By Derek Humphry
(10.20.2008)
There has been a deluge of publicity in recent months about the easy availability of veterinary Nembutal (pentobarbital) in veterinary supply stores in Mexico. This has caused a much larger number of people than usual to travel there in search of the lethal drug for their self-deliverance from a terminal illness should their suffering be protracted and unbearable.
A few people have traveled from as far as Australia and New Zealand to get the substance for their end of life. And gone home to broadcast the news. For many it’s an insurance or escape route much to be desired.
Many people with poor mental health are also joining the rush for this potion of death. Veterinary Nembutal is used in most countries for either sedating animals — mostly horses — for surgery, or euthanizing them. It is tightly controlled everywhere except Mexico, but the government there is now threatening to change that because of recent sales abuse.
For some forty years Canadians and Americans have been Continue Reading »
Tags: Euthanasia, Mexico, Nembutal, Self-Deliverance, Veterinary
Posted in Assisted dying, Assisted Suicide, Books, death, Euthanasia, Final Exit, Politics/Law, right to die, RTD News, RTD Organizations, Self-Deliverance, Suicide (rational) | 3 Comments »
The story of the last few days around the young English rugby player who was paralysed after a game accident, and later chose assisted suicide in Switzerland, reminded me of a haunting experience I had in 1980.
When I was at the world euthanasia conference in Oxford, UK, a young man in a wheelchair approached and, calmly and intelligently, asked me to help him to die. (He had read my book ‘Jean’s Way’ plus I had just formed the Hemlock Society USA)
James Haig, 24, had been terribly injured in a motorcycle accident, leaving him permanently paralyzed from the neck down. He had been compensated adequately, provided with equipment and counseling, but his determination to die went as far as divorcing his wife, then stating publicly that we wanted someone Continue Reading »
Tags: Assisted Suicide, Euthanasia, handicap
Posted in Assisted dying, Assisted Suicide, Final Exit, People in the News, Publications/InternetMedia, right to die, RTD News, RTD Organizations, Self-Deliverance, Suicide (rational) | 5 Comments »
‘Final Exit’ third edition, including the Addendum, and completely up-to-date, has been available for digital download eBook since 2007. Easy to read type, and amply illustrated. The gold standard in ‘how-to’ books, sold over a million in 12 languages.
Visit www.finalexit.org/ergo-store
–Derek Humphry, Oregon
Tags: Assisted Suicide, eBook, Euthanasia, helium, Mexico, Self-Deliverance
Posted in Assisted dying, Assisted Suicide, Books, death, Euthanasia, Final Exit, Hemlock, Publications/InternetMedia, right to die, RTD News, Self-Deliverance, Suicide (rational) | No Comments »
Quite a few people in the right-to-die movement — including myself — think that a person with severe dementia (or Alzheimers) DOES have the right to be helped to check out PROVIDED that they had made an advance declaration to this effect back when they were competent.
Referring to it — as some do — as a ‘duty to die’ is mistaken and unfortunate. Dementia more subtly tragic than that crude term.
In my view, the personal choice to die with assisted suicide should be available to all who are terminally or hopelessly ill, provided there is advance planning, careful decision-making, family support (hopefully) all backed up by documentation.
One day this will be legal everywhere. It may take 50 years.
–Derek Humphry, Oregon – ‘Final Exit’ author
Tags: Alzheimers, dementia, right to die
Posted in Assisted dying, Assisted Suicide, Euthanasia, Final Exit, right to die, RTD News | 2 Comments »
The Oregon Death with Dignity Political Action Fund is leading efforts to raise $1M to ensure passage of the Washington Death with Dignity initiative this November [2008].
We are entering the most critical time for the Washington campaign. We are working on the final push to raise enough money to purchase television commercials to counter our opponents’ lies in the media.
