Assisted-Dying Blog

A 15-year-old student named Zoe Cleland, who has long believed that physician-assisted suicide should be made legal in Canada, had the idea of starting an online petition. She asked if the website of the Right to Die Society (www.righttodie.ca) could be used to point people to it, and of course we said Yes. A red […]

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California Assembly Speaker Fabian Nuñez has announced that he will back a bill to allow terminally ill people to hasten their deaths with lethal prescriptions. Similar bills have failed in the last two years, but supporters say Nuñez, a Los Angeles Democrat, could make the difference. “We are more hopeful now than ever that we […]

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In the 25 months since it opened, more than half a million people have visited ERGO’s online bookstore (505,919 to be exact.) 2,439 have purchased books, ebooks, DVDs and VHS videos. Of those, 1,117 bought ‘Final Exit’ 3rd edition, paperback. Amazon.com Sales Rank of ‘Final Exit’ today: #14,364 in Books (out of 2 million volumes […]

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A state House committee has voted 6-1 to hold a bill that would have legalized physician-assisted suicide in Hawaii. House Bill 675 faced overwhelmingly opposition during a hearing before the House Health Committee, chaired by Rep. Josh Green, (D-Keauhou, Honokohau). A similar bill in the Senate is also not expected to make it out of […]

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For years German right-to-die leaders and activists have lived under a cloud of uncertainty whether physicians, “guides”, friends, relatives, etc who had rendered perfectly legal passive assistance at the scene , would nevertheless subsequently be subject to prosecution, if, after witnessing the patient’s suicide, they failed to immediately take emergency measures to nullify the patient’s […]

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A year after the U.S. Supreme Court upheld Oregon’s physician-assisted suicide law, lawmakers in Hawaii plan to examine the issue once again. The proposal to allow competent, terminally ill adults obtain a lethal dose of medication to end their lives will be heard by the House Health Committee. Just as with past proposals, the bill […]

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A ruling by Switzerland’s highest court has opened up the possibility that people with serious mental illnesses could be helped by doctors to take their own lives. Switzerland already allows physician-assisted suicide for terminally ill patients under certain circumstances. The Federal Tribunal’s decision puts mental illnesses on the same level as physical ones. “It must […]

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An Italian doctor who switched off the life support of a paralysed man at the centre of a battle over euthanasia has been cleared of wrongdoing by a medical panel, in what he called a victory for patients’ rights. Anaesthetist Mario Riccio divided Roman Catholic Italy by granting Piergiorgio Welby his wish to die in […]

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The Swiss Federal Court acknowledges the right to an accompanied suicide as a human right. Also mentally ill are entitled, if they have capacity of discernment. Decision creates legal security. Uster/Wetzikon, February 1st (.-) The Swiss Federal Court has acknowledged the right of a person to determine the way and the point in time of […]

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Four out of five people in Britain believe the law should allow a doctor to end the life of a terminally ill patient who is in pain if they wish to die. In a finding confirming that British public opinion is at odds with the law, the British Social Attitudes Survey reveals strong support for […]

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