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Bouquets and brickbats for bestselling euthanasia book

May 4th, 2007 by

The paperback ‘how-to’ book ‘Final Exit’ received both an honor and a blow during April 2007.

First, the editors and book critics of the American national newspaper, USA TODAY, selected Derek Humphry’s book as one of the 25 most memorable books of the last quarter century.*

Then Google Adwords, the search engine giant’s advertising unit, rejected ‘Final Exit’ advertising, giving their reason that it concerned ‘violence’. Two appeals to higher management failed.

This designation of the paperback as violent contrasts with what Publisher’s Weekly is quoted on Amazon.com as saying about a book which has been a consistent bestseller since l991:

“With deep compassion and sensitivity, it spells out why a living will may not be sufficient to have a person’s wishes carried out–and what document is a better alternative. It updates where to get proper drugs and exactly how to carry out the quickest, most peaceful way to make a final exit. Finally, it gently talks to a person considering self-deliverance about alternatives, planning, and the means to make every death a “good death” at our time of greatest need.”

“Google’s ban is strange for a book which has sold over a million copies in 12 languages,” said Humphry. “The ban applies only to advertising, not general information. Other advertising groups are not bothered.”

“Final Exit’ is published by Random House, the world’s largest publisher.

* “25 Books that leave a legacy.”

Posted in Assisted Suicide, Books, Dead, death, Euthanasia, Final Exit, Publications/InternetMedia, right to die, RTD News, Self-Deliverance | No Comments »

European statistics on hastened deaths

Apr 20th, 2007 by

According to a study by INED (National Institute for Demographic Studies), between a quarter and a half of deaths in Europe will have followed a medical intervention, which could have shortened life.

Carried out in Belgium, Denmark, Italy, Sweden and Switzerland in 2001/2 this study shows that these deaths, all of which concerned only the very old, were mainly due to the administration of pain-relieving treatments which can curtail life (e.g. 19% in Italy, 26% in Denmark).

Medical decisions made with the specific intention of hastening death (i.e. cessation of treatment or administration of lethal substances) affected – 2% of deaths in Italy and 21% in Switzerland.

Patients and their families were in most cases involved in the decision-making – 68%
in Italy, 95% in the Netherlands.

Posted in Assisted Suicide, Dead, Euthanasia, Events/Conferences, Final Exit, Mercy Killing, Publications/InternetMedia, RTD News, Suicide (rational) | No Comments »

Will Russia take up voluntary euthanasia?

Apr 19th, 2007 by

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 have supported the measure, while experts said Russian society was not yet ready for such legislation.

[I wonder what is meant by ‘experts’?]

Posted in Assisted Suicide, Euthanasia, Politics/Law, right to die, RTD News, Suicide (rational) | No Comments »

‘Final Exit’ rated in top 25 memorable books in last quarter century

Apr 15th, 2007 by

The American national newspaper, USA Today, carried the following article on 14 April 2007:-

25 Memorable Books
USA Today

25 Memorable Books

*25 Books that leave a legacy*
Books tell a story about our reading preferences, certainly, but also about what’s happening in our world. USA TODAY’s book editors and critics chose 25 titles that made an impact on readers and the publishing industry over the past quarter-century. If your choices differ, let us know. We’ll post your picks.

—–Then followed a list of 24 well-known books, such as the ‘Da Vinci Code’ and ‘Harry Potter’, and coming in at 25th was —

*#25 Final Exit
By Derek Humphry (1991)
The topic of assisted suicide exploded in controversy in the 90s, thanks to Michigan pathologist Jack Kevorkian and his suicide machine and this how-to manual by an English journalist who helped his cancer-stricken first wife kill herself.

See the whole list at http://www.usatoday.com/life/top25-books.htm

Get the book at the ERGO Bookstore

Posted in Assisted Suicide, Books, Dead, death, Euthanasia, Final Exit, Hemlock, Mercy Killing, People in the News, Publications/InternetMedia, right to die, RTD News, Self-Deliverance, Suicide (rational) | No Comments »

36 percent of Brazilians support euthanasia

Apr 14th, 2007 by

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 Medicine Council authorized its affiliated doctors to “suspend” the treatment of people who are kept alive by artificial means.

The National Bishops’ Conference discussed the situation in an official document, which read: “Certain medical interventions can be deemed inadequate, due to the situation of the person who is sick, when death is imminent or inevitable. (…) However, this is not tantamount to suicide or euthanasia.”

