts of aiding suicide, for allegedly advising and encouraging an English man and a Canadian woman to take their own lives.

His attorney had asked that the case be dismissed, saying Melchert-Dinkel had no direct participation in any suicides, and that his e-mail and Internet conversations involved protected speech. Rice County District Judge Thomas Neuville disagreed, saying in a 21-page ruling that speech that aids the suicide of another is not protected by the First Amendment.

The judge said Minnesota law doesn't prevent people from "expressing opinions or discussing suicide," but it does make it a crime to participate in a narrow and precise type of speech - speech that "intentionally and directly advises, encourages or aids a specific person to end their own life." read more

Openly Pro-Assisted Suicide Proponent Elected Governor in Vermont

The situation in Vermont is dire. While most of the country experienced pro-life victories, Vermont, in keeping with its quirky reputation, went in the opposite direction.

The November 2nd general election placed the Legislature and the governorship squarely in the hands of pro-suicide forces. Pro-life Lt. Governor Brian Dubie lost the race for governor by only a few thousand votes. His narrow loss now means Peter Shumlin, an openly pro-abortion, pro-assisted suicide candidate, is now governor-elect.

Shumlin has made it clear in the past that he believes that the issue of assisted suicide is not about pain, but about people who are no longer ""productive." Shumlin vowed throughout the campaign that if elected he would sign a bill to legalize assisted suicide in 2011.

Shumlin publicly stated, "people often confuse this issue with what actually happens. As an example, the person that comes to mind when you talk about this bill is .....(people) in such incredible pain. Turns out that in the state of Oregon, that's not the case. It isn't people who are in extraordinary pain that make this choice. It's people who in the very last weeks of their lives absolutely lose control over their own bodies, their lives, they no longer have the capability to in anyway live with dignity." (Mark Johnson Radio Show 2/22/07)

Within hours of the final results, the Death with Dignity forces announced that they were ready to push their legislation in the early months of the new session which will begin January 4, 2011. Worse yet, they declared new financial support from Oregon Death with Dignity's National Center in Portland to the tune of $100,000.00. Here's the press release:

"Death With Dignity National Center officially announces the next Death with Dignity campaign!

After years of working in collaboration with supporters in Vermont, we're ready to publicly proclaim the high chance of success in the Green Mountain State.

Public opinion polls in Vermont show 82% of the populace supports Death with Dignity; during the last biennium, 68 legislators were willing to sign on as co-sponsors of Death with Dignity legislation.

And as of today, Vermont boasts a new governor-elect, Pete Shumlin, who has repeatedly stated in no uncertain terms he will champion terminally ill patients' rights to decide to die with dignity.

In concrete terms, we are talking about the potential for a Vermont Death with Dignity law in 2011! NRTL more

Non Cooperation With Washington-State Assisted Suicide a Success

from Wesley J Smith

After Washington voters unwisely legalized assisted suicide, I said the battle wasn’t over. I reported that many hospitals and doctors had decided to refuse all participation in doctor prescribed death, and encouraged them to do so. That made assisted suicide advocates angry, but too bad. Nobody should be forced to participate in the intentional termination of a human life.

The non cooperation resistance strategy in Washington has been generally successful, with many medical facilities and doctors refusing to participate. That has assisted suicide advocates complaining. Most recent example: A Catholic hospital refuses to participate in any way with legalized assisted suicide–including not advising patients about their right to ask for (they don’t have a right to receive) assisted suicide. From a blog called Slog:

In 2008, nearly 58 percent of Whatcom County voters approved I-1000, the exact same margin by which the Death with Dignity initiative passed statewide. Yet two years later, terminally ill patients in Whatcom and other counties served solely by Catholic hospices, are still being denied access to information about their lawful, end of life options. read more secondhand smoke

Worldwide Suicide Prevention Day Coming Up, But Assisted Suicide Left Out

Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- September 10 is Worldwide Suicide Prevention Day but one bioethics watchdog says the day is apparently lost on euthanasia advocates who promote assisted suicide. Attorney and author Wesley J. Smith says the day could have more substance if all suicides were included.

"The well meaning people behind WSPD have missed -- or were afraid of the controversy that would be caused by tackling–the proverbial elephant in the living room," Smith notes. "You see, many high profile voices now urge that suicide not only be permitted, but facilitated."

Smith says he worries the event will "not be very effective."

"I don't see how suicide prevention can be effective when there is so much outright suicide promotion going on," he says.

Smith is upset that the organizers of the day are "silent about the threat posed to the cause of suicide reduction by assisted suicide and 'rational suicide' advocacy. Not. A. Peep."

The website for the promotion of Worldwide Suicide Prevention Day have official activities it is supporting for "suicide prevention and awareness, survivors of suicide and for the memory of loved lost ones. read more

Idaho Becomes the Next Target for Euthanasia Activists Promoting Assisted Suicide

Boise, ID (LifeNews.com) -- Euthanasia activists are feeling their oats with the states of Washington and Montana joining Oregon as the three in the nation to have legalized assisted suicide. Now, they are trying to convince the major doctors group in Idaho that the state has no laws stopping the practice.

Alex Schadenberg, executive director of the Euthanasia Prevention Coalition (EPC), talked with OneNewsNow today about the problems.

"Kathryn Tucker, who is the legal counsel for Compassion And Choices, made a presentation to the Idaho Medical Association, trying to tell them that because there is no specific law on assisted suicide in Idaho that...doctors could just go ahead and just do this," he said.

However, Schadenberg said Tucker's description is false because Idaho common law disallows assisted suicide. read more

'Final Exit' Billboards Promote 'Right to Die'

Several controversial euthanasia billboards have begun appearing on some coastal roadsides in New Jersey and in San Francisco.

The signs, which were put up by the right to die advocacy group Final Exit Network, target terminally ill people who want help committing suicide.

The message on the black billboards reads, "My life. My Death. My Choice."

Final Exit spokesman Frank Kavanaugh said he wants to get more people talking about the right to die either with or without a doctor's help.

"We believe that the ultimate human rights issue of the 21st century is the right to die," Kavanaugh told ABC News.

But critics say Final Exit's campaign is far from benign.

"Any time you talk about suicide as a way out, you get into a whole litany of problems. Offering information on how to commit suicide, I think that's a very dangerous thing and open to misinterpretation by a number of people," said Tim Rosales, spokesman for Californians Against Assisted Suicide, a group that works against legalizing doctor-assisted suicide.

"Troubled youth, people who are depressed or going through a tough time in their life -- this type of activity preys upon those people in society," he added. read more CBN

'Dr. Death' Admits on CNN - Thomas Youk His Second, Not First Murder

(LifeSiteNews.com) – Dr. Jack Kevorkian, the infamous advocate of assisted suicide known as “Dr. Death” who helped kill 133 people, admitted to CNN television host Larry King that he murdered another woman before he killed Thomas Youk. It was the latter killing that landed Kevorkian in prison for eight years.

On Friday, Kevorkian told Larry King on CNN’s Larry King Live that he directly killed Janet Adkins in June 1990, contradicting his previous story that she performed her own “mercy killing” using his lethal injection machine.

Although Kevorkian was charged with murder in the death of Janet Adkins, a judge threw out the charges on the basis that Adkins caused her own death using Kevorkian’s machine. Kevorkian’s new admission, however, pulls the rug out from under that decision.

After Kevorkian told King that he himself injected Thomas Youk with lethal drugs, King asked, “Usually they kill themselves, right? So, that was not pure suicide.”

NH House defeats assisted suicide bill

New Hampshire's House has defeated a bill that would have allowed the legalization of assisted suicide for terminally ill patients.

The House voted 242-113 on Wednesday against the bill, which would have allowed the terminally ill to obtain lethal prescriptions, with safeguards to prevent abuses.

Supporters said the bill would give people the dignity they deserve in their final days, but opponents said it was a prescription for abuse for the elderly and disabled.

Among the unresolved areas were who would be covered by the bill and who would gain immunity from prosecution for assisting in the death. WCAX

Court: Mont. law allows "doctor-assisted suicide"

The Supreme Court of Montana vacated a trial judge’s ruling that the Constitution of Montana prohibited assisted suicide for the terminally ill–but construed the state’s living will law as permitting doctors to prescribe lethal overdoses if the patient self administers. This is odd because that approach was barely addressed–a matter acknowledged by the court since the overwhelming focus was on the constitutional aspects of the case–and it would thus seem to me that a motion for reconsideration is in order so this approach can be more fully briefed. From the conclusion of the majority opinion:

In conclusion, we find nothing in Montana Supreme Court precedent or Montana statutes indicating that physician aid in dying is against public policy. The “against public policy” exception to consent has been interpreted by this Court as applicable to violent breaches of the public peace. Physician aid in dying does not satisfy that definition. We also find nothing in the plain language of Montana statutes indicating that physician aid in dying is against public policy. In physician aid in dying, the patient—not the physician—commits the final death-causing act by self-administering a lethal dose of medicine. read more

Reason Not to Dehydrate: Man Speaking After 23 Years in Locked-In State

We hear constantly that people diagnosed as being persistently unconscious should be dehydrated to death because they are not “persons,” or are actually “dead”–and so should be available for organ harvesting. We hear that even if the family resists, futile care theory should permit bioethics committees to impose unilateral withdrawal. And we hear this even as repeated studies demonstrate that 40 or more percent of patients diagnosed as PVS really aren’t.

But the dehydrating lobby merely reply, “That’s even more reason to do it! Imagine the suffering!” Well, imagine you are in the locked in state (awake and aware but unable to communicate) and hear doctors telling your family to kill you. Now that is terror.

But there are abundant reasons to treat people with profound cognitive disabilities as fully human beings. First and foremost, because they are us. Second, because we don’t know enough about how the brain works to know that there won’t be some regeneration to permit eventual restoration of some function. But also, because there is always hope.

Case in point: We hear from time-to-time, for example, that a person in PVS awakened. And now in the UK, a man misdiagnosed as unconscious for 23 years is now telling how he was fully aware all along. From the story:

A car crash victim has spoken of the horror he endured for 23 years after he was misdiagnosed as being in a coma when he was conscious the whole time. Rom Houben, trapped in his paralysed body after a car crash, described his real-life nightmare as he screamed to doctors that he could hear them – but could make no sound. ‘I screamed, but there was nothing to hear,’ said Mr Houben, now 46, who doctors thought was in a persistent vegatative state. ‘I dreamed myself away,’ he added, tapping his tale out with the aid of a computer. read more from SecondhandSmoke

Suicide Pushing Nurse Loses Licence

Frrom Wesley J Smith's blog SecondhandSmoke

A nurse who went on the Internet to teach people how to commit suicide has lost his license. From the story:

Using the online aliases “Li Dao” and “Falcon Girl,” a male nurse from southern Minnesota participated in international suicide chat rooms and presented himself as an expert in suicide techniques, according to documents compiled by the Minnesota Board of Nursing. At least two people using those chat rooms ultimately did commit suicide. In an order made public this week, the board said it has concluded a months-long investigation of the man’s behavior and revoked his nursing license.

But taking legal action against him is proving more difficult. The state Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force, based in St. Paul, initiated the investigation against William Melchert-Dinkel, 47, last year. After the task force notified the nursing board of the investigation, the board suspended his license in February and revoked it permanently in June. However, while the criminal investigation is still underway, no charges have been filed against him.

We have freedom of speech in this country–including vile and despicable death-pushing speech. Besides, suicide pushing is so now, Baby! Why should Melchert-Dinkel be prosecuted when Derek Humphry makes money off of Final Exit, his how-to-commit suicide opus, and shrugs that it is found next to the bodies of dead teenagers. Jack Kevorkian gets $50,000 a speech and is being played in a puff piece biopic by Al Pacino–even though his goal in assisted suicide was a license to conduct human vivisection.

No, the nurse will be fine. He’ll be celebrated in some quarters as a selfless promoter of “choice.” Maybe even make the pages of People.

CT doctors file suit to allow assisted suicide

Two southwestern Connecticut doctors said Wednesday that they are suing the state to allow them to provide "aid in dying" for mentally competent, terminally ill patients.

Dr. Gary Blick, a Norwalk physician, and Dr. Ron Levine, of Greenwich, said during a news conference in the state Capitol that "terminal sedation," the only legal treatment for them to offer, is inappropriate.

The choice of providing dying patients "medically and ethically appropriate treatment," is the reason for the lawsuit filed in state Superior Court, Blick said.

Sheldon Smith, 86, of Bethany, dying fron abdominal cancer, said "I've lived a great life" and intends to continue living until the pain gets unbearable.

"However, I'm quite concerned about how the very end of my life will unfold," he said. "I know the type of pain that abdominal cancer can cause and I'd like a physician to be able to prescribe medication that I could consume to bring about a peaceful death if my dying process becomes intolerable."

