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Right to die veteran Colombia campaigner dies

Sep 2nd, 2006 by

Beatriz Gomez, a person who defied all conventional taboos and founded a right-to-die organization in Colombia – a Catholic country and herself a Catholic — has died. She was 84, and passed away peacefully and suddenly at her home in Bogotá on August 15, 2006.

Beatriz Kopp De Gomez single-handedly founded in 1979 the Fundacion Pro Derecho A Morir Dignamente (DMD) and it remained until this year the only such organization in South America. (Venezuela now has one.) She built it from tiny beginnings to an influential group with small staff and office that carried enormous respect from Colombia’s ruling elite and politicians. By the time of her death – still its president –DMD had more than 10,000 members.

She had come into the pro-choice movement earlier as a board member of the Family Planning Center of Colombia, and was also an executive member of the International Planned Parenthood Foundation.

At DMD’s 20th anniversary celebrations in 1999 the nation’s Minister of Health and other high officials attended, although the country does not recognize physician-assisted suicide or voluntary euthanasia. So far as I could tell (I was there) they attended out of enormous respect for political clout and intellectual authority which Beatriz possessed. Continue Reading »

Posted in Assisted Suicide, Euthanasia, People in the News, RTD News, RTD Organizations | No Comments »

Speech Transcript: Assisted suicide laws should be changed

Sep 1st, 2006 by

The parliament of South Australia voted to ban this speech from appearing on the Internet. So here it is:

Speech to SA Legislative Council by Sandra Kanck MLC.
30th Aug 2006-08-31

This is a simple motion that states the obvious. But in addressing this, I will be doing two things:

a) placing on record some of the dreadful ways that people use to end their lives, and what might be more acceptable alternatives for those who are denied the opportunity to access legal voluntary euthanasia; and

b) challenging Federal law

During this year’s state election I made a promise to challenge the “Suicide Related Material Offences Act” which was passed last year by a majority of members of the Federal Parliament.

This Act provides a fine of $110,000 for an individual and $550,000 for a body corporate should they provide information through electronic means about humane ways to end a person’s life.

This is a case of the law being an ass:

• Radio and TV would be able to cover what I’m saying now but would be breaking the law if they attempt to put to air some of remarks I will make later about methods.
• Newspapers can cover the whole speech, but they cannot put it on their websites.
• Anyone who reads it in Hansard can copy and distribute it without breaking the law, but they will not be able to access this parliament’s website and forward the details electronically.
• If they copy it and have the intention to put it on their own website, even if they never do it, they break the law.
• People can borrow from their library or buy from a bookshop Derek Humphry’s book “Final Exit” which details humane methods of ending one’s life.
• I can face to face tell a person the methods that might be used to take one’s life, but I cannot do this via the telephone.
• I can put it in writing in a letter to a friend but I cannot e-mail that same information.
• And most stupidly, it can only apply to telecommunications providers in Australia.

This law encroaches on our freedom of speech, and its inconsistencies make this a law that deserves ridicule. Continue Reading »

Posted in Assisted Suicide, Euthanasia, People in the News, Politics/Law, RTD News, RTD Organizations, Suicide (rational) | 1 Comment »

Suicide, assisted suicide? What’s in a word?

Aug 24th, 2006 by

The arguments of the merits and de-merits of the words ‘assisted suicide’ and ‘suicide’ have been going on in the right-to-die movement for 30 years. They don’ t trouble me, but as a writer, in order to vary my style, I also use alternatives, such as ‘self-deliverance’, ‘hastened death’,
‘self-determination’.

But none of us can get away from the hard fact that the law (in English anyway) uses ‘suicide’ and ‘assisted suicide’ and also do the majority of medical papers and academic studies. So you can’t eliminate those words, much as you might like to.

As one example, the 8th annual report on the Oregon Death With Dignity Act, issued by the Oregon Department of Human Services, begins its summary with the words “Physician-assisted suicide (PAS) has been legal since November l997, when………” And continues to use the same term throughout the report.

Dr. Kevorkian tried to popularize ‘medicide’ and ‘obitiatry’ as alternatives but they did not catch on.

It seems to me to be running against the tide to try and banish the term ‘assisted suicide’. Let’s just use it judiciously.

—————————Derek Humphry, Oregon, USA 8.24.06

Posted in Assisted Suicide, Opinion Pieces, RTD News, Suicide (rational) | 1 Comment »

Assisted suicide for murderers, but not for the terminally ill !

Aug 19th, 2006 by

Many people, like me, find it macabre that the execution of murderers is done with the use of lethal drugs, but this is a taboo, even illegal, when a dying person asks for assisted suicide (euthanasia). The only exception in America is Oregon.

The latest example is Senator Brownback’s Assisted Suicide Prevention Act, just introduced into the US Senate. (August 2006)

While the “dispensing, distribution, or administration of a controlled substance” will not be allowed for assisted suicide, the Bill will specifically authorize the same actions for carrying out the death penalty (see section 3(5) of Brownback’s bill).

