Assisted-Dying Blog

“IT MUST BE THE PATIENT’S CHOICE’ Dr. Tom Preston has just published Patient-Directed Dying, a book that he says is “a manifesto calling for mercy and reasoning in helping terminally ill patients die a peaceful death.” In it he makes a strong argument for legalizing physician aid in dying . In Patient-Directed Dying Dr. Preston […]

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Could there be a license to die ? Would it help relieve terminal suffering by putting everybody on notice that a person was coming to the end of their life? Emails to the ERGO List started this unusual debate:- To begin with, Derek Humphry wrote: The report for 2005 on the state’s physician-assisted suicide law […]

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“JEAN’S WAY’ Thirty years ago — on March 29, l975 — Jean Humphry took her life with an overdose of barbiturates to escape the final ravages of metastasized cancer. A doctor supplied the drugs and her husband helped her take them. Three years later the account of her death in a book called “Jean’s Way” […]

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Bishops of the Church of England have come together with the Roman Catholic Church in launching a campaign to prevent the legalisation of ‘assisted suicide‘ this week. The Roman Catholic attempt to distribute half a million anti-euthanasia leaflets and DVDs to each of their parishes in England and Wales is the biggest political campaign by […]

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To access a useful list of organizations in North America which handle right to die issues, visit this web site belonging to Compassion in Dying of Oregon which is the steward of that state’s physician-assisted suicide law. ——- Derek Humphry, Oregon, USA

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The latest Field Poll (done Feb 2006, published 15 March) shows that seventy percent of all adults and sixty-nine percent of registered voters in California believe that incurably ill patients have to the right to ask for and receive life-ending medications. “Californians tend to be more open to allowing an individual to make a decision […]

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The Guardian newspaper in London reported (but few if any US newspapers did):- Former top judge says US risks edging near to dictatorship · Sandra Day O’Connor warns of rightwing attacks · Lawyers ‘must speak up’ to protect judiciary Julian Borger in Washington, Monday March 13, 2006, Guardian Sandra Day O’Connor, a Republican-appointed judge who […]

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Derek Humphry writes: The report for 2005 by the Oregon Department of Human Services contains this description below of the part physicians actually play in the assisted suicide of dying patients. What strikes me as interesting — and troublesome — is the third paragraph which says that in the beginning of the law’s implementation doctors […]

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The Oregon Dept. of Human Services has issued its annual report on the state’s Death With Dignity Act which permits dying people to ask their doctor for a lethal overdose to hasten their end. According to the 2005 report, 64 terminally ill patients received a prescription under the Oregon law, and a total of 38 […]

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OPINION Euthanasia of hopelessly ill babies must be approached with the greatest caution, surrounded by a bodyguard of sensible rules. Every case must be individually considered on its medical circumstances and the ethical belief of the parents. Hastening the end of seriously ill and handicapped infants goes on all over the world — and always […]

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