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Roe v. Wade case and voluntary euthanasia arguments

Jun 19th, 2006 by

COPY OF LETTER TO THE EDITOR “The Washington Times”
from Derek Humphry

Columnist Nat Hentoff should ruminate on Shakespeare having King Henry V saying on the eve of Agincourt: “Old men forget,” for in his June 12 article “The devaluing of human life” Nat has got his dates all mixed up with regard to me.

Nat wrote: “I attended a conference on euthanasia at Clark College in Worcester, Mass. There, I met Derek Humphry, the founder of the Hemlock Society, and already known internationally as a key proponent of the “death with dignity” movement.

“He told me that for some years in this country, he had considerable difficulty getting his views about assisted suicide and, as he sees it, compassionate euthanasia, into the American press.

“But then,” Mr. Humphry told me, “a wonderful thing happened. It opened all the doors for me.” “What was that wonderful thing?” I asked. Continue Reading »

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

Euthanasia law reform attempt

Jun 18th, 2006 by

Voluntary euthanasia laws could soon be back up for debate in the South Australian Parliament.

Independent MP Bob Such intends to introduce a private member’s bill that would allow someone with chronic pain the right to end their life.

Mr Such says he is confident the majority of South Australians would welcome the law but says for many MPs, religion clouds their views.

“I’ve heard some MPs saying, look I’m a – I’ll use an example of one person who said ‘I’m a Catholic MP’. I said, no you’re not – you’re an MP who’s a Catholic – there’s a big difference,” he said.

“We’re not in there to be representatives of our particular faiths, as worthy as that may be.”

The move by Mr Such coincides with a study trip by former Labor minister Steph Key to the Netherlands where she will review voluntary euthanasia laws.

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

Dr Kevorkian has song written for him

Jun 15th, 2006 by

Protest song about the treatment of Dr. Jack Kevorkian and assisted suicide.

The attached song came to me in the middle of the night for no good reason that I can understand – so I’m just passing it along. It can be heard for free at the following link:

http://www.broadjam.com/artists/artistindex.asp?artistID=31576

and select ‘Ode to Kevorkian’ from the song list.

—Jim Gach, Baltimore, MD

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

Exit this way

Jun 14th, 2006 by

Read an excellent and informational article about assisted suicide for the dying in the June 8 issue of Westword – an alternative newspaper out of Denver, Colorado.

Further literature on euthanasia, right-to-die, assisted suicide at the ERGO bookstore.

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

Voluntary euthanasia campaigner to hold workshops in NZ

Jun 3rd, 2006 by

Voluntary euthanasia campaigner Philip Nitschke says he will return to New Zealand to conduct workshops now that plans to prosecute him have been dropped.

In February, the New Zealand Ministry of Health investigated a complaint made by the Medical Council that Dr Nitschke was practising medicine without a licence. The Ministry now says there is insufficient evidence to support a prosecution.

Dr Nitschke says other lecturers on medical topics are not asked to register as doctors and the move was an attempt to censor him.

“There is an issue of free speech here,” he said.”There is an issue of access to free information and of course, fundamentally, what does constitute practising medicine?

“I mean, when talking to people about medical issues is defined in such a tight way, it really has the effect of imposing the dead hand of censorship on this whole end-of-life issue.”

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

Swiss stand by their assisted suicide rules

Jun 1st, 2006 by

Laws governing assisted suicide in Switzerland are sufficient, according to the cabinet, which said on Wednesday it had no plans to tighten the rules. (According to Swissinfo.com)

Pressure has been mounting for the practice to be more tightly controlled, partly because Switzerland has gained a reputation for “death tourism”.

Announcing the decision on Wednesday, Justice Minister Christoph Blocher said “the cabinet had come to the conclusion that [new legislation] was not necessary”.

Parliament had called on the government to examine the law which forbids euthanasia, but tolerates assisted suicide, for example by allowing patients to be deprived of life:saving medicine or sustenance, or to be given medicine that shortens their life.

Several organisations in Switzerland exist to advise on and facilitate assisted suicide, and this has led to increasing numbers of foreigners coming to the country specifically to die.

The decision sparked criticism from three of four political parties in government, which accused the cabinet of ignoring the will of parliament.

Guidelines enough

The cabinet decision was based on a report by the justice ministry, which concluded that overarching rules relating to assisted suicide were not practical since each case was different. It said the guidelines of the Swiss Academy of Medical Sciences were more suited to dealing with the practice.

The cabinet also balked at outlawing assisted suicide in which it is legal to help someone to die provided the person providing assistance has no direct interest.

“All experts were unanimous on this question,” Blocher told a news conference. “The law is sufficient here, too.”

The cabinet also has no plans to rein in organisations which arrange assisted suicide, including Exit and Dignitas. The cabinet said monitoring their activities would lead to too much bureaucracy and would have the effect of legitimising such groups.

Drugs

The only measure the cabinet said it would consider was whether to make it more difficult to obtain drugs used in assisted suicide. It will consider whether to revise the law in this regard by the end of the year.

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

Right to die groups change names

May 29th, 2006 by

Some years ago I was sitting in the High Court of Appeals in London listening to a euthanasia case. Part of the evidence was that the man had paid a call at the offices of the Voluntary Euthanasia Society, in Chelsea. All he got there was information, certainly not assisted death. The defendant’s lawyer argued that surely this was not sufficient this grounds to support a conviction of his client?

To which the judge replied: “When I want fish, I go to a fish supplier. When I want euthanasia I go to a euthanasia office. ” The appeal was denied.

