Category Archives: News

The severe shortage of viable organs for transplantation in the U.S. has led a transplant surgeon to propose harvesting kidneys from people who are not dead yet….”Though not dead yet, they are ‘as good as dead’ from an ethical perspective,” … Continue reading →

As a woman lies on a mattress on the floor, a small white machine attached to her outstretched right arm offers the following words: I am the Last Moment Robot. I am here to help you and guide you through … Continue reading →

New Zealand Labour MP Maryan Street wants, among other things, to protect from prosecution family members and health professionals, who’ve been directed, by those who still have their wits about them, to put them out of their misery. To euthanise … Continue reading →

How horrible it would be for elderly and the sick patients, who already have so much to worry about, to have to begin to ask about whether their doctor’s advice is truly in the best interest of the patient, or … Continue reading →

Abdelbaset al-Megrahi, the Libyan convicted of the 1988 bombing of a Pan Am flight over Lockerbie, Scotland, died of prostate cancer on May 20. Nearly three years earlier, on August 20, 2009, Scottish authorities had released him on compassionate grounds … Continue reading →

The people of the Canton of Vaud will vote on June 17 to decide whether to require nursing homes and hospitals to accept assisted suicide on their premises. The Local “Swiss canton to vote on assisted suicide” June 1, 2012 … Continue reading →

  Michael Southerland’s memorial service drew more than 200 people who sang, cried, and hugged his wife and daughters. They also circulated petitions to put a “death with dignity” law on the Massachusetts ballot in November. The forms awaited signatures … Continue reading →

Officials with the Oregon Health Department called the ongoing decline in requests for psychiatric evaluation for those seeking assisted suicide a “worrisome trend,” noting the “[t]he decline in formal evaluation raises concerns that depression remains undiagnosed in some patients who … Continue reading →

“I’m actually going to take a pen and write a prescription for something that will end someone’s life.” Katherine Morris is one of two New Mexico oncologists bringing a lawsuit that asks the court to make a distinction between “assisting … Continue reading →

Researcher from the University of Munich recently reported that they were able to awaken an 82-year-old woman who’d been in a persistent vegetative state by using injections of her own immune cells.  The woman had been in the condition for … Continue reading →

A Minnesota grand jury has indicted the Final Exit Network and several of its members for their actions in the suicide of 57-year-old Doreen Dunn. Dunn, who had suffered from chronic pain, died of asphyxia from inhaling helium. Star Tribune … Continue reading →

Gloria Woods was critically injured in an automobile accident on April 30, 2012. Much to his surprise, Sierra Donor Services informed her husband that since Gloria opted to be a donor on her driver’s license, the donor service had the … Continue reading →

The 17-count indictment charges officials of the Final Exit Network.  “[I]t is an effort to bring to justice a corporation and several of its officers and volunteers who we are alleging advised, encouraged or assisted Doreen Dunn in the taking … Continue reading →

New figures show that more and more Swiss seniors are taking advantage of assisted suicide even when they do not suffer from any terminal diseases. The Local “World-weary Swiss seniors seek suicide help” May 9, 2012 View

The law applies to the terminally ill as well as patients suffering from irreversible and incurable illness or injury, and says they have the right to refuse surgical procedures, hydration and nutrition, reanimation and life-support systems. Rather than seek a … Continue reading →

A Santa Fe woman with advanced uterine cancer said she is joining two doctors in their challenge against a decades-old New Mexico law. Lawyers on behalf of Aja Riggs, 48, intend to argue that the law does not legally prohibit … Continue reading →

After consulting with the nonprofit Final Exit Network, she used helium and a plastic bag to end her life on the couch of her home in Apple Valley, Minn.  Dakota County Attorney James Backstrom will present evidence to a grand … Continue reading →

The Massachusetts proposal attempts to mitigate coercion by doctors, health insurance companies, and family members, but this will always be a concern when the state dispenses the power to end life…. His wife took him for a last Heath Bar … Continue reading →

Dan Gotlin, the lawyer for Kenneth Minor who was convicted of murder in the death of Jeffrey Locker, is planning to appeal Minor’s sentence by making a robust case for assisted suicide.  Gotlin claims that if Locker was intent on … Continue reading →

The landmark decision is the first in which a judge at the Court of Protection, the division of the High Court which rules on life-and-death medical decisions, has approved a contested living will which calls for the death of a … Continue reading →

Washington post gives President Obama two Pinocchios — which means creating “A false, misleading impression by playing with words and using legalistic language what means little to ordinary people” — for his comments about the pending Supreme Court decision. Washington … Continue reading →

What do hospitals charge to remove an appendix? The startling answer is that it could be the same as the price of a refrigerator — or a house. It’s a common, straightforward operation, so you might expect charges to be … Continue reading →

A group of Hawaii physicians is offering to write lethal prescriptions for terminally ill patients in a bid to test whether doctor-assisted suicide is allowed under state law. American Medical News “5 Hawaii doctors offer assisted suicide to terminally ill … Continue reading →

Murder-suicides are fairly common in Oregon. Between 2003 and 2011, 183 people died in 81 events, according to Oregon Public Health Division statistics. Washington Post “Murder-suicide desperation prompts soul-searching in Oregon” April 17, 2012 View

The goal of the Campaign for the Legalisation of Assisted Suicide is not just to allow Irish people who wish to avail themselves of assisted suicide to travel to Switzerland, where it is legal, but also to change the law … Continue reading →