Kathryn Tucker, legal director of the advocacy group Compassion and Choices, said the state lawsuit is the first of its kind and will attack Connecticut law as antiquated. ConnPost

Elderly Patients May Face Pressure to Die

As the pro-life movement fights to keep abortion out of the health-care reform bill, an undercover attack on the elderly may be taking place unnoticed.

At issue is a provision that calls for end-of-life counseling of senior citizens every five years. That counseling can include topics such as how to decline nutrition and hydration, antibiotics and basic care treatments for specific conditions such as flu or pneumonia, and how to choose palliative and hospice care for the terminally ill.

“I’ve read about a third of HR 3200 and the counseling parts are designed to encourage euthanasia,” claimed Dr. Katherine Schlaerth, an associate professor of family medicine at Loma Linda University School of Medicine. “Seniors will be counseled every five years, and more often if they get sicker.”

Schlaerth, who emphasized that she does not speak for Loma Linda University, said that a frail, elderly, ill and depressed patient or that patient’s family “may easily agree to withhold antibiotics or fluid without realizing the full implication.”

“Patients who have a worsening of their chronic condition, but who may not even be pre-terminal, are included in this strong-arm counseling, and their respect for authority figures could pave the way for agreement with cessation of care not in their interest at all,” Schlaerth said. “Health-care providers, meanwhile, may be forced to give counseling directly opposed to their religious or moral beliefs.” read more NCRegister

Montana Supreme Court will hear arguments on physician-assisted suicide

HELENA - The state Supreme Court will hear oral arguments Sept. 2 on whether physician-assisted suicide should be legal in Montana.

The state has appealed a decision by District Judge Dorothy McCarter, who found that physician-assisted suicide is a right protected under the Montana Constitution. The ruling made Montana the third state, along with Oregon and Washington, to allow doctors to provide life-ending medication to terminally ill people.

No one has used the right however, and patients who’ve tried say they can’t find doctors willing to help them.

Opponents argue the practice would be an expedient way for families and doctors to handle relatives with severe illness. Supporters say the choice to die should be protected and personal.

Nineteen friend-of-the-court briefs have been filed with the court on both sides of the issue. AssocPress

A Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals Ruling Means Washington Pharmacists Must Dispense Assisted Suicide

A rule in Washington requires pharmacists to carry and dispense all legal medications. A pharmacy whose owners have a religious opposition to Plan B obtained an injunction at the trial court exempting their business from the rule based on religious discrimination. This was overturned the other day in an order stating that the rules are generally applicable, and thus they can be enforced even in the face of a bona fide religious objection by individual pharmacists.

This not only affects pharmacists that are opposed to dispensing potential abortofacients, but also those who do not wish to dispense drugs for use in assisted suicide, now legal in Washington. In other words, unless the rule is changed, pharmacists who don’t want to partipate in the killing of another human being will either have to get out of the profession or leave the state. More details over at Secondhand Smoke.

Expansion of Assisted Suicide to Washington Targets Elderly, Disabled With Death

Proponents of legalized suicide celebrated Washington's approval of this policy as a victory for the "death with dignity" movement. These suicide advocates, in keeping with the rhetorical tactic of their ideological cousins in the pro-abortion movement, equate "dignity" with "choice." Unfortunately, as with the abortion debate, the "choice" rhetoric of the right-to-die movement eclipses critical moral and ethical questions which ought to be at the forefront of the debate.

Is suicide really a way to honor life and preserve dignity? What are the social and cultural implications of normalizing the "right to die?" Will voluntary physician-assisted suicide give way to involuntary physician-assisted suicide where doctors decide whether their patients would be better off dead?

Dying with dignity does not require suicide. The question, "Do you want to suffer and die or die with dignity?" presents a false choice and assumes that there are only two alternatives at the end of life—pain or death. Properly employed, modern medicine has the tools to mitigate pain. Hospice care, for example, employs a multi-disciplinary approach to ensure that terminally-ill patients endure their final time on earth with dignity—free from pain and nourished physically, emotionally, mentally, and spiritually. read more LifeNews

Americans United for Life Represents 28 Bipartisan Montana Legislators Arguing Assisted Suicide Not a Right

Americans United for Life (AUL) today filed a friend of the court brief before the Montana Supreme Court on behalf of a bipartisan group of 28 Montana Senators and Representatives, arguing there is no right to assisted suicide under the State's constitution.

In December 2008, a state district court ruled that, under the Montana Constitution, individuals have a right to suicide, and a right to assistance in committing suicide. In addition, the judge did not impose any restrictions on the practice, leaving room for the active euthanasia of patients by their physicians.

Dr. Charmaine Yoest, President & CEO of AUL stated, "It is appalling that the district court has attempted to unilaterally manufacture a state constitutional right to assisted suicide--a right that has no basis in the history of our nation. On the contrary, Montana has compelling interests in protecting all human life and in preventing the abuses inherent in assisted suicide."

"The district court held that a person's constitutional rights are 'defeated' if she does not receive assistance in dying. This means that anyone--even a patient who cannot administer lethal drugs herself--is entitled to have a physician kill them," observed Mailee Smith, AUL Staff Counsel.

Smith continued, "What's even worse is that there is no requirement that another person witness the suicide request or that there be written documentation of the request and the basis for it. Physicians can unilaterally decide that their patients want to die, with no paper trail to hold them accountable. That is not assisted suicide--that is euthanasia." read more prnewswire

Four Years After Terri Schiavo's Death, Schindler Family Fights for Disabled

Four years ago today, Terri Schiavo succumbed to the effects of the painful starvation and dehydration death her former husband subjected her to over a 13-day period. Terri was killed on March 31, 2005 when her former husband won a protracted legal battle against the Schindler family for the right to disconnect her feeding tube.

Now, the Schindler family -- Terri's mother and father and brother and sister -- honors her memory by fighting for other disabled and minimally conscious patients to receive the kind of medical care, rehabilitative treatment and food and water Terri was denied.

"Four years ago today, by the order of Judge George W. Greer, Terri Schiavo died a slow barbaric death by starvation and dehydration over a period of almost two weeks," the Schindler family said in a statement to LifeNews.com.

"We must never forget what happened to Terri and the horrible way she was killed," they added. read more LifeNews

Idaho Futile Care Bill S. 1114 Stalled in House Committee--For Now

This is a follow up report about an urgent futile care threat we warned against twice last week at SHS (here and here): After being caught flat footed with the passage of S. 1114 through the Idaho Senate--a bill that would, in part, legalize futile care theory in Idaho and specifically authorize doctors to disregard a patient's advance written directive wanting life-sustaining treatment--opponents have gotten in the saddle. My sources tell me that real damage has been done to the futile care provisions as people began to look at what is really being proposed. As a consequence, a hearing that had been set in the House Health and Welfare Committee has been postponed.

That's good, but the bill--or at least the futile care part of it, since it is an omnibus involving many matters--isn't dead yet. (This is why I hate bills like this, the good has to be stalled to prevent the bad.) Now is the time to finish it off: All who oppose futile care in Idaho have to put their shoulders to the wheel and write their legislators opposing passage in its current form, send letters to the editor of local newspapers warning of the dangers to vulnerable patients, call talk radio, engage Internet chat rooms--any or all would be helpful. Tell your friends. Alert your colleagues. It's Paul Revere time. read more SecondhandSmoke

30% Increase in Assisted Suicides in Oregon

Only 5% (3 people) requested assisted suicide due to inadequate pain control

The 2008 Summary of Oregon's Death with Dignity Act (DWDA) was released on March 3, 2009.

The report stated that: "During 2008, 88 prescriptions for lethal medications were written under the provisions of the DWDA compared to 85 during 2007 (and 65 during 2006). Of these, 54 patients took the (lethal) medications, 22 died of their underlying disease, and 12 were alive at the end of 2008.

"In addition, 6 people with earlier prescriptions died from taking the (lethal) medications, resulting in a total of 60 DWDA deaths during 2008, which was up from 49 DWDA deaths during 2007 and 46 DWDA deaths during 2006. This corresponds to an estimated 19.4 DWDA deaths per 10,000 total deaths, up from an estimated 14.7 DWDA deaths per 10,000 total death in 2006."

There has, therefore, been an increase by 30% in the total estimated DWDA deaths in two years, between 2006 and 2008. read more LifeSite

Washington State to Become Second to Legalize Assisted Suicide on Thursday

Washington state becomes the second to legalize assisted suicide when the I-1000 ballot initiative voters approved in November becomes law on Thursday. The law allows terminally ill patients with less than six months to live to request a lethal prescription from their physician.

Pro-life advocates opposed the law because they don't want to see doctors become killers and they note that alternatives are available to death as a solution.

Opponents of the assisted suicide law have been working overtime to urge doctors and medical centers to resist becoming involved in assisted suicide and some has gone as far as signing a pledge for an assisted suicide free zone.

For example, Stu Farber, director of the palliative care consult service at the University of Washington Medical Center, says he voted against the measure and has no plans to help his patients kill themselves. read more LifeNews

Four in US charged with assisted suicide

Authorities in Georgia and Maryland have arrested four people after a sting operation targeting a group which offers assistance to people who want to commit suicide.

The arrests were made after agents from the Georgia Bureau of Investigation set up a sting operation Wednesday at a home in Dawson County, north of Atlanta, where an undercover agent posed as a member of the Final Exit Network suffering from pancreatic cancer who wanted to commit suicide.

The investigation revealed that members could receive the group's active assistance in committing suicide by helium inhalation, the GBI said.

After paying a 50-dollar membership fee, members wishing to commit suicide are told to purchase two helium tanks and a hood known as an "exit bag," the Georgia bureau said. read more AFP

More Proof That Assisted Suicide Activists Will Seek to Force Doctors to Participate

The culture of death brooks no dissent, I have repeatedly warned. That means the assisted suicide agenda, if it is widely successful, will one day seek to force all doctors to participate in the mercy killings of their patients--either by doing the deed personally, or referring them to a death doctor they know will write the poison prescription (or eventually, lethally inject the curare).

More proof: Barbara Coombs Lee of Compassion and Choices (formerly Hemlock Society), is in a dither about the Bush conscience clause regulation that prevents employers from discriminating against medical professionals who refuse to participate in assisted suicide (as one example) on moral grounds. From her blog:

That meddlesome regulation encouraging healthcare workers to obstruct needed treatment considered offensive to their personal beliefs, went into effect January 19. It's still in place. I'm determined to continue blogging about this issue until it is repealed.
Congress, the administration, or both must act to restore the needs of patients to their rightful priority over the morality of providers...We're in a clash between ideologues and pragmatists--people who place their own dogmatic beliefs above all, and people inclined to rely on pragmatic solutions in times of need or crisis.

So, doctors who believe in the orthodox view of the Hippocratic Oath, who understand that assisted suicide is not a medical treatment regardless of how it is redefined, are to be told to get with the program or go sell shoes for a living. There are to be no opt outs. read more WesleyJSmith

Eluana Englaro Dies After Four Days of Starvation in Disputed Euthanasia Death

After an international debate over whether she should be subjected to a painful starvation and dehydration death, Eluana Englaro has died. The disabled woman had been in a minimally conscious state since 1992, when she was involved in an automobile accident.

Englaro's father Beppino had won a court order to kill his daughter after fighting for a decade to do so.

Officials at the clinic that is supposed to be caring for Eluana started the process of starving her to death on Friday and gradually reduced the amount of food and water she received over the weekend.

The woman was in healthy condition, according to her neurologist, Carlo Alberto Defanti. read more LifeNews

The New Definition of Love: Help Your Parents Commit Suicide

A San Francisco man named John West has alerted the media--in a book--that he helped his parents commit suicide. From the story:

For attorney and author John West, his parents were lifelong sources of comfort, wisdom and pride. But West has been keeping a 10-year-old secret about his parents from everyone, including his two sisters, which he is revealing for the first time in a memoir called "The Last Goodnights." West helped his terminally ill parents commit suicide, a crime in the state of California, where the deaths took place. In revealing his actions, West acknowledges he could face prosecution

Ten years later? Unlikely. In fact, the statute of limitations has passed. read more SecondhandSmoke

Wyoming's New Assisted Suicide Bill--To Outlaw It!

From Secondhand Smoke

Wonder of wonders, Wyoming has stepped up to the plate to outlaw assisted suicide. From HB 120 (no link):

(a) A person who has knowledge that another person intends to commit or attempt to commit suicide and who does either of the following with the intention of enabling or facilitating the suicide commits the offense of assisting suicide:(i) Provides the physical means by which the other person attempts or commits suicide; (ii) Participates in a physical act by which the other person attempts to commit or commits suicide.

The bill ensures that good pain control is not considered assisted suicide and that removing unwanted life-sustaining medical treatment is not threatened. Good for Representatives Davison, Brechtel, Jaggi, McKim and Petersen and Senators Cooper, Meier and Peterson for sponsoring this bill.

Virginia Senate Bill 1142: Paving the Way for Experimenting on the Incapacitated and Dying?