This court cameo occurred to me when I surveyed all the name changes in the world right-to-die movement recently. There is a rush to make their organization’s names more palatable, more acceptable to politicians and governments.

But is it doing any good?

In the last three years, the following have euphemized their names. To what benefit remains to be seen. It has certainly confused a lot of the rank and file supporters of the ‘right-to-die’ movement. I know from experience that it has caused many to abandon their memberships, although not their philosophy of choices in dying.

1. Hemlock Society USA changed name to End-of-Life Choices. 2003. (Considered more palatable name.)

2. End-of-Life Choices changed name to Compassion in Dying (upon merger) 2004.

3. Compassion in Dying changed name to Compasion and Choices (to complete merger.) 2004

4. Voluntary Euthanasia Society of Victoria (Australia) changed name to Dying With Dignity – Victoria. 2005

5. Voluntary Euthanasia Society (London) changed name to Dignity in Dying. (Considered more acceptable name) 2005

6. N V V E (Netherlands) changed name to Right to Die NL (because euthanasia has been legalized) 2005

The re-named London group (Dignity in Dying) has got protests from palliative care groups [hospice], and others (mostly opposed to euthanasia anyway) that because the new name indicates the same compasionate philosophy as theirs, thus it could cause confusion among patients.

Most people don’t even think about ‘euthanasia’ (a generic term for all peaceful, hastened deaths) until they or a loved one has a life-threatening illness. And now they must search around the lists of various organizations with ‘Dignity’ in their titles and find out which is the one they feel they need to know about.

—Derek Humphry. His opinion. 29 May 2006

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

Dr Kevorkian ‘deteriorating in prison’

May 29th, 2006 by

Dr Jack Kevorkian is serving a 10- to 25-year sentence for second-degree murder after being convicted of giving a fatal injection of drugs in 1998. He is eligible for parole in 2007.

Kevorkian’s lawyer Mayer Morganroth said he filed an application with the Michigan Parole Board and Gov. Jennifer Granholm seeking a pardon, parole or commutation, claiming that Kevorkian will probably not survive another year if kept in prison.

In 2003, 2004 and 2005, the parole board recommended denying applications, and, in the past, Granholm followed the board’s advice.

Kevorkian was transferred in February to Lakeland Correctional Facility in Coldwater from the Thumb Correctional Facility in Lapeer.

Kevorkian has fallen twice, injuring his wrist and fracturing two ribs, noted Morganroth in a statement. Kevorkian suffers from hepatitis C and other ailments.

Dr. Stan Levy, an internist who resides in Southfield, has treated Kevorkian intermittently since 1991. “He’s got multiple problems,” said Levy. “My prognosis is that he has less than a year, but I can’t say that flatfootedly. His prognosis would be better out of prison than in.”

Kevorkian acquired hepatitis C when he injected blood from a deceased girl into himself in the 1960s as an experiment to see if blood from deceased people could be used for soldiers on the battlefield.

“He got the disease through acute altruism,” said Levy. “But (prisons) have a policy not to treat people over 60 with hepatitis C.”

Ruth Holmes, a handwriting examiner and trial consultant from Bloomfield Hills, speaks with Kevorkian almost daily, she said.

“This is a man who was not a strong person before he went to prison,” she said, calling him “scrawny” when he was locked up more than seven years ago after being convicted in the poisoning of Thomas Youk, 52, of Waterford Township. Youk had Lou Gehrig’s disease, and Kevorkian called it a mercy killing.

“I’ve watched him get weaker and weaker,” Holmes said, noting she has visited him in prison.

On some phone calls she receives from him, “he can barely speak,” she said. “This hepatitis has kicked in.”

[Literarure on voluntary euthanasia & assisted suicide at ERGO Bookstore]

Posted in People in the News, RTD News, RTD Organizations | 1 Comment »

Dr Kevorkian would have done it differently

May 27th, 2006 by

As he sits in jail, Dr Jack Kevorkian may have had a change of heart — not about his dedication to the “death with dignity” movement, but on how he went about promoting it.

Specifically, his lawyer suggests, he questions the more than 100 suicides he said he assisted throughout the 1990s. One assisted suicide — the death of Lou Gehrig’s disease patient Thomas Youk, which was taped and broadcast on “60 Minutes” in 1998 — earned him a prison sentence of 15 years to 20 years for second degree murder.

“He did what he did, and it brought it to public awareness [of physician-assisted suicide],” said Kevorkian’s attorney, Mayer Morganroth.

“He now realizes that having performed it when it was against the law, wasn’t the, probably, appropriate way to go about it. . What he should have done was work towards its legalization verbally. . Pursuing that cause, and not performing it because it still was against the law.”

Derek Humphry comments: “I tried to persuade Kevorkian in the l980s to make his platform one of law reform. But he was hell bent on changing the minds of the medical profession on assisted dying. I argued that law reform must come first because otherwise U.S. doctors were too nervous to help. So far only the state of Oregon has legalized physician-assisted suicide — under certain conditions. (27 May 06)

Posted in Opinion Pieces, People in the News, Politics/Law, RTD News | No Comments »

World euthanasia conference in Toronto, September

May 26th, 2006 by

The World Federation of Right to Die Societies and Dying With Dignity welcome the world to Toronto!

+ ATTEND leading-edge presentations.

+ ESTABLISH & STRENGTHEN international networks.

+ LEARN about the successes and the battles – locally, nationally, and internationally.

For details, go to http://www.dyingwithdignity.ca/worldconference06/homepage.html

Euthanasia literature available at ERGO bookstore.

Posted in Events/Conferences, RTD News, RTD Organizations | No Comments »

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