Feed on
Posts
Comments

Biography of Dr Kevorkian just published

Jul 10th, 2006 by

Neal Nicol writes:-
My biography of Dr. Jack Kevorkian is finally available. Books were delivered to bookstores in the US and Canada on July 5th, and are available through Barnes & Noble. Also, U of Wisconsin Press is offering a special discount on the book if you order direct from them.

Jack is 78, in his 7th year in prison and is very frail. Among other ailments, he has Hepatitis C that he contracted while doing transfusion experiments for the Pentagon many years ago–but that’s in the book.

To promote his release, it would be appreciated if you could purchase the book and also forward this email to your friends and acquaintances so they too, can forward it to their friends and acquaintances.

It would make an old man (Jack, not me) very happy.

If you would like a personalized note and autograph, please forward your snail mail address, or email it to intern1@uwpress.wisc.edu, and I will forward a “book plate” sticker to paste in the book.

If you call the Chicago Distribution Center at 1-800-621-2736 just mention the code 6BDD and they’ll give you a 30% discount; or you can use their link: http://www.wisc.edu/wisconsinpress/offer_betweenthedyingand_.html

If you prefer to purchase locally, and you don’t see the book in stores, U of Wisconsin Press invites you to have them order it – thus creating a demand.

———————-Neal Nicol, Michigan, co-author

Posted in Assisted Suicide, Books, Euthanasia, Mercy Killing, People in the News, Politics/Law, RTD News, Suicide (rational) | No Comments »

New books on euthanasia and assisted suicide

Jul 9th, 2006 by

New books recently received at ERGO:

UNPLUGGED: Reclaiming our right to die in America. By William H Colby, attorney. ISBN 9780814408827. Hardcover. AMACOM, NY. $24.95 US.

BETWEEN THE DYING AND THE DEAD: Dr. Jack Kevorkian’s life and the battle to legalize euthanasia. by Neal Nicol and Harry Wylie. ISBN 0299217108. Hardcover. Terrace Books, Madison, Wisconsin. $27.95.

PATIENT-DIRECTED DYING: A call for legalized aid in dying for the terminally ill. By Tom Preston MD. ISBN 0595391448. Paperback. iUniverse Inc., Lincoln, Nebraska. $17.95.

The above books can be purchased from good bookstores or from Amazon.com (All prices quoted are US dollars.)

Other books on this subject can be viewed at ERGO Bookstore

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

Helping a dying friend to his end

Jul 2nd, 2006 by

The Los Angeles Times printed the following thoughtful article on friends helping each other to die. It has also been syndicated to many other newspapers.

At death’s window – June 25, 2006

By Anne Lamott / Anne Lamott is a novelist and essayist. Her latest book is “Plan B: Further Thoughts on Faith,” recently released in paperback.

The article commences:

“THE MAN I KILLED did not want to die, but he no longer felt he had much of a choice. He had gone from being tall and strapping, full of appetites and a brilliant manner of speech, to a skeleton, weak and full of messy needs. He and his wife still loved……………”

It can be read in full by clicking on At death’s window

A small update is necessary. The writer refers in the article to “…when my father was dying, we had communicated with the Hemlock Society and I knew exactly how many Seconal pills it took to kill a big person, how to crush them up and add them to apple sauce, and how to feed the sick person toast and tea so he wouldn’t throw up the pills.”

The advice remains correct, but the Hemlock Society disappeared in a welter of mergers. It lasted 1980-2003.

Hemlock’s successor for information is ERGO and for
guidance the Final Exit Network

Contribution by Derek Humphry, president, Euthanasia Research and Guidance Organization, Oregon, USA

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

I’d do it differently — Dr. Kevorkian

Jul 1st, 2006 by

By telephone from his prison in Michigan, Dr. Jack Kevorkian told the Los Angeles Times:-

Do you have any regrets about what you did?

Yes, I should’ve worked for a change in the law instead.

You’ve said recently that if you are released, you will no longer break the law. Does that mean that you’ve changed your views about assisted suicide?

I have not changed my views on assisted suicide, but I believe it should be performed legally, and I would do whatever my health permits regarding petitions, speeches, lobbying and writing in support of legalization.

What made you change your mind about violating the law?

I changed my mind about the method because the laws are changing in many areas of the world and in the United States, and it is time for legalization to be done in a legal way.

Literature on this subject obtainable from the ERGO Bookstore.

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

California assisted suicide bill fails

Jun 28th, 2006 by

California lawmakers narrowly rejected a bill on Tuesday that would have allowed the terminally ill to enlist doctors to help them commit suicide.

The Senate Judiciary Committee voted 3-2 to block the measure. Committee Chairman Sen. Joe Dunn, a Democrat from Santa Ana, California, cast the deciding vote, siding with two Republicans.

Dunn said he could not trust that future lawmakers would refrain from expanding the bill to allow persons not suffering from terminal illnesses to hasten their deaths.

The bill mirrored an Oregon law allowing doctors to prescribe a lethal prescription to terminally ill patients.

California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger suggested earlier this year he would not sign such a bill because the issue of physician-assisted suicide is of such importance it should be left to voters.