A correspondent--who is a disability rights activist--alerted me to SB 1142, a proposal in Virginia to overhaul its law concerning advance directives. There are several things in the bill that concern me, but she wrote worrying that it would open the door to experimenting on the incapacitated and the dying.

She is right--the bill authorizes signers of advance directives who become incapacitated to be experimented upon if the named surrogate decision maker consents--even if the experiments are not intended to provide them any help at all. From the bill:

Section: 54.12983.1. An advance directive may authorize an agent to approve participation by the declarant in any health care study approved by an institutional review board pursuant to applicable federal regulations, or by a research review committee pursuant to Chapter 5.1 (Â§ 32.1123 et seq.) of Title 32.1 that (i) offers the prospect of direct therapeutic benefit to the declarant, or (ii) aims to increase scientific understanding of any condition that the declarant may have or otherwise to promote human wellbeing, even though it offers no prospect of direct benefit to the patient.

FDA approves human trials for therapies with embryonic stem cells

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved the first human clinical trials using embryonic stem cells. The trials will be conducted by the Geron Corp. on humans suffering from paraplegia. The stem cells are those approved for use by President George W. Bush in 2001.

Catholic church leaders have spoken extensively about the ethics of using embryonic stem cells. Most recently Cardinal Francis E. George, president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, wrote Jan. 19 to President Barack Obama discussing this and other health-related issues. Read the letter here.

In December, the Vatican issued a 32-page document, “Dignitatis Personae” (”The Dignity of a Person”) in which it warned of of the ethical dilemmas posed by new developments in stem cell research.

Embryonic stem cells are blank cells found in four- to five-day-old embryos, which have the ability to turn into any cell in the body. However, when stem cells are removed, the embryo is destroyed -- which has made this one of the most controversial medical research fields in the past decade. read story CNN

Washington Assisted Suicide Opponents Continue Organizing Doctors, Hospitals

Assisted suicide opponents are continuing their efforts to organize doctors and hospitals to resist the measure state voters approved to make the state the second to legalize the practice. The Coalition Against Assisted Suicide has been working to get medical professionals to create assisted suicide free zones.

Eileen Geller and Carrie Herring tell LifeNews.com they are hearing from Washington citizens who want to patronize doctors and medical centers committed to refusing to be involved in assisted suicides.

To that end, they are working with medical centers and staff to gain commitments that they will not be places that will agree to a patient's request for a lethal cocktail.

They say time is of the essence and that more commitments to help and not kill patients should be put into place.

"Since this life-ending law takes effect in a few weeks -- on March 4th -- we have only a very short time in which to minimize its dangerous effects," the group says. read more LifeNews

Death by mail - Montana's new assisted suicide law

Physician-assisted suicide is legal now in Montana, although the court ruling legalizing it is under appeal.

Doctor-assisted suicide is legal in Oregon and Washington, but Rita Marker of the International Task Force on Euthanasia and Assisted Suicide says what sets the situation apart in Montana is that the ruling has no boundaries or safeguards.

"So you have a situation where even the flimsiest, and really pretty useless, safeguards that are in the Oregon law and in the Washington law, when it goes into effect next month -- those aren't even in place in Montana," she explains. "So you pretty much have something wide open."

Marker believes the law will be used frequently in Montana. "Of all the states, [Montana] has the highest suicide rate in the entire nation," she notes.

She says the court's decision makes it too easy on terminally ill residents who want to die. "They can phone in their request, and then a prescription for a lethal overdose could be mailed to them," Marker adds.

The court's action could be considered judicial activism among other things, according to Marker. "It's judicial activism, judicial malpractice, judicial arrogance -- all of those things," she concludes. "Without question." OneNewsNow

The Death Bureaucracy Begins in Washington State

Form: REQUEST FOR MEDICATION TO END MY LIFE IN

from Secondhand Smoke:

It is sickening to read the proposed bureaucratic forms that patients and their death doctors will fill out and send to the state when planning assisted suicides. Twenty years ago, people would have called me a total paranoid if I predicted this is what we would become. I wouldn't have believed it myself. Nonetheless, this is where we are as a culture. From the Proposed Rule Making document filed by the now ironically misnamed Department of Health:

REQUEST FOR MEDICATION TO END MY LIFE IN A HUMANE AND DIGNIFIED MANNER
I, ______________________________________________________________________, am an adult of sound mind.
First Middle Last
I am suffering from _____________________________________, which my attending physician has determined is an incurable, irreversible terminal disease and which has been medically confirmed by a consulting physician.
I have been fully informed of my diagnosis, prognosis, the nature of medication to be prescribed and potential associated risks, the expected result, and feasible alternatives, including comfort care, hospice care, and pain control.
I request that my attending physician prescribe medication that I may self-administer to end my life in a humane and dignified manner and dispense or to contact a pharmacist to dispense the prescription.
Initial One
I have informed my family of my decision and taken their opinions into consideration.
I have decided not to inform my family of my decision.
I have no family to inform of my decision.
I understand that I have the right to rescind this request at any time.
I understand the full import of this request and I expect to die when I take the medication to be prescribed. I further understand that although most deaths occur within three hours, my death may take longer and my physician has counseled me about this possibility.
I make this request voluntarily and without reservation; and I accept full moral responsibility for my actions.
Signature: County of Residence: Date:

Oregon May Hit Record High for Assisted Suicides as Washington Starts Them

Oregon was the first state in the nation to legalize assisted suicide and the euthanasia backers who put the law in place say it is about to hit a record high as another state begins allowing the killing of patients. Robb Miller, executive director of the pro-euthanasia Compassion & Choices made the claim.

Miller says he believes there will be a total of 55 people to have killed themselves under the Oregon law once the state health department releases official figures.

He can attest to the number because volunteers from his group serve as witnesses in about 85 percent of the cases that occur in the state, he told the Seattle Post Intelligencer newspaper.

If that number holds true, it will set another record for the number of patients to be killed under the law after a previous record in 2007. it will also mean that 396 people have killed themselves since the law took effect.

The number of Oregon residents using the state's assisted suicide law to kill themselves reached 49 in 2007, according to a March report from the Oregon Department of Human Services. That was an increase over the 2006 figures.

The report showed 85 people received the drugs (an increase of 20 from the year prior). read more LifeNews

The New Rx Cure: Assisted Suicide As Medical Care

You have cancer. Your doctor checks you over and says, "Well, you don't have long to live, and your insurance doesn't want to pay for expensive chemo drugs at $5000 a month."

Your doctor pulls out her prescription pad.

"We can offer you a quick and painless death through barbituates," she says, scribbling the prescription for barbs. "This will cost you less than a hundred bucks."

Don't believe it?

It's already happening.

Randy Stroup, of Dexter, Oregon, was 53 years old when he got prostrate cancer. He had no insurance so he applied for help for his medical treatment from Oregon's state health plan.

He got a letter this summer from Lane Individual Practice Association (LIPA), which administers the Oregon Health Plan in Lane County, Oregon. The letter said that Stroup's cancer was too advanced to warrant a pricey treatment.

However, the state was willing to pay for his assisted suicide. read more prolifeblogs

Physicians rally against assisted suicide

A campaign to stop physician-assisted suicide is now going to physicians nationwide.

Physicians for Compassionate Care in Oregon and the Euthanasia Prevention Coalition have joined forces to seek pledges from medical personnel, agreeing not to take part in doctor-assisted suicide. Spokesman Alex Schadenberg explains the cause.

"The 'Take the Pledge' campaign is specifically oriented to medical caregivers and those who are in caregiver positions to encourage them to take the pledge against assisted suicide," he says.

Schadenberg notes research in Oregon indicates that those who take the pledge are less likely to participate. Plus, he believes it will give patients the ability to connect with doctors who are foes of assisted suicide. read more OneNewsNow

Catholic Doctors Aided Lawsuit That Could Legalize Assisted Suicide in Montana

Judicial activism lives. Last Friday a state trial judge in Montana imposed assisted suicide on the entire state against the will of the people.

Montana’s criminal law, enacted by elected representatives, penalizes assisted suicide as a crime, and its “Rights of the Terminally Ill Act” expressly states that the people are not authorizing assisted suicide. Yet the state court trumped these laws by finding a right to assisted suicide in the constitution of the State of Montana.

Perhaps even more startling, the plaintiffs who demanded this result were not merely two patients with terminal illnesses, but they also included four doctors affiliated with St. Patrick Hospital in Missoula, Montana.

St. Patrick’s is a Catholic hospital, and is part of an outspokenly pro-life hospital network in the northwest called Providence Health & Services. Last month when a referendum passed in the State of Washington legalizing assisted suicide, Providence and some of its hospital leaders quickly issued a statement declaring that their doctors and hospitals would not be administering assisted suicide. read more LifeNews

TV channel to broadcast assisted suicide

A British TV channel was scheduled to air a controversial documentary Wednesday night showing a terminally ill man committing assisted suicide.

The film follows retired university professor Craig Ewert during the last four days of his life in 2006, when he visited a Swiss clinic with his wife, Mary, in order to die.

The 59-year-old suffered from motor neurone disease (MND), which deprived him of the use of his arms and legs and caused him to be on a ventilator, Mary Ewert told The Independent.

MND destroys the body's motor nerves, eventually resulting in paralysis. Most sufferers die within five years of diagnosis although scientist Stephen Hawking has survived with the disease for more than 40 years.

"Right to Die: The Suicide Tourist" shows Ewert lying in a rented Zurich apartment, where an employee of the clinic prepares a lethal dose of drugs for Ewert to drink. As the camera rolls, and with his wife by his side, Craig Ewert then closes his eyes and dies. read more CNN

What We Are Becoming: Children Proposed for Right to Assisted Suicide in Scotland

From SecondhandSmoke

The Dutch seriously proposed permitting 12-year-olds to opt for euthanasia, and that was beaten back for the moment. Now, a new Scottish proposal to legalize assisted suicide would give the "right to die" to children. From the story:

Children aged 12 or even younger could be given the right to assisted suicide under a radical new Scottish bill proposed by veteran MSP Margo MacDonald.

The independent politician, who has Parkinson's disease, wants to bring legislation before the Scottish Parliament next year which would legalise assisted suicide.

Launching a consultation on her proposed End of Life Choices (Scotland) Bill yesterday, Mrs MacDonald suggested that the age limit for people wanting assistance to die should mirror that for children who are allowed under family law to "choose a life" by deciding which parent to live with when couples split up. In Scotland, youngsters whose parents are divorcing are generally consulted by the courts over who they wish to stay with from the age of 12 to 16, after which they are legally deemed to be adults. read more

Montana Assisted Suicide Decision Reads Very Much Like Right to Death on Demand

From Wesley Smith at Secondhand Smoke

I will admit I didn't get much sleep last night because of the Montana case imposing a constitutional right to assisted suicide there. I haven't been able to find a copy of the decision yet, but from the few quotes I have seen it appears a radically broad and hubristic ruling, that if followed, logically couldn't be limited to physician assisted suicide or the terminally ill. These two quotes stand out, as cited in the Hemlock Society, er Compassion and Choices Web page crowing about the ruling:

"The Montana constitutional rights of individual privacy and human dignity, taken together, encompass the right of a competent terminally (ill) patient to die with dignity," McCarter said in the ruling. "The patient's right to die with dignity includes protection of the patient's physician from liability under the state's homicide statutes," the judge wrote.
And:
“We have chosen not to ‘march lock-step’ with the United States Supreme Court…we have held that Montana’s unique constitutional language affords citizens (of Montana) a greater right to privacy.” District Court Judge Jeffrey M. Sherlock wrote [in another case], “Montanans generally mind their own business and do not wish to restrict other people in their freedoms unless the exercise of those freedoms interferes with other members of society.”

This is the old, "I can do anything I want until the point that my fist hits your nose," concept. Leaving aside for the moment that assisted suicide hits everyone in the nose and harms society, think about the logical implications of the judge's ruling:

First, why limit the right to people diagnosed with a terminal illness? If I want to die because John McCain lost the election and I can't stand the idea of an Obama Presidency, that's my business and nobody has a right to interfere.
Second, the judge went further than somebody's right to commit suicide, which is an individual action. She declared that the person who wants to die has the right to help. The example here is of a physician writing a prescription. But her ruling went even farther than that--it shielded assisting doctors from homicide laws. It seems to me that language has to open the door to active euthanasia.
-- Third, why limit the assister to a physician? If privacy ("choice") and the right to dignity--which has to be what each individual decides it is since the state cannot logically determine what is dignity from what I have seen, why can't I have anyone I want kill me? Recall that in Switzerland, assisted suicides are done by lay groups, not physicians--which is logical since killing is not a medical act.
-- Fourth: If dignity (as I see it) and privacy are so absolute, why limit the license to assisted suicide? Why not amputate the limb on request of a person suffering from BIID, whose idea of dignity is to have one leg instead of two? That was certainly the implication of the original Montana Supreme Court ruling that unleashed this.