In every past Death with Dignity campaign, our opponents, including the Catholic Church, have funneled hundreds of thousands of dollars in last-minute donations into Continue Reading »
Tags: Washington law
Posted in Assisted dying, Assisted Suicide, Euthanasia, Politics/Law, right to die, RTD News, RTD Organizations | No Comments »
Legalization of euthanasia in Colombia advanced a step recently when a Congressional commission approved a preliminary draft of the legislation, 11 years after the Constitutional Court had approved its decriminalization. Three more votes remain. Under the conditions approved by the 11 to three
commission vote, the process can only be initiated by the patient and, to prevent “euthanasia touristsâ€, the option is limited to Colombians or
foreigners who have lived for more than a year in the country. Practice of euthanasia, or medically assisted suicide, will be regulated by the Minister of Protection, according to the approved text.
Tags: Colombia, Euthanasia
Posted in Assisted dying, Assisted Suicide, Politics/Law, right to die, RTD News | No Comments »
ALAN JOHNSON
Sad to report the death on 15 September 2008 at the age of 94 of a Hemlock Society stalwart Alan Johnson, EDd.
He founded the Hemlock Society chapter in Palm Springs, California, and kept it active for many years. Alan also served on the boards of the Hemlock Society USA in the 1980s and on Americans for Death with Dignity, its political arm. At his death he remained a member of the Hemlock Society of San Diego.
Alan had been active until recent weeks but a sudden decline in health caused him to go into San Diego Hospice. There he decided not to eat or
drink any more and died in his sleep eight days later. His companion, Vivi, was at his side.
Tags: Hemlock veteran
Posted in Assisted dying, Assisted Suicide, Euthanasia, Hemlock, People in the News, right to die, RTD News, RTD Organizations, Self-Deliverance | No Comments »
Program for the 17th World Euthanasia Congress in Paris
Towards a global recognition of our final freedom
Thursday October 30th – Sunday, November 2nd, 2008
Concorde la Fayette Hotel (3, place du Général-Koenig – Paris 17ème)
2 pm – 5 pm: members of ADMD-France will welcome the delegates and distribute the working documents. Continue Reading »
Tags: euthanasia and assisted death, right to choose to die
Posted in Assisted dying, Assisted Suicide, Dead, death, Euthanasia, Events/Conferences, Final Exit, Politics/Law, right to die, RTD News, RTD Organizations, Self-Deliverance, Suicide (rational) | No Comments »
A lengthy legal battle in Italy is set to continue for a man campaigning to remove life support from his daughter who has been in a coma for 16 years. State prosecutors in Milan have sought an in junction against a July 9 ruling by an appeals court in the city allowing for the removal of feeding tubes connected to Eluana Englaro’s body since a 1992 car accident.
‘It is not certain that Eluana is without consciousness and the issue of the irreversibility of her state has not been dealt with thoroughly,’ prosecutors wrote in their injunction request. The 34-year-old Englaro’s case has fuelled controversy over euthanasia in mostly Catholic Italy where church authorities have spoken out against her father Beppino’s wish to terminate her life. The issue has also come before parliament with lawmakers in Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi’s conservative coalition and centrist Catholic opposition parliamentarians, moving to block the appeals court ruling.
Tags: Catholic, coma, Italy, life support
Posted in Assisted dying, People in the News, Politics/Law, right to die, RTD News, Uncategorized | No Comments »
The annual conference and general membership meeting of the highly respected Swiss-German EXIT organisation (50,000 members, who all must be residents of Switzerland) at this years meeting in Zürich 26 April 2008, adopted with overwhelming majority a resolution which requires the organisation at its 2009 meeting, to take a vote on whether their statutes shall be amended to add “being tired of old-age” to the prevailing EXIT eligibility criteria for offering members end of life assistance.
(Source: Summary of the Minutes of the 26 April 2008 General Membership Meeting, pages 18-19 of the organisations EXIT INFO publication, Issue 2, 2008.)
Tags: Switzerland
Posted in Assisted Suicide, death, Euthanasia, right to die, RTD News, RTD Organizations, Suicide (rational) | No Comments »
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