Renewed campaign for assisted suicide
Public Discourse blog has a new posting by Adam MacLeod, Assisted Suicide: the Forgotten Front in the Fight for Life. He mentions the Massachusetts ballot initiative that was certified for the ballot by the state attorney general last week. Marcia Angell, former editor of the New England Journal of Medicine is among the initiative supporters. […]
Website opposing Physician-Assisted Suicide
Massachusetts Citizens for Life provide links to a new website with thoughtful commentary on physician-assisted suicide and euthanasia, “Choice” is an Illusion. The site is run by an elder law attorney, and her practical experience in the area shows. Another good website on euthanasia is the Nightingale Alliance and Wesley Smith’s blog, Secondhand Smoke, often […]
Physicians’ Orders for Life-Sustaining Treatments
For those interested in end-of-life issues and euthanasia, Christian Brugger has an important new post on the Culture of Life blog regarding Physicians’ Orders for Life-Sustaining Treatments. His post is entitled “Legalizing Euthanasia by Omission – And Making It a Doctor’s Order .” Dr. Brugger identifies the primary issue surrounding such documents as: “POLST-type legislation […]
Two Canadian Challenges to Assisted Suicide Prohibition
The Farewell Foundation for the Right to Die has filed suit challenging the Registrar of Corporations denial of the organization’s application to incorporate. The Registrar denied the application on the basis that organizing to assist those who seek to commit suicide is not a legally permissible purpose. The petition in the law suit is available […]
Prosecutors’ Role in Assisted Suicide
SSRN has posted a new article, Justins v. the Queen: Assisted Suicide, Juries and the Discretion to Prosecute examining an Australian case and arguing that prosecutors should very rarely charge defendants in cases of assisted suicide. The author notes that the British Crown Prosecution Service has developed guidelines for prosecutors regarding such charges. The guidelines […]
Brooks misses the real problem
Thanks to Richard for posting the links to Wesley Smith and Ryan Anderson’s reactions to David Brooks. Independent of Brooks’ endorsement of abandoning our efforts to extend human life (something more easily embraced from an American armchair than, say, an African AIDS hospital), Brooks misses the bigger issue for our budget. Most of our social […]
Italy Moves Toward Euthanasia Ban
Michael Cook at Bioedge reports on Italian efforts to ban assisted suicide and euthanasia here. The legislation would also require provision of artificially administered food and hydration when needed.
Wesley Smith on Organ Donation and Suicide
At the First Things blog Wesley Smith comments on a tragic story of a 12-year Indian girl who commited suicide to provide organs for her father and brother.
“Abandoning the disabled to assisted suicide in the UK”
That is the title of a recent blog post by Wesley Smith. Here is the lead paragraph of the post– “The UK is falling off a vertical moral cliff on the assisted suicide issue. It remains a crime. But the Public Prosecutor of England and Wales has stated that if, after a complete investigation, it […]
DNR’s, dementia, and assisted suicide
The Chicago Tribune has an opinion piece today entitled Do not resusictate . . . do not feel remorse. The author describes her mother’s last year of life, struggling with old age and dementia. The mother ultimately dies at home after the family refused to allow a feeding tube. The author also briefly considers how […]