Pro-lifers Defend "Italy's Terri Schiavo"

Italian associations are making last-minute appeals for the life of Eluana Englaro, after Italy's Supreme Court ruled Thursday that her father's wish would be granted and her feeding tube will be removed.

Englaro, 37, has been in a coma since 1992, when she suffered a car accident. Her case has been called Italy's version of the Terri Schiavo battle that raged in the United States in 2005, and ended in Schiavo's death by dehydration and starvation.

For 14 years, Englaro has been in the care of a group of nuns who, according to Cardinal Ennio Antonelli, president of the Pontifical Council for the Family, are the only ones "close to the young woman who still fight for her life." Her father has led the legal battle to have her feeding tube disconnected. read more Zenit

Web Site Encourages Doctors, Caregivers to Pledge No to Assisted Suicide

With Washington becoming the second state to legalize assisted suicide, euthanasia opponents have put together a new web site to urge doctors, medical caregivers and citizens to say no to assisted suicide. The site comes after doctors and medical centers have said they won't urge patients to kill themselves.

The Take the Pledge web site urges the three different categories of people to sign an online pledge affirming they will help patients, not urge their death. read more LifeNews
Take The Pledge - http://www.take-the-pledge.com

Although now legal in WA some medical providers say they won't assist with suicides

While Washington voters made it legal for doctors to help terminally ill residents end their lives, opponents of the assisted suicide measure indicated Wednesday they will continue to resist the practice.

Initiative 1000 won with strong support Tuesday, but doctors don't have to help their patients make that final act, says the Washington State Medical Association.

Furthermore, Eastern Washington's largest hospital system, Providence Health and Services, will forbid physicians from helping patients die at its hospitals, nursing homes and assisted care centers. read more SR.com

Washington Becomes Second State to Legalize Assisted Suicide in Election Vote

The state of Washington has joined Oregon to become the second state in the nation to legalize the grisly practice of assisted suicide. Voters in the northwestern state approved I-1000 despite strong opposition from pro-life groups, doctors organizations, disability rights activists and Catholic voters.

With 42 percent of the vote counted in the state, I-1000 carried with the support of 58 percent of voters compared with 42 percent who opposed assisted suicide.

Opponents of assisted suicide had a hard time competing with the money thrown at them from the pro-euthanasia groups that outspent them as much as 12-1 thanks to out-of-state money. read more LifeNews

Assisted Suicide Measure in Washington State Has 18 Point Lead in New Poll

Although internal polling numbers show a much closer margin, a new poll from the University of Washington finds the measure that would make the state the second to legalize the grisly practice of assisted suicide leading by a comfortable margin. I-1000 has an 18 point lead in the Washington Poll.

According to the poll of 600 registered voters from October 18-26, the I-1000 assisted suicide ballot initiative leads by a 56 to 38 percentage point margin. Another 6 percent of Washington voters are undecided.

The poll has a four percent margin of error and doesn't just survey likely voters -- who may be less likely to support the assisted suicide proposal. read more LifeNews

Washington's Fight against Euthanasia Initiative in Critical Need of Funding as Time Runs Out

As Washington's battle over euthanasia "rights" closes in on election day, anti-euthanasia groups are fighting to maintain their grasp on a thin margin of voters while fearing that dried-up revenues may cause all to be lost in the final hour.

Recent polls have shown that a slim majority of voters now reject Initiative 1000, which would classify assisted suicide as a legitimate medical procedure.

Advertisements against the ballot measure, particularly one featuring Martin Sheen, have resonated with voters, and have widely publicized the dangerous pitfalls of such legislation. In the ad Sheen observes that legalized suicide would not require doctors to discriminate whether a candidate is suffering from depression. Also, the ballot measure would not require notification of family before or after a physician assisted lethal injection, and the free use of lethal drugs would provide an incentive for health plans to cut costs by steering terminally ill people toward assisted suicide as the cheapest option. (To view and listen to the ads, to go: http://www.noassistedsuicide.com/) read more LifeSiteNews

How-to-die book launched online

A banned book which details how to die peacefully will be launched online by Australian voluntary euthanasia advocate Dr Philip Nitschke.

Dr Nitschke describes the Peaceful Pill eHandbook as a compilation of the "most reliable and peaceful methods" used to end life.

"We've gone through the ones that are used and we've looked at the best," he told AAP.

End of life options detailed in video and text formats include use of the drug Nembutal obtained from Mexico , and the hypoxic method using a plastic bag. aunews.yahoo

Study: Quarter of Oregon Assisted Suicide Victims Depressed, Still Got Drugs

One in four terminally ill patients in Oregon who opt for physician-assisted suicide have clinical depression

A new study shows about one-fourth of the people killed in assisted suicides in Oregon were depressed, yet they received lethal cocktails anyway. Researchers at the Oregon Health and Science University conducted the study and skeptic say it shows the guidelines in the assisted suicide law don't work.

The researchers published their findings in the British Medical Journal after following 58 patients in Oregon who requested an assisted suicide.

Most of the patients were terminally ill or afflicted with ALS, known as Lou Gehrig's disease.

Of the patients involved, 26 percent were independently diagnosed with depression. read more LifeNews

Human rights, control at stake in life issues

“The agenda of some is control of the human genetic makeup and total control of human reproduction – not only the right to have a baby, but the baby we want”

Federal funding for embryonic stem cell research has not been the election-year issue it was expected to be a year ago, because scientists have learned how to ethically create an alternative.

But that hasn’t stopped the push for embryonic stem cell research and use, as can be seen locally. That’s because one of the long-term agenda items appears to be human cloning.

Wesley J. Smith, an attorney for the International Task Force on Euthanasia and Assisted Suicide based in Steubenville, Ohio, made these points in an interview with The Catholic Free Press before a recent talk at St. Paul Cathedral. The cathedral and the Worcester Guild of the Catholic Medical Association presented his talk about Medicine and the Culture of Death.

Mr. Smith warned about the ethical and medical dangers of using embryonic stem cells for treatment. read more CatholicFreePress

Schwarzenegger Signs Bill That Will Cause Deaths of Patients Via Dehydration

"This bill will encourage tens of thousands of unheralded, quiet deaths by dehydration."

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger is drawing condemnation from pro-life advocates who say he was wrong to sign a bill that puts vulnerable patients at risks and has physicians promoting suicide. The measure didn't legalize assisted suicide but contained suicide-promoting provisions pro-life groups opposed.

AB 2747 originally had the purpose of legalizing assisted suicide but was amended in committee to urge doctors to inform patients how they can legally end their lives.

Brian Johnston, the head of the California Pro-Life Council and someone who has served on panels helping the elderly, condemned the governor.

He tells LifeNews.com the measure Schwarzenegger signed will result in the deaths of thousands of patients.

"I've been in countless California nursing homes as both a California Commissioner on Aging and on the State's Board of Examiners of Nursing Homes," he said. "This bill will encourage tens of thousands of unheralded, quiet deaths by dehydration." read more LifeNews

Wisconsin court rules that assisting in suicide is not ‘killing’

The Wisconsin District 4 Court of Appeals on Thursday ruled that the wife and the daughter of a Wisconsin man who committed suicide can inherit their estate even if they assisted in the act. The ruling was criticized by Wisconsin Right to Life for giving a financial incentive for people to help their relatives kill themselves.

The ruling concerned a Wisconsin law that prevents anyone who "intentionally kills" another from inheriting from that person, the Associated Press reports.

Writing for the unanimous three-judge panel, Judge Margaret Vergeront argued "A person who assists another in voluntarily and intentionally taking his or her own life is plainly not depriving the other of life."

"We do not agree that 'killer' is commonly understood to mean the person who provides the means that enable another to kill himself or herself," she continued. read more CNA

British ethicist: Dementia patients should consider ending lives

From Britain comes word that a leading medical ethicist is advocating that dementia sufferers think about ending their lives to ease the burden on their families and the national health service.

"If you're demented, you're wasting people's lives — your family's lives — and you're wasting the resources of the National Health Service," Baroness Warnock, 84, said in an interview with Life and Work, the magazine of the Church of Scotland.

"I'm absolutely, fully in agreement with the argument that if pain is insufferable, then someone should be given help to die, but I feel there's a wider argument that if somebody absolutely, desperately wants to die because they're a burden to their family, or the state, then I think they too should be allowed to die." read more USAToday

Supporters of assisted suicide in WA bait Catholics

IN AN AMERICA where any remark hinting of prejudice can force its maker into endless mea culpas, the mocking of a world religious leader ought to invite political suicide.

But one religion, the Catholic Church, seems to be exempt -- at least by some advocates of Initiative 1000, which would legalize physician-assisted suicide.

Pope Benedict XVI took an anti-euthanasia message to Lourdes last week, saying, "A society unable to accept its suffering members and incapable of helping to share their suffering is a cruel and inhumane society."

"Dignity never abandons the sick person," he declared, adding that people must accept death at "the hour chosen by God."

The communications director for I-1000 promptly sent political bloggers a memo titled "Pope Keeps God on Schedule, Auto-Dial." It read:

"The Pope does not go into detail about God's appointment book, although many doctors note that God is, in fact, kept waiting past the chosen hour (rather like we are kept waiting at the doctor's office) due to medical interventions that artificially extend life (but do not end suffering). Perhaps God is running late."

She was doubtless trying to be snarky. But the note demeans fundamental questions raised in the pope's speech, which will face Washington voters when they fill out their ballots.

The protection of life, by law, is a basic principle of democratic societies. Central to our definition of its value is the prohibition against killing innocent people. What circumstances, if any, merit loosening that prohibition? What does that say to (and about) a society? read more SeattlePi

ADF: Alaska woman will not be starved to death

An Alliance Defense Fund allied attorney has secured an agreement to keep a hospitalized patient’s feeding tubes in place to preserve her life.

“No one should be allowed to decide that an innocent life is worthless,” said ADF-allied attorney Kenneth Kirk. “We regret the tragic events that have befallen this woman and are pleased to have been able to help her husband protect her life. He should have been able to see that his wife was cared for without having to fight hospital staff who wanted to starve her to death.”

On May 16, the patient’s husband filed the suit P.C. v. K. against the hospital and a doctor in order to keep the medical staff from removing his wife’s life support, which would have terminated her life. Kirk subsequently filed a motion for stay on the husband’s behalf to keep the hospital from doing so. read more ADF

California Legislature Sends Bill Promoting Suicide to Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger

The California legislature has put the finishing touches on a bill opposed by pro-life groups there that puts vulnerable patients at risks and has physicians promoting suicide. The measure fell short of legalizing the grisly practice of assisted suicide but drew condemnation from pro-life groups because of its suicide-promoting provisions.

AB 2747 originally had the purpose of legalizing assisted suicide but was amended in committee to urge doctors to inform patients how they can legally end their lives.

The California Assembly gave final approval to the bill on Thursday with 42 Democrats voting in favor of the pro-suicide measure and 30 Republicans and two Democrats voting against it.

Brian Johnston, the head of the California Pro-Life Council and one of the leading pro-life groups opposing the bill, told LifeNews.com the measure “exploits the vulnerable emotions of newly diagnosed patients, and requires physicians to present the legal option of self-dehydration, even if such counsel is against the best judgment of the physician." LifeNews read more

CA: Watered down euthanasia bill seems sure bet for passage in state legislature

The California Catholic Conference remains opposed to bill

Catholic physicians and other doctors in California who oppose mercy killing would be forced to provide terminally ill patients with information on morally questionable “end-of-life care options” under a bill now pending in the state legislature.

The bill, AB 2747, is a repeatedly amended and watered down version of an original euthanasia measure sponsored by Assemblywoman Patty Berg, D-Eureka. Berg’s original bill, termed a “stealth assisted-suicide bill” by opponents, would have allowed doctors to administer “palliative sedation” to deliberately induce a coma, and to starve patients to death under a provision called “voluntary stopping of eating and drinking.” Also excised from the original bill was a provision requiring terminally ill patients to be referred to “Compassion & Choices,” a pro-euthanasia organization formerly known as the Hemlock Society.

The California Catholic Conference, the public policy arm of the state's bishops, lobbied hard against Berg’s bill and was instrumental in obtaining amendments that removed the most objectionable aspects of the measure. Still, the Catholic Conference remains opposed to the bill. “Amended version less egregious that previous, but still unnecessary and possibly dangerous,” says the Catholic Conference web site. read more CalCatholic

Seattle Diocese gives $50,000 to defeat assisted-suicide measure

The Catholic Church has begun pouring money into the campaign to defeat Washington’s Death with Dignity ballot initiative.

This is the Oregon-style measure that would allow doctors to prescribe lethal doses of drugs to terminally ill patients. Olympia correspondent Austin Jenkins reports.

So far, Catholic groups from around the country have pumped more than $130,000 into the No on I-1000 campaign.

The single biggest check -- for $50,000 -- comes from the Seattle Archdiocese.

Sister Sharon Park runs the Washington State Catholic Conference. She says the Church gets involved politically on issues that have major cultural implications.

