Canadian doctors have warned that the experience of their country shows that euthanasia laws expand rapidly, as do the number of people being killed by euthanasia. Dr Luke Savage and Dr Keily Williams from Alberta wrote to the Irish Times in response to an admonition not to allow any references to “slopes, slippery and otherwise” in […]
Present-day society has developed a disturbing ambivalence to suicide – on the one hand, abhorring it as a tragedy and calling for preventative measures; on the other, promoting it by the legalisation of euthanasia. Gary Furnell, whose work for a funeral director has exposed him to the frequency of suicides, especially of young men, looks to […]
A study has found that just 14% of consultant physicians in Ireland are in favour of legalising euthanasia, with a strong majority also opposing assisted suicide. The research found that 67% of those who responded opposed legalising euthanasia with just 14% in favour, while almost 19% remained neutral. When it came to physician assisted suicide, […]
The Sunday Times, the leading newspaper in the UK, has launched a campaign to end the ban on assisted suicide. It has thrown its weight behind a private member’s bill in the House of Lords introduced by Baroness Meacher, who is also the chair of Dignity in Dying. At the top of the page is the […]
This book would be a bargain at any price, but it is free to download from the website of Springer, the publisher of many medical journals: Euthanasia: Searching for the Full Story: Experiences and Insights of Belgian Doctors and Nurses. Euthanasia, though legal in Belgium, is opposed by some healthcare professionals. This collection of essays contains insights and […]
German doctors have dropped their opposition to assisted suicide, in a controversial move which could pave the way for complete legalisation of euthanasia. The German Doctors’ Congress (Bundesärztekammer) this week voted to make professional regulations for doctors on assisted suicide consistent with a ruling by the Federal Constitutional Court in February last year. “The general right of personality includes […]
Here are the latest figures for euthanasia in the Netherlands, drawn from the 2020 annual report. With 6938 deaths by euthanasia, this accounted for 4.12% of all deaths. (If the estimated 15,000 extra deaths from Covid-19 were put aside, the rate would be 4.52%) There were two cases of euthanasia for Covid-19 in 2020. With […]
Here are the latest figures on assisting dying in the US state of Oregon. The 2020 data shows, among other concerns, that: The numbers continue to rise steadily — 15% per year average; they are 0.61% of all deaths in Oregon (2% of all cancer deaths), up 20% from 2019 From 1 Jan 2020 the 15-day […]
The Colombian legislature has once again failed to pass a law legalising euthanasia. Earlier this week a bill proposed by representative Juan Fernando Reyes Kuri needed to reach 85 votes in favour, but fell two votes short. Although Colombia is often described as a country where euthanasia is legal, the actual situation is complicated. In 1997 the country’s […]
Media reporting around the issue of Assisted Suicide tends to focus almost exclusively on personal stories – and often gives the misleading impression that helping a person to end their life is the only alternative to a painful death. As palliative care experts frequently point out (though their expert advice is given scant media coverage) […]
JAMA Internal Medicine hosted a fiery debate about Dutch euthanasia this week. Geriatrician Diane Meier, of the Icahn School of Medicine, New York, responded feistily to critics of an editorial which she had written in December, headlined “The Treatment of Patients With Unbearable Suffering—The Slippery Slope Is Real”. Two teams of Dutch physicians responded with reassurances that “all […]
Lebensunwertes Leben is German for “life unworthy of life.” As a justification of killing, this idea led to the Holocaust. Alarmingly, there is growing acceptance in Canada of lebensunwertes Leben. Think of Canada’s Bill C-7 and its expansion of “medical assistance in dying” (a euphemism for physician-assisted suicide, i.e. killing done by doctors). Instead of first helping […]