Assisted-Dying Blog

More than two-thirds of Americans believe there are circumstances in which a patient should be allowed to die, but they are closely divided on whether it should be legal for a doctor to help terminally ill patients end their own lives by prescribing fatal drugs, a new AP-Ipsos poll finds. The results were released Tuesday, […]

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Dr Jack Kevorkian free at last (on June 1, 2007) The Euthanasia Research and Guidance Organization (ERGO) heartily welcomes the release from prison on parole of Dr. Jack Kevorkian after serving eight years of a 10-25 years sentence in Michigan, USA. We hope that he can enjoy a well-deserved retirement — he is 79 — […]

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Jack Kevorkian still supports euthanasia. In a telephone interview with Michigan TV station WJBK, Kevorkian vows to work toward having assisted suicide legalized. However, Kevorkian also says he won’t break any laws doing so. The retired pathologist was sent to prison for up to 25 years in 1999 after he was convicted of murdering a […]

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1. A political stalemate that has left most of New York’s population without critical decision-making powers in end-of-life situations. For years, to end this deplorable situation, the New York State Bar Association has been strongly advocating for a Family Health Care Decisions Act. More than 75 percent of New Yorkers do not have a health […]

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The number of euthanasia cases in the Netherlands has dropped over the past few years, though the number of terminal patients receiving palliative sedation has increased. This has emerged from an evaluation of euthanasia legislation presented to State secretary for public health Jet Bussemaker. 2,300 people had their lives terminated by euthanasia in 2005, more […]

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A total of 76 Britons with terminal illnesses have ended their lives at the Dignitas Clinic in Zurich since it was founded in 1999. Between 2003 and 2006, an average of 14 people a year made the trip, (The Independent reported), while 34 have done so since January 2006. “It is appalling that the current […]

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EUTHANASIA LAW UNDER DISCUSSION [in Russia]: The Federation Council has been preparing legislation that would legalize euthanasia in Russia, according to information received. If passed, the new law would allow people to request assisted suicide if sanctioned by a commission of doctors, lawyers and representatives from the prosecutor’s office. For now only patients’ rights organizations […]

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Many adults in Brazil are opposed to euthanasia, according to a poll by Datafolha published in Folha de Sao Paulo. 57 per cent of respondents are against allowing the intentional death of another person in the event of an incurable disease. Approximately 80 per cent of Brazilians are baptized Roman Catholics. Last year, Brazil’s Federal […]

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Mexico’s Senate has began discussing the legalization of right to die, adding to a spate of liberal moves in the country that includes the sanctioning of gay civil unions and abortion. The bill’s sponsor said it would permit the terminally ill to go off medical treatment and end prosecution of doctors who follow patients’ wishes […]

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Two Harvard doctors write in their new book “To Die Well’………… “ADVANTAGES OF HELIUM (page 122) “Many doctors have found that the use of helium is now the speediest and most available method (outside of Oregon) for a patient in this country [USA] to end life when faced with intolerable suffering. Helium has had some […]

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