Sharon Park: “Allowing physicians to take the lives of their patients that’s a dramatic move in terms of changing the way one thinks about not only the doctor-patient relationship, but what we allow legally."

Supporters of I-1000 say the money being spent to defeat the initiative should go to compensate victims of sex abuse within the Catholic Church.

The single largest contributor to the yes campaign is Oregon Death with Dignity. OPBNews

Selling Suicide in Seattle

A report on the state of the assisted suicide proposal in Washington, and how efforts to lobby the state’s medical association paid off.

As volunteers lugged boxes of signed petitions for assisted suicide up the steps of the Washington Legislature, former Gov. Booth Gardner announced: Weve crossed the first hurdle, and weve crossed it cleanly, with room to spare. And I think were going to go all the way. Id bet on it.

His Death With Dignity supporters presented the secretary of states office with 320,000 signatures July 2. Thats well above the minimum requirement of 224,880.

Counting and verifying signatures has been completed, as of July 25, allowing Initiative 1000 to be included on the November ballot.

Nancy Niedzielski symbolically signed the final petition. Two years ago, Niedzielski watched her husband, Randy, die of brain cancer. At his request, she is trying to change the law favoring physician-assisted suicide, personally getting more than 1,600 signatures.

Terminally ill patients in Washington should have the same choices that they have in Oregon, Niedzielski said. It is a compassionate act to honor a persons final wish. Nobody, not the government and not the Church, should tell you how much you have to suffer if you are terminally ill. She said that if you wish to choose a death with dignity, that decision should be your decision. read more NCatholicRegister

Assisted Suicide Backers Mislead the Public: Not About Alleviating Suffering

I have become so sick and tired of the baloney that swirls around assisted suicide advocacy like gruel in a blender.

Assisted suicide is not really about the rare case when nothing else can be done to alleviate suffering--which has not been the case yet in any legalized jurisdiction from the Netherlands, to Switzerland, to Oregon. Rather, it is about establishing the right to what in essence would be death on demand.

This is clearly stated in a speech given by Ludwig Minelli, the suicide zealot who heads Dignitas.

Writing about the Swiss Supreme Court ruling granting a right to assisted suicide for the mentally ill -- which I wrote about here -- Minelli claims that suicide and assisted suicide both are human rights. In other words, the so-called limitations that would limit this killing to the terminally or hopelessly ill are bogus. read more WesleyJSmith, LifeNews

MSM Finally Discovers Compassionlessness of Oregon Assisted Suicide

From Secondhand Smoke:

I think the stories of patients being refused life-extending chemotherapy by Oregon's Medicaid--but offered assisted suicide instead--will materially impact the I-1000 legalization effort in Washington. First, this kind of heartlessness was predicted by opponents. Second, the old myth that Oregon has operated without abuses is now shattered. Third, unlike other Oregon abuses, the MSM is actually reporting the story--like an extended report on ABC News. From the story:

The health plan takes "no position" on the physician-assisted suicide law, according to spokesman Jim Sellers. The terminally ill who qualify can receive pain medication, comfort and hospice care, "no matter what the cost," he said. But Sellers acknowledged the letter to Wagner was a public relations blunder and something the state is "working on." read more

California Pro-Life Group Continues Opposing Bill That Promotes Euthanasia

A leading California pro-life group is continuing to urge pro-life advocates to contact their state legislators to oppose a bill that would promote euthanasia. The California Pro-Life Council is opposed to AB 2747, a measure sponsored by the lawmaker who has repeatedly tried to legalize assisted suicide.

"Patty Berg's bill AB 2747 encourages medically vulnerable individuals to kill themselves through voluntary dehydration," the pro-life group says in a new legislative alert.

Though lawmakers make some minor changes to the legislation to alleviate the concerns of pro-life groups, neither CPLC nor the National Right to Life Committee have dropped their concerns and opposition.

"We urge all those concerned about the very real risks posed to the medically and emotionally vulnerable to continue opposing this bill," the group told LifeNews.com.

The bill would codify palliative sedation and voluntary stopping of eating and drinking as legitimate means of pain control and allow doctors and nurses to suggest death by unconscious dehydration. read more LifeNews

Death Drugs Cause Uproar in Oregon

Terminally Ill Denied Drugs for Life, But Can Opt for Suicide

The news from Barbara Wagner's doctor was bad, but the rejection letter from her insurance company was crushing.

The 64-year-old Oregon woman, whose lung cancer had been in remission, learned the disease had returned and would likely kill her. Her last hope was a $4,000-a-month drug that her doctor prescribed for her, but the insurance company refused to pay.

What the Oregon Health Plan did agree to cover, however, were drugs for a physician-assisted death. Those drugs would cost about $50.

"It was horrible," Wagner told ABCNews.com. "I got a letter in the mail that basically said if you want to take the pills, we will help you get that from the doctor and we will stand there and watch you die. But we won't give you the medication to live."

Critics of Oregon's decade-old Death With Dignity Law -- the only one of its kind in the nation -- have been up in arms over the indignity of her unsigned rejection letter. Even those who support Oregon's liberal law were upset. read more ABCNews

Oregon Tells Patients State Will Pay for Assisted Suicide, Not Health Care

t's happened again -- another Oregon resident has heard form state officials that it will happily pay for an assisted suicide but will not pay for the medical treatment he needs. For the second time in just over the last month, a patient has said the state health insurance plan has promoted death over medical care.

Randy Stroup is a 53-year-old Dexter, Oregon resident who faces a troubling bout of prostate cancer.

As an uninsured resident with a need for expensive chemotherapy he applied to the Oregon health insurance plan for help.

Lane Individual Practice Association administers the Oregon Health Plan in Stroup's county and they responded to his request with a letter saying the state would not cover the treatment but would pay for an assisted suicide.
"It dropped my chin to the floor," Stroup told FOX News. "[How could they] not pay for medication that would help my life, and yet offer to pay to end my life?"

The letter has been sent to other terminal patients in the state and it follows state legislative guidelines saying the state will not cover life-prolonging treatment unless there is a better than five percent chance the patient will live for five or more years. read more LifeNews

Court rules to preserve life of Calif. woman deprived of food, water

ADF-allied attorney successful in ensuring nutrition is restored after 11 days without food or water; trial to be held July 29

A California woman deprived of life-sustaining care, including food and water, for nearly two weeks now has a chance to live. On Tuesday, the Fresno County Superior Court ordered that Janet Rivera’s feeding tube and water be reinstated until a July 29 trial. The court will decide whether the responsibility for managing Janet’s medical care should be transferred from the Fresno County Public Guardian to Janet’s cousin, Suzanne Emrich, who is represented by Alliance Defense Fund allied attorney Brian Chavez-Ochoa.

“Everyone deserves a chance to live, and now Janet has that chance,” said Chavez-Ochoa. “A person’s life isn’t worthless just because someone else isn’t satisfied with how that person is living.”

Rivera suffered brain damage following a heart attack approximately two years ago. Up until May 2008, Rivera’s husband served as her conservator and made health care decisions on her behalf. In June 2008, the Fresno County public guardian replaced him as conservator.

On July 11, the Public Guardian’s Office ordered that Rivera be taken off her respirator, but she unexpectedly began breathing on her own. The public guardian then ordered that her feeding tube be permanently removed, depriving her of food and water for eight days. The decision would have slowly euthanized Rivera.

“This illustrates why Janet’s family members should have the right to direct her care, not government officials,” said ADF Senior Legal Counsel Byron Babione. “We trust the court will recognize that Janet’s cousin should be the one to make critical decisions on Janet’s behalf.” ADF

Providing an end-of-life path that rejects pain or poison

There's an old story about how Abraham Lincoln would quiz visitors to the White House. Lincoln would ask, "How many legs does a sheep have if you call its tail a leg?" "Five," most visitors would reply. "You are mistaken," Lincoln would say, "because calling a tail a leg does not make it so." They didn't call him "Honest Abe" for nothing.

The citizens of Washington deserve similar straight talk as they consider the consequences of Initiative 1000 and the legalization of physician-assisted suicide. Instead, I-1000 would ban further use of the term, presumably in favor of euphemisms such as "death with dignity," "self-deliverance," "a life-affirming choice," "aid in dying" and " 'self'-preservation," which are among several of the more flowery terms already in use. Meanwhile, the dreary old Hemlock Society has itself undergone a beauty makeover, re-branded as "Compassion and Choices." Who can be against choice and compassion?

On the merits of the issue, both sides already have dug in. The I-1000 proponents argue the decision is a personal one, while church and pro-life groups point out that life is God-given and that physician-assisted suicide is not compassionate and is morally wrong. Medical groups claim physician-assisted suicide will ultimately corrupt the entire health-care system by undermining the doctor-patient relationship. Disability-rights groups have long warned that any "right to die" will soon morph into a "duty to die" for them. read more Seattle Times

Former Euthanasia Petitioner Now Says "Don't Give Up On Life", as Surgery Brings New Hope

A brilliant Indian engineering graduate bedridden by crippling rheumatoid arthritis for the past 15 years now has new hope for life and says she regrets ever having petitioned for euthanasia.

ndia's press agencies report that Seema Sood, 37, is now walking again for the first time since 1993, when advanced rheumatoid arthritis left her completely debilitated and horribly deformed all her joints. Two years ago, she petitioned the President of India for "mercy killing," a plea she is now thankful went unanswered.

The India Times reports Seema, a gold medalist from the prestigious Birla Institute of Technology & Science (BITS), Pilani, underwent total knee replacement (TKR) surgery that lets her walk once more, after the state Himachal government and her alumni association came forward with funds to replace all her joints.

"I regret the letter to the President," a now hope-filled Seema told the Times. read more LifeSite

Washington Death Initiative Qualifies For November Ballot

Supporters of a doctor-initiated death initiative turned in an estimated 320,000 signatures Tuesday to the Secretary of State's Office. The signatures are more than enough to send Initiative 1000 to voters in November.

If approved, Initiative 1000 would allow doctors to prescribe lethal medicines to patients with six months or less to live. Supporters say Initiative 1000 would allow mentally competent, terminally ill adults to request and self-administer medication in order to die on their own terms. The initiative was filed in January by former Gov. Booth Gardner, a Parkinson's disease patient. read more allheadlinenews

Assisted suicide of healthy 79-year-old renews German debate on right to die

When Roger Kusch helped Bettina Schardt kill herself at home on Saturday, the grim, carefully choreographed ritual was like that in many cases of assisted suicide, with one exception.

Schardt, 79, a retired X-ray technician from the Bavarian city of Würzburg, was neither sick nor dying. She simply did not want to move into a nursing home, and rather than face that prospect, she asked Kusch, a prominent German campaigner for assisted suicide, for a way out.

Her last words, after swallowing a deadly cocktail of the antimalaria drug chloroquine and the sedative diazepam, were "auf Wiedersehen," Kusch recounted at a news conference on Monday. read more IHT

CA Pro-Life Group Says Bill Promoting Euthanasia Still Has Major Concerns

The National Right to Life Committee and the California Pro-Life Council have NOT dropped opposition to AB 2747,” Johnston told LifeNews.com. “We urge all those concerned about the very real risks posed to the medically and emotionally vulnerable to continue opposing this bill, and to urge their State Senators and Assembly Members to also oppose it.”

Johnston said the concern remains that medical professionals will continue to be able to “sell” patients euthanasia under the measure.

While proponents of the legislation talk about the bill allowing medical professionals to discuss the legal rights of patients with them, one of the rights that would potentially be promoted is the so-called right to be dehydrated and starved to death.

The pro-life advocate said a California appeals court ruling also plays a role.

“The Bouvia Decision in 1986 is a little known, but important California appellate ruling won by the ACLU that legitimizes in California physician co-operation and involvement in the dehydration death of even non-terminal patients,” he said. read more LifeNews

Sponsors of California Bill Promoting Euthanasia Remove Objectionable Parts

The California Catholic Conference, Catholic Healthcare West, and the coalition of pro-life and disability rights groups under the umbrella of Californians Against Assisted Suicide, worked overtime to stop the pro-euthanasia bill.

The California legislators sponsoring a bill that would have promoted euthanasia have removed the objectionable parts that prompted opposition from pro-life groups. Assemblywoman Patty Berg apparently decided the rest of her bill, dealing with hospice care, was too important to be defeated.

After Berg introduced AB 2747, pro-life groups joined allies in the medical and disability rights communities in opposing the bill.

The measure would codify palliative sedation and voluntary stopping of eating and drinking as legitimate means of pain control and allow doctors and nurses to suggest death by unconscious dehydration.

But Bill May of Catholics for a Common Good tells LifeNews.com that those problematic provisions no longer appear in the bill.

May credited the success of stopping assisted suicide and euthanasia in the California legislature for the fourth time in a row to the number of calls and emails from concerned citizens. read more LifeNews

Cancer Patient Commits Suicide When Told NHS Will Not Cover Chemo

This is a crucial issue involving the assisted suicide debate. We have already seen in Oregon a woman denied coverage for chemotherapy to extend her life, but told that Medicaid will pay for her assisted suicide. Now, that scenario played out in the UK. The melting down NHS denied a chemotherapy treatment and the man, in despair, killed himself.