Derek Humphry comments: This action by Dunn means those suffering today must continue to do so because of the POSSIBLE actions of future legislators. An appalling way to look at things.

Secondly, it is all very well for Schwarzenegger to suggest a voters’ referendum, but they require a couple of million dollars in cash to mount in a huge state like California. Will he provide it? Not likely!

Posted in Assisted Suicide, Politics/Law, RTD News | No Comments »

Film on Swiss assisted suicide wins prize

Jun 27th, 2006 by

EXIT, le droit de mourir (the right to die) was announced the winner of the 5th EBU Golden Link Award by Jean Réveillon, Secretary General of the European Broadcasting Union (EBU), during the Sunny Side of the Doc in Marseilles, France last week.

As the leading co-production partner, the Swiss French-speaking channel TSR, represented by Gaspard Lamunière and Irène Challand, was awarded a sculpture in bronze by MC Escher.

EXIT was co-produced by five European Public Broadcasters, all members of the EBU: TSR and TSI (Switzerland), Arte (France РGermany), TV2 (Denmark), and YLE (Finland). It has already received numerous documentary awards in Festivals (Visions du R̩el, Etats G̩n̩raux du documentaire, FIPA).

This documentary shows how volunteers accompany sick people towards a death of their choice that seems more dignified to them. Switzerland is the only country in the world where associations such as EXIT quite legally provide suicide assistance to people at the end of their lives.

In a society tending to control everything, they refer us back to this quintessential, intimate question: Is choosing our death not our ultimate freedom?

Posted in Assisted Suicide, Euthanasia, Film/TV/Radio, RTD News | No Comments »

Sign a petition for Dr Kevorkian’s release

Jun 24th, 2006 by

I have just read and signed the petition: “Release Dr. Jack Kevorkian”

Please take a moment to read about this important issue, and join me in signing the petition. It takes just 30 seconds, but can truly make a difference. We are trying to reach 1,000 signatures – please sign here:

http://www.thepetitionsite.com/takeaction/761877453

Once you have signed, you can help even more by asking your friends and family to sign as well.

Thank you! — Neal Nicol, Michigan

p.s. mail this invitation to your entire address book, lets make this happen

Posted in Assisted Suicide, Euthanasia, Mercy Killing, People in the News, Politics/Law, RTD News | No Comments »

Dr Kevorkian again refused parole

Jun 23rd, 2006 by

Dr. Jack Kevorkian’s request to have his second-degree murder sentence commuted has been turned down, a state prisons spokesman said. Kevorkian claims he has less than a year to live.

For the fourth consecutive year, the Michigan parole board turned down the 78-year-old assisted-suicide advocate’s request, said a Corrections Department spokesman.

Because the parole board essentially upheld its earlier decision, rather than deciding the commutation request anew, the matter does not go to Gov. Jennifer Granholm, her spokeswoman said.

Kevorkian lawyer Mayer Morganroth said he told Granholm and the parole board that his client’s health was “rapidly deteriorating.”

Morganroth said Kevorkian weighs 113 pounds, suffers from active Hepatitis C, which cannot be treated in prison, and has become diabetic. “Frankly, he’s in terrible shape,” he said.

Morganroth said that Kevorkian’s personal doctor said in May that he did not believe Kevorkian would survive more than a year in prison. Kevorkian is eligible for parole June 1, 2007.

Kevorkian is serving a 10- to 25-year sentence for second-degree murder in the 1998 poisoning of Thomas Youk, 52, of Oakland County’s Waterford Township. Youk had Lou Gehrig’s disease, and Kevorkian called it a mercy killing.

Posted in Assisted Suicide, Euthanasia, Mercy Killing, People in the News, Politics/Law, RTD News | No Comments »

Exactly how do we finally check out ?

Jun 23rd, 2006 by

PUBLISHER’S ANNOUNCEMENT:

Those interested in right-to-die issues might want to check out “How We Die in America,” an article by William Colby, attorney in the landmark Nancy Cruzan right-to-die case: http://www.authorviews.com/authors/colby/obd.htm

The article has some interesting revelations about the contrast between how we *think* we’re going to die and how we’re actually likely to check out. It’s from the new book, “UNPLUGGED: Reclaiming our Right to Die in America.”

Posted in Books, People in the News, Publications/InternetMedia, RTD News | No Comments »

Right to choose to die supported by most Americans

Jun 20th, 2006 by

Gallup’s annual survey on Values and Beliefs, conducted May 8-11, 2006, finds that the vast majority of Americans continue to support “right-to-die” laws for terminally ill patients, whether that involves a doctor ending a patient’s life by some painless means, or a doctor assisting a terminally ill patient to commit suicide.

An analysis of Gallup data collected since 2003 shows that senior citizens, American who frequently attend religious services, those with lower levels of education, blacks, conservatives, and Republicans are most likely to object to euthanasia and doctor-assisted suicide.

Full poll results at Gallup Polls.

Posted in Assisted Suicide, Euthanasia, Politics/Law, Publications/InternetMedia, RTD News | No Comments »

« Newer Posts - Older Posts »