Belgian paralympian Marieke Vervoort died after euthanasia at the age of 40. Vervoort won gold and silver at the London 2012 Paralympics and another two medals at Rio 2016, had an incurable degenerative muscle disease. Vervoort had been preparing for euthanasia for a long time. In 2008 she completed all the paperwork. Despite her strength […]
Assisted Suicide Laws and Their Danger to People with Disabilities is a scathing analysis of arguments in favour of assisted suicide.
Speeches by supporters of assisted suicide always include a big shout-out for people with disabilities. Hey, guys, you’re top on our list of favs; we’re just working out the delicate balance against individual rights. Just hang in there; we love youse all. Which, translated, means that the fears of people with disabilities are going to be […]
Italy’s Constitutional Court ruled this week that assisted suicide is legal if a person is experiencing “intolerable physical and psychological suffering”. Anyone who “facilitates the suicidal intention… of a patient kept alive by life-support treatments and suffering from an irreversible pathology” should not be punished, the court ruled. The patient’s condition must be “causing physical […]
Serious concerns have been raised about the implementation of Canada’s Medical Assistance in Dying (MAiD) legislation after a 61-year-old depressed but otherwise healthy man was euthanised in the province of British Columbia. Alan Nichols, a former school janitor who lived alone and struggled with depression, was admitted to Chilliwack General Hospital, BC, in June after he was […]
The definition of mercy killing is very elastic, as two recent cases in England demonstrate. In the first, 53-year-old Robert Knight was given a two-year suspended sentence after pleading guilty to the manslaughter of his mother, 79-year-old June. June had Alzheimer’s disease and was being given end-of-life care in a nursing home. Robert found his mother’s suffering […]
A Dutch doctor who faced a trial for not doing enough to verify if the patient actually wanted to die, was acquitted of murder or any wrongdoing by his actions.
Parliamentarian Pia Dijkstra will table her bill early next year for those who are reportedly “tired of life”.
The trial of a medical doctor in the Netherlands this week over the euthanasia of a 74 year old woman in 2016 is notable for many reasons, but perhaps most of all by the commitment by the prosecution that even if the doctor responsible is found guilty, she will face no prison time. The facts […]