From the story:A cancer patient killed himself a day after being told he had been refused a wonder drug by his local primary care trust.Terminally-ill Albert Baxter, 75, committed suicide hours after learning he had been turned down for a drug which could have prolonged his life and shrunk his tumour.

In desperation, the cancer sufferer offered to pay for the drug, only to be told that he would have to foot the bill for his entire treatment which he could not afford. The pensioner, who was diagnosed with renal cancer in January 2007, had been told by his oncologist, Dr Fiona McKinna that the drug Sutent was his only hope...
read more from WesleyJSmith@SecondhandSmoke

Oregon offers woman death, not cancer drugs

Barbara Wagner discovered recently her state would not cover chemotherapy for her lung cancer but would underwrite her death by physician-assisted suicide.

Wagner, 64, received notice in May that the Oregon Health Plan, which provides health-care coverage for about 380,000 low-income residents monthly, had refused to cover the drug prescribed by her oncologist when her cancer recurred, according to The Eugene (Ore.) Register-Guard. She was told, however, it would cover assisted suicide as part of palliative, or pain relief, care.

The notification the health plan would cover assisted suicide especially disturbed Wagner. "To say to someone, we'll pay for you to die, but not pay for you to live, it's cruel," she told The Register-Guard. "I get angry. Who do they think they are?"

Bioethics specialist Wesley Smith said this should come as no shock in Oregon, where assisted suicide has been legal since 1997. read more BaptistPress 6.18

Bobby Schindler Decries Current Plague in US of Hospitals Denying Life Sustaining Treatment

Recently, yet another situation similar to that of my sister Terri Schiavo has made headlines. In West Palm Beach, Florida, Raymond Weber is asking the court to dehydrate his disabled wife, Karen, to death.

If you have read any of the reports in mainstream media, it’s just another case of a husband looking out for the “best interest” of his spouse. And just as in Terri’s case, Raymond Weber is asking the government to deliberately kill his wife who is not dying and is guilty of nothing more than having difficulty swallowing and therefore needing help, in the form of a feeding tube, to eat.

Not surprisingly, in a story by the AP, was a quote from the husband’s attorney who so touchingly referred to his client’s brain-injured wife as a “vegetable,” thus offending the tens of thousands of people and their families who do live with a profound brain injury.

The reporter also wrote that the decision whether Karen should live or die will depend upon whether or not a committee finds her “competent” to go on living. Yes, that is correct, competent enough to live. I guess passing an IQ test will be next. read more LifeSiteNews 6.16

Emotional battle brewing in Washington state over Oregon-style assisted suicide measure

There isn't much John Peyton can do on his own except speak, and soon he'll lose even that.

The former Boeing computer programmer has Lou Gehrig's disease, which progressively paralyzes its victims. His doctor gives him three to six months to live.

He is using his last months to oppose a ballot initiative that would allow physicians in Washington state to help terminally ill patients end their lives. Only Oregon has such a law.

"What we're really doing I believe, is attempting to eliminate the sufferer so we don't have to deal with them," Peyton said.

Supporters need to collect about 225,000 valid voter signatures by July 3 to get the "Washington Death with Dignity Initiative" on the November ballot. The campaign has raised more than $1 million, more than enough for a successful signature drive, setting up a fiercely fought and emotional campaign. read more StarTribune 6.16

Oregon says cheaper to die than treat

Thus far Oregon is the only state to legalize physician-assisted suicide, which is loosely regulated. But respect for life may be facing another threat there.

Oregonian Barbara Wagner is dying of lung Cancer. Oregon's Health Services Commission has said it will not pay for more treatment, but will provide $50 in lethal drugs so she can kill herself. Dr. David Stevens heads the Christian Medical Association.

"I think this is a terrible situation for patients in Oregon, and something that's going to happen in other states as physician-assisted suicide is legalized," he laments. "Oregon is rationing healthcare and is also sending a message to dying patients that physician-assisted suicide is the cheap option and they would encourage people to take it." read more OneNewsNow 6.13

Orlando, Florida Newspaper Still Misreports Terri Schiavo as "Brain Dead"

Terri Schiavo died from a painful starvation and dehydration euthanasia death at the hands of her former husband over three years ago. Yet, Terri's family is still having problems getting the mainstream media to report the story of her life and death accurately.

In the most recent case, the Orlando Sentinel newspaper is under fire for a news article that wrongly referenced Terri Schiavo as "brain dead."

On Saturday, May 24, 2008, Aaron Deslatte, a reporter from the newspaper, published the story with the erroneous claim.

Terri's brother Bobby Schindler called and left repeated messages for Deslatte to contact him about the language.

On Wednesday, Orlando Sentinel representatives told Schindler to speak with Dana Eagles.

'Bobby kindly informed Mr. Eagles that using the phrase 'brain dead' to depict Terri's condition was patently false, explaining that the term 'brain death' is an authentic medical diagnosis and not an accurate term to describe a person in Terri's condition," the family told LifeNews.com in a statement. read more LifeNews 6.11

Catholics and Pro-Life Forces Fighting End-of-Life Bill in California

At least three assisted-suicide bills by Berg (a Catholic) and Levine have been defeated

The California State Assembly has taken the state closer to legalizing assisted suicide May 29 by passing the Right to Know End-of-Life Options Act.

The bill, Assembly Bill No. 2747, is designed to sneak assisted suicide into law by replacing lethal drugs with the option of starvation. The measure passed by two votes and is headed for the State Senate.

The End of Life bill, written by assembly members Patty Berg and Lloyd Levine, changes the method of assisted suicide by mandating that physicians, nurse practitioners and physician-assistants, if asked, inform patients diagnosed with a year or less to live or with terminal illnesses about medical options that hasten death, including “voluntary stopping of eating and drinking” (VSED) orders, and “palliative sedation,” allowing patients to starve and dehydrate and be unable to communicate. read more NationalCatholicRegister

Calif. legis. OKs backdoor assisted suicide

The California State Assembly has approved legislation that critics say would provide a backdoor way to legalize physician-assisted suicide.

The Assembly voted 41-32 for the bill, which is sponsored by Democrats Patty Berg and Lloyd Levine, leaders in unsuccessful efforts to pass assisted-suicide measures the last three years. The Senate has yet to vote on the legislation.

The Right to Know End-of-life Options Act, A.B. 2747, would require doctors and other health-care providers to inform patients diagnosed as terminally ill or with less than a year to live about their options for care at the end of their lives.

Among the options specified in the bill are palliative, or total, sedation and voluntary stopping of eating and drinking (VSED). Palliative sedation involves medicating a person until he is unconscious. The withholding of water and food through either palliative sedation or VSED normally results in the death of the patient by dehydration and/or starvation. read more BPPress 6.5

Oregon Offers to Pay to Kill, but Not to Treat Cancer Patient

Lung cancer patient, Barbara Wagner, was recently notified that her oncologist-prescribed medication that would slow the growth of cancer would not be covered by the Oregon Health Plan; the plan, however, she was informed, would cover doctor-assisted suicide should she wish to kill herself.

"Treatment of advanced cancer that is meant to prolong life, or change the course of this disease, is not a covered benefit of the Oregon Health Plan," read the letter notifying Wagner of the health plan's decision.

Wagner says she was shocked by the decision. "To say to someone, we'll pay for you to die, but not pay for you to live, it's cruel," she said. "I get angry. Who do they think they are?"

This past Monday morning, however, Wagner had reason to rejoice. A representative from the company that manufactures the treatment called the cancer patient to say they would give her the medication for free.

"I am just so thrilled," she said. "I am so relieved and so happy." read more LifeSite 6.4

Calif. Assisted Suicide Bill Begins Review in Senate

It may soon become legal for doctors and nurses in California to “help” their patients die if a new assisted suicide bill passes through the state senate.

Last week, AB 2747 made its way to the state senate for its first reading, one day after the state assembly approved the bill narrowly with a 42-34 vote.

If passed, the bill would allow medical practitioners throughout the state to give terminally ill patients judged with less than a year to live the option of receiving sedatives that would subject them to a form of slow, unconscious dehydration and starvation.

While House Democrat and sponsor of the bill, Patty Berg, defended the bill as a measure that would give patients “honest talk” and options about their “medical care.” Opponents of the bill say they are appalled.

"Assisted suicide by total sedation ignores the sanctity of human life and violates life-affirming medical ethics,” said Randy Thomasson, of the Campaign for Children and Families, in a statement. read more ChristianPost

Assisted Suicide Bill Passes California Assembly

This is the fourth time that the assisted suicide bill has been pushed by Assembly Democrats Patty Berg and Lloyd Levine. But this year, instead of proposing to have doctors administer lethal injections, AB 2747 aims to produce death by sedation abuse, a clear violation of life-affirming medical ethics.

An assisted-suicide bill that allows doctors and nurses to suggest death by unconscious dehydration has barely passed the California State Assembly.

AB 2747 would authorize total sedation without nutrition and hydration for depressed and confused patients, whether or not their natural death was imminent. The bill would also allow family members to order the death of a mentally disabled person when a nurse opines they have less than a year to live, similar to Terry Schindler Schiavo's death at the hands of her husband.

AB 2747 passed the Democrat-controlled Assembly Wednesday afternoon on a 40-32 vote, a one-vote margin of victory in the 80-member lower house. The vote was virtually party line, Democrats for, Republicans against. AB 2747 is authored by the same Democrats who unsuccessfully carried physician-assisted suicide bills for the last three years. read more LifeSite 5.29

Promoting Death: Analyzing the Language of Euthanasia, Suicide Advocates

Instead of using the term "physician-assisted suicide" to describe the practice they advocate, they use euphemisms like "death with dignity" and "end of life choices" to sugar coat the reality of the killings they have in view.

Even the most despicable ideas can be made palatable when euphemisms are used to spin them. That's why abortion advocates call themselves "pro-choice" rather than "pro abortion." It's also why they talk about "terminating a pregnancy" rather than "killing a baby."

Controlling the language not only controls the argument, it often determines the outcome of the argument.

Proponents of euthanasia understand the power of language in shaping debate. Therefore, instead of using the term "physician-assisted suicide" to describe the practice they advocate, they use euphemisms like "death with dignity" and "end of life choices" to sugar coat the reality of the killings they have in view.

They know the term "physician-assisted suicide" does not poll well, so they try to disguise the real nature of what it is they are championing. Since people are inherently uncomfortable with the notion that those trained in the healing arts would aid and abet the killing of their patients, euphemisms are used to conceal the true nature of what's involved.

Everyone wants to die with dignity. Thus, like abortion, killing oneself with a doctor's assistance becomes just another. read more LifeNews 5.26

In CA facilitating assisted suicide is not the way to go

From the title of Assemblymember Patty Berg’s piece (Capitol Weekly, May 15, “A little honest talk isn’t going to hurt anyone — really”), you would think the article would reflect some truth in advertising. Unfortunately, readers had no such luck.

The real “honest talk” about AB 2747 is that it has very little to do with improving care. For this bill, the devil is really in the details. Close inspection reveals it to be a vehicle for Compassion and Choices’ long-term agenda: facilitating assisted suicide. Let’s not forget that this is the organization formerly known as the Hemlock Society and one of the primary sponsors of this legislation. The bill includes many elements that would significantly undermine end-of-life care in service of this goal.

This bill represents a change in strategy by Compassion and Choices after three years of defeat. Every year since 2005, the group tried to legalize assisted suicide in California. Each year, strong bi-partisan opposition defeated that legislation. On a new tack, this bill would pave the way for their hoped-for future legalization of assisted suicide. read more 5.22

Euthanasia Group Promotes Mexico as Destination for Getting Suicide Drugs

Euthanasia advocates worldwide are promoting Mexico as a destination to obtain drugs that elderly people or terminally ill patients can obtain a drug to kill themselves. A Mexico newspaper said at least 200 people from English-speaking countries have traveled there since 2001 to end their lives.

Exit International, a pro-euthanasia group from Australia, is behind the effort to promote the use of animal euthanasia drugs in Mexico to kill people.

"On the basis of Exit research, the best places to visit are the 20-odd (US-Mexico) border crossings, from Tijuana in California through to Matamoros on the Gulf of Mexico," the group says on its web site.

The euthanasia group is promoting the use of nembutal, saying it is widely, cheaply and legally available, not only in Mexico but in many other South American countries."

"Throughout Mexico veterinary Nembutal is available for between 20 and 40 US dollars per 100ml bottle," Exit says. "One only needs to know the location of a veterinary supplier and the labeling in use at that location." read more LifeNews 5.21

ELDR Magazine's "Right To Die" National Survey: Should Your Doctor Help You Die?