The Netherlands and Belgium allow for some form of euthanasia. In the United States, the state of Oregon legalized assisted suicide in 1994.

Polling Data

Do you think euthanasia, that is, the intentional death of another person in the event of an incurable disease, should be allowed?

Yes 37 percent, No 57% Not sure 7%

Source: Datafolha / Folha de Sao Paulo. Methodology: Interviews with 5,700 Brazilian adults, conducted on Mar. 19 and Mar. 20, 2007. Margin of error is 2 per cent.

Posted in Assisted Suicide, death, Euthanasia, Mercy Killing, Politics/Law, right to die, RTD News, Self-Deliverance | 1 Comment »

Mexico considering right to die reforms

Apr 13th, 2007 by

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 in ending medical care that keeps them alive.

“We want to give everyone the right to a dignified death because death is the last human freedom,” said Sen. Lazaro Mazon, a surgeon.

Mazon said he had enough support for approval and expected a vote within two weeks. The measure would then have to be approved by the lower house of Congress and signed by Mexican President Felipe Calderon.

Calderon, a conservative, is an outspoken member of the Catholic Church, which has staged protests against recent leftist moves, including the capital’s proposed legalization of abortion and gay civil ceremonies there and in a northern border state.

But Mazon said he had heard encouraging indications from senators in the president’s party and believed Calderon would follow their lead.

Mexico currently demands lengthy jail time for anyone who aids patients in ending their lives, no matter how sick. Under the proposed law, active euthanasia, including lethal injections, would remain illegal.

Assisted suicide, is currently legal in only the Netherlands, Switzerland, Belgium, and the U.S. state of Oregon.

Posted in Assisted Suicide, Euthanasia, Final Exit, Hemlock, Mercy Killing, Politics/Law, right to die, RTD News, Uncategorized | No Comments »

Excerpt from new book “To Die Well”

Apr 11th, 2007 by

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 definite advantages over the use of barbiturates because it is far faster, it is easy to use, and the helium — at least presently — is easily available.

“With regard to legal liability, as far as I have learned, there has been no legal action take anywhere in this country against a bystander or family member when the patient has used this method to end life.

“The patient without any physical help from those in attendance has carried out the administration of helium that fills the bag-like tent and then pulling the tent down over the head, unassisted.”

From the new book “To Die Well” by Sidney Wanzer MD and Joseph Glenmullen MD
De Capo Press, Cambridge, Mass. ISBN 9780738310834 Hardcover $24.00
Discounted to $18.72 at Amazon.com
Also available via the authors’ web site:

{This book is a refreshing, pertinent overview of the whole right-to-die situation in America — useful background and vital advice — and is recommended reading. Not academic; personal and caring…………..Derek Humphry}

Other euthanasia/right-to-die literature at the ERGO Bookstore.

Posted in Assisted Suicide, Books, death, Euthanasia, Hemlock, Mercy Killing, Politics/Law, Publications/InternetMedia, right to die, RTD News, Self-Deliverance | No Comments »

Colombia takes a step towards legal euthanasia

Apr 10th, 2007 by

On March 29, the upper chamber (Senate) of the Congress of Colombia held a “public hearing” on
the proposed law that would fully legalize euthanasia in Colombia, following the Constitutional Court sentence of 1997. Senator Luis Fernando Velasco, chairman of the reporting committee on the law project, presided.

Representatives of the Catholic Church, the Anglican Church, the Islamic faith, and other religious confessions, as well as some lay activist groups and the Colombian Foundation for the Right to Die in Dignity DMD, were invited speakers.

The religious leaders presented their well known position totally opposed to euthanasia, arguing that God only is the “owner” of human life and no human being has the “right” to act against, in any way.

DMD president, Juan Mendoza-Vega M:D: and the vicepresident, R.N. Clemencia Uribe, argued in favor of the euthanasia law on the grounds of human rights, the right to autonomy that must be respected even if the person is at the last hours of life, and the fact that religious convictions, totally respectable, must not be imposed on persons who are not “believers”.

DMD also expressed satisfaction by the Catholic Church manifestation in favor of ending or not beginning medical treatment that is no longer “useful” to a person, even if shortening of life ensues.

The proposal will follow the proceedings in the two chambers of Congress.