The full text for Bill S.3788 can be viewed at
http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query

Further reading on assisted suicide and voluntary euthanasia at the ERGO Bookstore.

Posted in Assisted Suicide, Euthanasia, Opinion Pieces, RTD News | No Comments »

Thoughts on assisted suicide for the mentally ill

Aug 18th, 2006 by

A NEW ESSAY BY DEREK HUMPHRY

Why assisted suicide for the mentally troubled is so problematic

By the author of ‘Final Exit’

Posted in Assisted Suicide, Opinion Pieces, RTD News | 11 Comments »

Assisted suicide should not interest the police

Aug 12th, 2006 by

In the past five years or so, at least 50 persons have escorted relatives and friends from the UK to Zurich, Switzerland – to the Dignitas flat there, for an assisted suicide. Most of these individuals are known to the police, and many of them have been questioned by the police upon their return to the UK. Yet, until last May, none of them had been arrested. Now even that person is not to be prosecuted.

Why don’t the police just leave them alone in the hour of their grief?

Better, why doesn’t the English Parliament have the guts to introduce a physician-assisted suicide law for the terminally ill and hopelessly ill, competent adult?

—————–
Derek Humphry (author of Final Exit)

Posted in Assisted Suicide, Euthanasia, Opinion Pieces, RTD News, Suicide (rational) | No Comments »

Move in US Congress to ban doctor assisted suicide

Aug 6th, 2006 by

U.S. Senator Sam Brownback has introduced into the US Congress the Assisted Suicide Prevention Act, which would prohibit doctors from prescribing federally-controlled substances for the purpose of physician-assisted suicide.

“When the law permits killing as a medical ‘treatment,’ society’s moral guidelines are blurred, and killing could gain acceptance as a solution for the chronically ill or vulnerable,” said Brownback.

“Doctor-assisted suicide could actually create a financial incentive for insurance companies to encourage prematurely ending the lives of those in need of long-term care.”

Derek Humphry responds: Here they come again! The religious right trying to make others conform to their particular ethics. His last remark about insurance companies is pure nonsense and has no basis in fact. Instead of working on solutions to what looks like World War III, Congress seems intent on making it more difficult for the terminally ill to die peacefully, according to their own wishes.

Posted in Assisted Suicide, Euthanasia, Politics/Law, RTD News | 1 Comment »

No euthanasia law reform for India

Aug 1st, 2006 by

The government of India says it has no plans to give legal status to euthanasia or “mercy killing” and would not consider any such application.

“Government is not considering to give legal status to euthanasia. Till date law has not permitted it and application for the same cannot be entertained,” Minister of State for Law and Justice K Venkatapathy said in a written reply in the Rajya Sabha.

Posted in Assisted Suicide, Euthanasia, Politics/Law, RTD News | 1 Comment »

Legal physician-assisted suicide debate in Canada

Jul 31st, 2006 by

It is apparent that the debate over doctor-assisted suicide for the terminally ill is going to re-open in Canada. The Sun newspaper in Edmonton just reported as follows:

A private member’s bill from Bloc Quebecois MP Francine Lalonde had thrust the controversial issue onto the parliamentary agenda, but the federal election temporarily swept it off the table. Armed with the backing of many MPs who believe the time has come to legalize assisted suicide in Canada, she is now determined to put it back on.

“Having seen what’s happening in other countries, it’s important to have the debate, a large debate among the population,” said Lalonde, who just returned from a trip to Belgium, where assisted suicide has been legal for about three years.

Based on expert legal advice from Canada and abroad, Lalonde intends to make some changes to her bill and hopes the fine-tuning will satisfy concerns that were raised by other MPs. She said the critical issue has been left drifting for too long in Canada – partly because of scant international precedents, but mostly due to a lack of political courage.

Posted in Assisted Suicide, Euthanasia, RTD News, Suicide (rational) | No Comments »

Medical mercy killings after Katrina hurricane

Jul 18th, 2006 by

My comment re the doctor and two nurses charged with murder in New Orleans after the hurricane:

It is my opinion that sometimes, in the harsh, real world in which we can find ourselves, so-called mercy killing is justifiable. Sometimes.

It seems to me that this New Orleans hospital medical team was placed in a terrible situation with the dying people in their care. Thus the most humane thing to do, rather than abandon them to die in appalling conditions caused by the hurricane, was to quietly hasten their inevitable ends with sedative drugs.

It is a pity that it became known, because in a place like Louisiana those three accused persons are not themselves likely to get much understanding and mercy.

————-Derek Humphry, Oregon 18 July 06
ERGO Bookstore

Posted in Assisted Suicide, Euthanasia, Mercy Killing, Opinion Pieces, RTD News | No Comments »

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