ELDR magazine and ELDR.com today released the results of a national survey on the "right to die" issue or what some call "physician-assisted suicide." It reveals that over 80% of adults say the right to die is a personal decision, not that of government or religion; that two-thirds want physician-assisted right to die legal, as in Oregon; that half of U.S adults could eventually face a right to die caretaker role for a loved one; and that only half of adults over 60 have a living will or health care directive.

ELDR magazine and ELDR.com today released the results of a national survey of adults on the "right to die" issue or what some call "physician-assisted suicide." The survey showed that over 80 percent believe the choice to end one's life is a personal decision, with two-thirds of adults saying they want physician-assisted "death with dignity" legal, as in Oregon. read more

Oregon Assisted Suicide "Guidelines" That Do Not Protect

We keep hearing that the Oregon law is working without a flaw. The media touts that party line in almost every story about the issue. Of course to do that, contrary information has to be ignored. For example, the Michael Freeland case (reported in the American Journal of Psychiatry) in which a man became psychotic after being prescribed a lethal brew--even though his cancer had probably not reached the terminal stage--but was allowed by his own psychiatrist to keep the prescription "safely at home." Such as the recent study demonstrating that people without serious symptoms of their disease are given lethal prescriptions by doctors anyway. read more SecondhandSmoke

England claims 'right to die'

The government of England is giving "Right to Die" cards to its citizens.

Adults have the right and the choice to carry the cards, which call for no extraordinary steps to be taken by doctors in extreme medical situations. Dr. Burke Balch with National Right to Life believes people do not generally understand the step they are taking.

Balch argues it is a "very foolish and dangerous thing" to sign one's life away when the chances for recovery are unknown. "Let's say you're involved in a situation of smoke inhalation, and you're unable to speak for yourself," he says. "That means you might not get resuscitated." read more OneNewsNow 5.14

Washington State: Becoming Two-Faced About Suicide

Why is assisted suicide always treated as if life were lived in a vacuum? Case in point: The suicide statistics in Washington are, according to a newspaper report "terrifying," and yet, many newspapers editorially support legalizing assisted suicide--which at the very least sends a terribly mixed message to the despairing thinking of taking their own lives. From the story:

Suicide statistics are terrifying. In 2005, there were 32,637 reported suicide deaths in the United States - 822 of those were in Washington State. An estimated 19 million Americans suffer from depression. Depression, combined with certain conditions including anxiety, isolation, drug and/or alcohol use or abuse, physical or emotional illness, and feelings of hopelessness or desperation, increases the risk for suicide. read more SecondhandSmoke

Instead of Being Dehydrated to Death, Abused Girl Testifies in Court

from SecondHandSmoke

There is a huge lesson to be learned in this story, but we won't learn it and the media won't highlight the issue--lest we come to the "wrong conclusion" about Terri Schiavo. Haleigh Poutre, who doctors swore would never recover, and state bureaucrats consigned to dehydration--with the approval of the Massachusetts Supreme Court--testified in court about the abuse that led to her disability. From the story:

Communicating with simple words and hand gestures and by spelling out full sentences by pointing to alphabet letters on a board Haleigh in December described to police the intense physical abuse she allegedly suffered at the hands of her adoptive mother and stepfather, Holli and Jason Strickland, The Boston Globe reported on Tuesday.

Not bad for a little girl who was supposed to remain forever unaware.

WA: Support pours in for assisted suicide

If there’s any doubt that Washington’s about to be a national battleground in the fight over assisted suicide, just take a look at the checks.

With months left to go before Election Day, Washington’s Initiative 1000 has drawn cash contributions from all 50 states, Washington D.C. and Puerto Rico. Among them: more than 400 contributions from California, nearly 150 from New York and $215,000 from the Oregon group Death With Dignity.

“There is a passionate interest in government restrictions and government intrusion into end-of-life choices,” said Barbara Coombs Lee, president of the Portland-based group Compassion and Choices. The group’s Idaho chapter, based in Coeur d’Alene, donated $1,000.

The initiative would make Washington the second state allowing physicians to prescribe a lethal dose of medication for mentally competent, terminally ill patients who request it. Proponents say dying people should be able to choose the terms of their exit from life. Opponents say the safeguards are grossly inadequate and that it’s a slippery slope from I-1000 to euthanasia. read more SpokesmanReview

Washington Assisted Suicide Opponents Educate Residents Across State

A possible vote on the November ballot in Washington to legalize assisted suicide may be several months away, but members of the group spearheading the opposition are wasting no time in setting up educational events across the state.

The Washington Coalition Against Assisted Suicide has local forums and educational events planned for Olympia and Seattle and representative will appear on upcoming local talk radio programs.

"We are happy to take advantage of each and every opportunity to educate the voters of Washington about the dangers of Initiative 1000 and believe that informing the public is the key to winning in November," the group's Carrie Herring told LifeNews.com in an email Friday. LifeNews 4.25

Media Distorts New Medical "Hard Case" to Promote Assisted Suicide in France

The French media is publicizing a new medical "hard case" which is being used to promote the legalization of assisted suicide in the country.

Clara Blanc, a 31 year-old woman suffering from a rare degenerative disease, wants the
right to commit suicide before she becomes a "vegetable". She has sent a letter to French President Nicolas Sarkozy demanding a "referendum" on assisted suicide in France.

"At any moment I will have to be confined to a bed, completely dependent...what sense is there in all of this? I don't want to be a vegetable," says Blanc in her letter to Sarkozy. She adds, "This is not my idea of dignity. I am not suicidal, I don't know when nor how I will want to die, because I don't know how long I will be able to bear it."

Blanc suffers from Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome, a genetic disorder that causes the collagen in her body to deteriorate, causing abnormal joint flexibility and skin elasticity and sensitivity, as well as arthritis and other joint and bone problems. However, what the French public is not being told is that Ehlers-Danlos, while incurable, is not generally fatal, and is compatible with a normal life span.

"Most people with Ehlers-Danlos syndrome live a relatively normal life, although there may be restrictions to physical activity," says the U.S. National Institutes of Health in an information page on the disease (http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/ehlersdanlossyndrome.html). LifeSite

Anti-Euthanasia Activist Says Hillary Clinton Clearly Supported Assisted Suicide

Comments pro-abortion Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton made over the weekend have drawn significant attention from those opposed to euthanasia. Clinton gave a convoluted answer to a local Oregon newspaper's question on assisted suicide but appeared to support the grisly practice.

The Eugene Register Guard newspaper asked Clinton about her "attitude" towards the law.

"I believe it's within the province of the states to make that decision," Clinton said.

She said she didn't know if she would have voted for the law when Oregon voters twice voted to make the state the first to legalize assisted suicide.

"I don't know the answer to that. I have a great deal of sympathy for people who are in difficult end-of-life situations," she said. "I've never been personally confronted with it but I know it's a terribly difficult decision that should never be forced upon anyone."

"So with appropriate safeguards and informed decision-making, I think it's an appropriate right to have," Clinton concluded. read more LifeNews 4.8

Former German Minister of Justice creates “suicide machine” for terminally ill

The former Minister of Justice of Hamburg (Germany), Roger Kusch, recently unveiled a “suicide machine” to allow the terminally ill to end their lives if they wish.

According to the German television network Deutsche Welle, on March 28 Kusch presented his new “invention” to journalists and explained that the “machine is ready for use.” He explained that now the terminally ill in Germany do not have to travel to Switzerland where assisted suicide is legal.

“It’s the best method for those who desire death,” he later told CNN. The machine consists of an IV that sends anesthetic into the body through one tube and a lethal dose of potassium chloride through another. The only thing a doctor has to do is insert the needles into the patient, a procedure which by itself does not violate any German law. The patient would then press a button to begin administration of the drugs.

Kusch said the death process would last around four minutes. read more CNA 4.8

Another Suicide Machine Makes News

The media is abuzz about the creation of a "suicide machine" by a Swiss doctor that let's people kill themselves at the push of a button. Amazing times in which we live, no? But this is hardly new. Even though he sought a license to engage in human vivisection, Jack Kevorkian broke through to international celebrity with his suicide machine. Why, the media so loved Kevorkian in his prime that Time invited him to its 75th anniversary party where Tom Cruise rushed up to shake his hand!

Phillip Nitschke, Australia's "Dr Death," also invented a suicide machine where the despairing pushed a button on a computer. He has also invented the "peaceful pill," a concoction of common household ingredients that can be used to end life. (The media has quivered over this, but they don't ask how it was tested. Did Nitschke kill animals, for example? Inquiring minds want to know.) read more SecondhandSmoke 4.1

Many assisted suicides seem to be needless

Last year’s deaths by doctor-assisted suicide are three times the number of deaths in 1997, the year Oregon’s law became functional.

Contrary to The Register-Guard’s editorial on March 22, the Oregon Health Department’s recent release of the 2007 report concerning Oregon’s Death with Dignity Act proves one thing: Oregon’s assisted suicide experiment does not work as voters were led to believe it would.

Last year’s deaths by doctor-assisted suicide are three times the number of deaths in 1997, the year Oregon’s law became functional. While proponents of the law say that only three more patients killed themselves under the law last year than the year before, that is a misleading picture of how dramatically suicides have increased. The number of lethal prescriptions written also has skyrocketed.

The most frightening figure, however, is zero — the number of patients seeking physician-assisted suicide who were referred for psychiatric exams in 2007.

The Register Guard’s absurd and unsubstantiated statement that “physician assisted death ... is a conscious, deliberate choice made by mentally sound individuals” flies in the face of all reality. It is a substantiated fact that clinical depression is the No. 1 cause of suicide. Yet last year, not one single patient seeking to end his or her life by means of the assisted suicide law was referred to a professional counselor because of depression! read more RegisterGuard 3.28

Elderly Australian Man Creates Suicide Robot to Kill Himself, Used Internet Guide

In another case of someone using information gathered from the Internet to take their own life, an elderly man from Australia killed himself after making a robot. Francis Tovey, 81, lived alone and wanted to kill himself after enduring repeated requests from family to move to an assisted living facility.

Unhappy with their request, Tovey scoured the Internet for information on making a robot capable for firing a semi-automatic gun pointed at his head.

When triggered remotely, the gun fired four shots that killed Tovey.

The Gold Coast Bulletin newspaper indicated Tovey set up the robotic device in his driveway early on Tuesday because he wanted construction workers at a nearby housing site to hear the gunshots and discover his body. LifeNews read more

More Oregonians get drugs in 2007 under assisted suicide law

More people in 2007 got prescriptions to end their lives than in any year in the decade since Oregon put in place its Death with Dignity Act.

The number of people, 85, was up by 20 from the year before.

Oregon's law allows terminally ill adults to obtain and use the prescriptions to end their lives.

A state report Tuesday shows that 49 people in 2007 died under the terms of the law, up only slightly from the year before.

Of the 49, three had prescriptions from prior years.

Since the law went into effect, 341 patients have died. KTVZ 3.19

Canadian Bill to Legalize Assisted Suicide Could Come After Next Elections

Leading opponents of euthanasia in Canada are concerned that another bill to attempt to legalize assisted suicide could come after the next national elections. They worry that the case of Robert Latimer, the man who killed his disabled daughter and was recently paroled from prison, could prompt another attempt.

Canada previously dealt with assisted suicide when the Supreme Court of Canada issued a 5-4 ruling in the Rodriguez case preventing Sue Rodriguez from having a physician kill her.

Bloc Quebecois MP Francine Lalonde put forward the last bill to attempt to legalize the practice that did not put Canada in league with European nations like the Netherlands and Belgium. read more LifeNews 3.14

Girl Once Comatose and Scheduled for Euthanasia Will Testify against Attacker

Haleigh Poutre, now 14, was so brutally beaten more than two years ago by her adoptive parents, that she was left in a coma from which she was never expected to revive. However, she may now be well enough to testify against the man accused of assaulting her.

After the adoptive parents, Jason and Holli Strickland, were arrested, Holli committed suicide, leaving only the stepfather in charge of making medical decisions.

Haleigh then became a ward of the Massachusetts Department of Social Services, which sought and obtained a court order in October, 2005, to remove her life support, only six days after the state had gained custody over her. read more LifeSite 3.6

Oregon Assisted Suicide Advocates Donate $200,000 for Washington Campaign

Oregon assisted suicide advocates have donated $200,000 to expand the state's first-in-the-nation law to their northern neighbors. Euthanasia advocates in Washington have to meet a July 4 deadline for having signatures submitted to the state to qualify the assisted suicide measure for the November ballot.

The organization, headed by former Gov. Booth Gardner, must submit 224,880 signatures to qualify the measure. bio2331.html

According to papers form the Washington government, the Oregon Death with Dignity Political Action Committee made the huge donation in late November. read more LifeNews 3.5

Oregon doctors have written lethal prescriptions for patients who weren't yet suffering serious symptoms of their disease

From Secondhand Smoke:

Here are some more important points in the newly released study, which I discussed more extensively here, that I think deserve special note. It turns out doctors have written lethal prescriptions for patients who weren't yet suffering serious symptoms of their disease:

No physical symptoms experienced at the time of the request were rated higher than 2 on the 1â€“5 scale. In most cases, future concerns about physical symptoms were rated as more important than physical symptoms present at the time of the request.