——–Fundacion DMD

Posted in Assisted Suicide, Euthanasia, Events/Conferences, Mercy Killing, People in the News, Politics/Law, right to die, RTD News, RTD Organizations, Uncategorized | No Comments »

Euthanasia, assisted suicide seek the peaceful pill

Apr 9th, 2007 by

The Worldwide Quest For The Peaceful Pill

For many years there has been an urban myth that there exists a little red pill which, when swallowed, brings instant death, thus wonderfully relieving the sufferer from further pain. I have had requests for it scores of times from folk who genuinely believed such a fatal capsule was freely available.

It has been called the ‘Drion Pill’ (after a Dutch judge of that name who pushed the idea in the l990s), the ‘LastWillPill” and – much more popularly recently — the ‘Peaceful Pill’.

But this magic tablet does not exist, unless you exclude a cyanide capsule which only secret services are able to obtain. (Even then it is a painful — if fast — death that you would not want family to observe.) Puffer fish and some Australian snails are equally lethal, in seconds, but they do not of course come in pill form.

Over the years I have discussed the peaceful pill in my books ‘Final Exit’ (pages 110 and 139) and in “The Good Euthanasia Guide” (page 21).

As such a lethal pill does not yet exist, the term has come to mean any form of painless, quick, dignified death which the patient wishes to have. It is a metaphor, not an object.

The most deadly substance on the market is pentobarbital (often called Nembutal commercially) that is a barbiturate and powerful sleep-aid. It is usually the substance used in medical euthanasia where that action is legal. Worldwide, it is always on prescription, which few doctors will write because its connection with suicide is notorious. Even with pentobarbital’s high toxicity, it is still necessary to take in nine grams of it to ensure certain death – hardly pill popping!

The term has come back into attention with the publication of Nitschke/Stewart new book, ‘The Peaceful Pill Handbook.’ They are careful to point out that this is a handbook outlining numerous methods of ending one’s life, not a single way out.

Thus the hunt for the deadly elixir or pill continues. So read the latest ‘Final Exit’ and its new Addendum for your options.

Currently, the favored means of exit in America is the careful inhalation of helium gas, which the book outlines with illustrations.

But what we really need is legal, medical, voluntary euthanasia and assisted suicide in all countries so that there is no need for these improvised pills and gases.

—- Derek Humphry 4/2007
President, Euthanasia Research & Guidance Organization (ERGO)
ergo@finalexit.org

Posted in Assisted Suicide, Books, Dead, death, Euthanasia, Final Exit, Hemlock, Mercy Killing, Politics/Law, Publications/InternetMedia, right to die, RTD News, RTD Organizations, Self-Deliverance, Suicide (rational) | 3 Comments »

Way some of us die is ‘shameful’

Apr 7th, 2007 by

ONE in five people will die a “shameful death” alone, ravaged by dementia and without dignity, new British research claims. A book by sociology professor Allan Kellehear, A Social History Of Dying, argues this kind of death would be considered “shameful” by previous generations.

In a bleak portrait of death in the 21st century, the professor from the University of Bath, claims the act of dying is becoming increasingly “tragic and anti-social”.

He argues that medical advances were enabling people to live longer but society was at a loss with how to treat this large ageing population.

“Most people think only fleetingly about how they will die and usually it surrounds some romantic notion dying in our sleep at home,” he said.

“This couldn’t be further from the truth. We are significantly more likely to die a prolonged death in a nursing home or hospital, preceded by multiple organ failure, pneumonia or dementia.

“As we live longer, there is every chance that we will outlive those friends and family who have traditionally seen us through our last years.

“It is also likely that we will have exhausted the financial means by which we would pay professionals to look after us instead.”

Professor Kellehear claims that the way that developed countries treat the dying is “shameful.”

He argues that the act of dying may have actually been handled better by earlier generations with “good” peasant deaths surrounded by friends and family.

He claims that the rise in “shameful deaths” is leading an increasing number of elderly people to consider suicide in order to take control and manage their own death.

Professor Kellehear urges governments worldwide to reassess how the act of dying is treated before it becomes a major crisis.

“Whether it is introducing more liberal policies that enable people to better manage how they die, a closer examination of medical ethics, better training for nursing homes or support for people who care for the elderly – something needs to happen,” he said.

“We need to tackle the subject of dying head on. Talk about dying, let alone our own death, is not a popular theme for politicians or public debate.

“But there is no escape from the tragedy that will befall many of us when we die.”

Footnote: Literature on euthanasia at the ERGO bookstore.

Posted in Assisted Suicide, Books, Dead, death, Euthanasia, Opinion Pieces, Politics/Law, Publications/InternetMedia, right to die, RTD News | 1 Comment »

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