Also, I have charged that the Hemlock Society (now called the euphemistic Compassion and Choices) is really in charge of assisted suicide in Oregon, noting for example that it publishes its own statistics. read more 3.4

George Soros is a big fan of euthanasia and assisted suicide and wants to see it legalized everywhere.

Posted on Wesley J Smith, SecondhandSmoke

George Soros is a big fan of euthanasia and assisted suicide and wants to see it legalized everywhere. Toward this end, Soros has donated millions to groups promoting the cause--which I believe to be an ultimately abandoning policy that implicitly tells people with terminal illnesses and other serious conditions that their lives are not as valuable or worth protecting as those of other people.

The assertions made by Soros in this feature about his philanthropy around issued of death and dying, are, I think, quite telling about his ultimately disdainful perspective about people who are approaching the end of their lives:

"Death has replaced sex as the taboo subject of our times," said one of the world's richest men and leading philanthropists, George Soros, when he launched the Project Death in America fund at Columbia University's College of Physicians & Surgeons in 1994. It promotes euthanasia or assisted suicide, and has been succeeded by the Open Society Institute's International Palliative Care Initiative . Soros's mother committed suicide, as a member of the Hemlock Society. His father died a lingering death from cancer, and Soros was "disappointed" at the way the old man clung miserably to life.

WA: Euthanasia Ballot Measure Challenged by the Coalition Against Assisted Suicide

The Coalition Against Assisted Suicide has filed a petition appealing the proposed ballot title and summary for Initiative 1000 — a measure that would allow voters to decide in November whether certain terminally ill adults can obtain lethal prescriptions.

The title and summary do not make voters aware of the "specific impact" the initiative would have on existing laws, the petition says.

"The primary purpose of I-1000 is to reverse Washington's assisted suicide ban by decriminalizing assisted suicide and allowing physicians to prescribe lethal drugs to terminally-ill patients and commit suicide," reads the coalition's petition. "The measure not only endorses assisted suicide, but creates an entire protocol for facilitating suicide."

Also, the coalition objects to two "key initiative provisions": 1) terminally ill patients do not have to undergo a mental-health evaluation before obtaining lethal drugs, and 2) no notice is required to the patient's family members.

"A patient could kill himself before the family members are even notified of the suicide request," Kristen Waggoner, an attorney for the coalition, said Friday. read more Olympian 2/9

Oregon Man Kills Wife, Tests Assisted Suicide Law on Voluntary Euthanasia

An Oregon man has killed his disabled wife in a test of the one-of-a-kind state law that allows assisted suicide there. John Roberts says his wife Virginia was afflicted with ALS, or Lou Gehrig's Disease and he took her life to see if the state would allow him to get away with voluntary euthanasia, or so-called mercy killing.

Roberts' family says John's killing his wife was an act of compassion because she didn't yet qualify for an assisted suicide under the state's guidelines. They say Virginia told John to take her life before he did the deed on Saturday.

Wesley J. Smith, a bioethics watchdog and noted author and attorney, commented on the case and said this kind of case leads to the slippery slope from assisted suicide to euthanasia. "This is the kind of case that led to the complete collapse of euthanasia guideline enforcement in the Netherlands," he said.

"This is the tide unleashed when we agree in law that killing is an acceptable answer to human suffering," he added. LifeNews read more

Wisconsin: Assisted suicide bill lacks strong support

A bill that would legalize physician-assisted suicide was recently debated in the state Legislature, though the bill’s author said it faces an uphill battle to pass.

The Senate Public Health, Senior Issues, Long Term Care and Privacy Committee held a public hearing Wednesday on Senate Bill 151.

State Sen. Fred Risser, D-Madison, and state Rep. Frank Boyle, D-Superior, authored the bill.

The bill would allow adult, mentally competent patients with terminal illnesses to obtain life-ending medication from doctors as long as they follow strict guidelines, according to Risser.

Barbara Sella, the associate director for Respect Life and Social Concerns at the Wisconsin Catholic Conference, stated similar concerns.

“[Doctors] never want a patient to look up and wonder, ‘is this doctor coming in to suggest to end my life, or is he or she really there to help me?” Sella said.

Sella said the truly civilized way to treat the terminally ill is to help them through their last days with encouragement not by allowing them to take their own lives.

“There’s a myth perception out there that either you give somebody an injection or pill to end their lives or force them to suffer endlessly,” Sella said. Daily Cardinal read more

Kevorkian Denounces Unnamed "Tyrant," Pushes for Euthanasia in Florida Speech

Kevorkian railed against US lawmakers who refuse to legalize euthanasia. "We have a bunch of cruel dictators," he said. "Everyone should refuse to vote. That would send the tyrant a message."

A central theme of Kevorkian's speech was that law is intrinsically anti-liberty. He also repeatedly referred to "the tyrant," who seeks to control people with law, thereby removing their "natural rights".

"Every law is an infraction of liberty. Every law! So when you see those law books in the lawyers office - hundreds of laws!...Those are all the rights you've lost. You can't use 'em. All law can stop you from doing is using the right that you have naturally." LifeSite
read more

The Washington State Assisted Suicide Campaign Begins

Booth Gardner, former governor of Washington and a very rich man, intends to buy a law for Washington legalizing assisted suicide. His opening salvo comes in an extended piece in Sunday's New York Times Magazine. The piece is actually suprisingly fair, so fair in fact, that Gardner may not be amused.

The potential for--and abuses that are actually happening--from legalized assisted suicide are well documented. But advocates like Gardner willfully ignore that part of the story. Bluntly stated, they want what they want for themselves and don't care who gets hurt. WesleyJSmith

More Lies from Missouri Coalition for Lifesaving Cures

The human cloners over at Missouri Coalition for Lifesaving Cures are sure a disingenuous lot, for example, claiming in Amendment 2 to have outlawed human cloning when the measure actually created a state constitutional right to clone human life.

Now, a representative has a letter in the St. Louis Post Dispatch claiming falsely that cloning opponents would have prevented the great iPSC breakthrough. From the letter:

If anti-embryonic stem cell research groups had their way, this outstanding science would not have been possible. They would have blocked the very groundwork that led to the reprogramming of ordinary human skin cells into embryonic-like stem cells. If they get their way now, they will block the important research required to bring this new technique to its full lifesaving potential...Those who threaten to repeal Missourians' access to stem cell research should allow scientists to conduct the work necessary to achieve the goals that I hope we all share: to cure disease and improve the lives of patients and families.

What hogwash. First, legislation in Missouri was always aimed at outlawing human cloning, not embryonic stem cell research. Indeed, ESCR would have remained perfectly legal in MO if A. 2 had failed. Second, the potential repeal pending in MO would really outlaw human cloning, and not impede ESCR in the least. Third, cloning had zero to do with the iPSC breakthrough, and indeed the new approach is seen widely as a moral and ethical way to derive pluripotent stem cells without SCNT cloning. Fourth, Bush-approved ES cell lines were and are perfectly suitable for the kind of basic research into pluripotency that scientists say they need to continue to perfect iPSCs. Finally, James Thomson, one of the scientists who demonstrated the viability of the approach, did so with an NIH grant from the dreaded Bush Administration. Wesley J Smith, Secondhand Smoke read more

Catholic Leaders Dispute Vatican on Euthanasia

Bio-ethicist Dr. John Hardt and Catholic canonist Rev. Kevin O'Rourke trying to use canon law against Vatican's Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith for upholding basic right of patients in so-called "persistent vegetative state" to nutrition and hydration.

Bio-ethicist Dr. John Hardt and canonist Rev. Kevin O'Rourke are trying to use canon law against a Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith Responsum that upholds the basic right of patients in a "persistent vegetative state" to nutrition and hydration. I think their arguments are flawed. Here I summarize the events leading up to the CDF Response and then assess Hardt and O'Rourke's attempt to minimize its impact. read more canonlaw.info

The Washington State Assisted Suicide Campaign Begins

Booth Gardner, former governor of Washington and a very rich man, intends to buy a law for Washington legalizing assisted suicide. His opening salvo comes in an extended piece in Sunday's New York Times Magazine. The piece is actually suprisingly fair, so fair in fact, that Gardner may not be amused.

The potential for--and abuses that are actually happening--from legalized assisted suicide are well documented. But advocates like Gardner willfully ignore that part of the story. Bluntly stated, they want what they want for themselves and don't care who gets hurt. WesleyJSmith

New Assisted Suicide Study No More Then Pro-Euthanasia Propaganda

This study was completed by Margaret Battin of the University of Utah, who is a strong supporter of legalizing assisted suicide, even for those who are not terminally ill. The way in which the study was completed would leave one to question whether her research was done simply to prove her hypothesis.

No effective conclusions concerning whether or not a 'slippery slope' exists can be ascertained by studying the annual reports from the Oregon Department of Human Services because these reports do not include information that would allow the study to get into the actual decision making bias of a person. These reports are compiled from the information from reports sent in from physicians who prescribed the assisted suicide concoction. It is unlikely that a person prescribing assisted suicide would self-report information that may be considered outside of the law. The Oregon reports don't even cover real life situations such as: Kate Cheney and Michael Freeland. Since the annual reports from the Oregon Department of Human Services are only based on self-reports from assisted suicide prescribing physicians, therefore they cannot be considered an accurate source for determining the level of a slippery slope in Oregon. LifeNews

Culture of Death icon to be released from prison June 1st

Dr. Jack Kevorkian, an infamous foe of the pro-life movement, is scheduled to be released from prison on June 1st raising questions about his plans once he is back in public. The 79 year-old was sent to prison in 1999 after he was convicted of killing a patient on national television.

He was sentenced to serve 10 to 25 years for the second degree murder of Thomas Youk, a Michigan resident who suffered from Lou Gehrig’s disease. However, according to the rules of his sentencing, Kevorkian is now eligible for parole and will be released June 1st.

According to LifeNews.com, Kevorkian plans a change of tactics in his promotion of assisted suicide. The former pathologist will take his cause to the speaking circuit to try and “legally” promote assisted suicide laws around the country. CatholicNews Agency

Assisted Suicide

Euthanasia

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Oregon Governor Signs Bill Banning Sale of Suicide Kits

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Oregon Votes to Outlaw Sale of Suicide Kits

Assisted Suicide Support Drops to Lowest Level in 8 Years

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Boston billboard promotes euthanasia

Idaho Senate passes bill clarifying that assisted suicide is illegal

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Non Cooperation With Washington-State Assisted Suicide a Success

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'Final Exit' Billboards Promote 'Right to Die'

'Dr. Death' Admits on CNN - Thomas Youk His Second, Not First Murder

30% Increase in Assisted Suicides in Oregon

Only 5% (3 people) requested assisted suicide due to inadequate pain control

Wyoming's New Assisted Suicide Bill--To Outlaw It!

read more Secondhand Smoke

FDA approves human trials for therapies with embryonic stem cells

Death Drugs Cause Uproar in Oregon

Terminally Ill Denied Drugs for Life, But Can Opt for Suicide

Court rules to preserve life of Calif. woman deprived of food, water

Providing an end-of-life path that rejects pain or poison

Former Euthanasia Petitioner Now Says "Don't Give Up On Life", as Surgery Brings New Hope

Washington Death Initiative Qualifies For November Ballot

Assisted suicide of healthy 79-year-old renews German debate on right to die

CA Pro-Life Group Says Bill Promoting Euthanasia Still Has Major Concerns

Sponsors of California Bill Promoting Euthanasia Remove Objectionable Parts

Cancer Patient Commits Suicide When Told NHS Will Not Cover Chemo

Oregon offers woman death, not cancer drugs

Bobby Schindler Decries Current Plague in US of Hospitals Denying Life Sustaining Treatment

Emotional battle brewing in Washington state over Oregon-style assisted suicide measure

Oregon says cheaper to die than treat

Orlando, Florida Newspaper Still Misreports Terri Schiavo as "Brain Dead"

Catholics and Pro-Life Forces Fighting End-of-Life Bill in California

Calif. legis. OKs backdoor assisted suicide

Oregon Offers to Pay to Kill, but Not to Treat Cancer Patient

Calif. Assisted Suicide Bill Begins Review in Senate

Assisted Suicide Bill Passes California Assembly

Washington State: Becoming Two-Faced About Suicide

Instead of Being Dehydrated to Death, Abused Girl Testifies in Court

from SecondHandSmoke

WA: Support pours in for assisted suicide

Washington Assisted Suicide Opponents Educate Residents Across State

Media Distorts New Medical "Hard Case" to Promote Assisted Suicide in France

Anti-Euthanasia Activist Says Hillary Clinton Clearly Supported Assisted Suicide

Former German Minister of Justice creates “suicide machine” for terminally ill

Another Suicide Machine Makes News

Many assisted suicides seem to be needless