Category Archives: News

One of the most difficult and often inadequate determinations that a physician has to make is the attempt to predict when a patient might die.  An example of this occurred when my husband, a neurosurgeon, saw a patient who had … Continue reading →

If you want to see what direction health care is going, just read the July 12 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine.  Some influential bioethicists think that government bureaucrats should be able to approve and facilitate suicides. Daily … Continue reading →

The development of a central state or federal mechanism in the USA that would confirm the authenticity and eligibility of terminally ill patients’ requests for death, dispense medication, and monitor demand and use, could remove physicians from the assisted dying … Continue reading →

Single-payer health care, once lauded by President Barack Obama for its ability to keep health care expenditures down by rationing care, has become prohibitively expensive and inefficient in Canada, according to a new study. Daily Caller “Report: Canadian health care … Continue reading →

In response the anti-euthanasia charity Alert is distributing cards to patients to prevent this happening. The cards simply read: “Please do not give me the Liverpool Care Pathway treatment without my informed consent or that of a relative.” Mail Online … Continue reading →

Is it reasonable to care for people who have no quality of life?  It costs the health care system a mint and causes a lot of grief to those who love them. Vancouver Sun “Medically assisted suicide: Compassionate or criminal? … Continue reading →

Arthur Schafer’s portrayal of comments on the merits of physician-assisted suicide need challenging (Assisted-suicide slope not so slipper, July 19). Shafer, like many supporters of physician-assisted suicide (also known as “doctor-prescribed death”), does not seem to have considered the wider … Continue reading →

President Hollande has reignited debate on euthanasia, saying he wants to “go further” than the existing “Leonetti Law” on the end of life, which rules it out.  Visiting a hospice in the Hauts-de-Seine, the president said he wants to put … Continue reading →

The First Amendment does not protect the “morbid predatory behavior” of a former nurse convicted of using the Internet to urge to people to kill themselves, the Minnesota Court of Appeals ruled Tuesday. Star Tribune “Ex-nurse’s conviction for aiding suicides … Continue reading →

A firmer nurse who was convicted of assisting two people in committing suicide, was rightly convicted, the Minnesota Court of Appeals ruled Tuesday….The appeals court said the First Amendment does not bar the state from prosecuting someone for “instructing (suicidal … Continue reading →

The American Medical Association and the Massachusetts Medical Society oppose physician-assisted suicide.  This year, the Dignity 2012 proposal was sent to the Massachusetts Legislature, where it has not yet received an up-or-down vote.  In testimony before the Legislature’s Joint Committee … Continue reading →

Instead of prescribing the life-ending medication, physicians should only be responsible for diagnosing patients as terminally ill, Lehmann said.  Terminally ill patients should then be able to pick up the medication from a state-approved center, similar to medical marijuana dispensaries. … Continue reading →

A police officer who visited a hospital after a dying patient made a 999 call begging for a drink told an inquest he witnessed nursing staff ignoring his requests for water….The keen footballer and runner from Balham, died of dehydration … Continue reading →

The High Value Care Collaborative received a $26 million grant on June 18 to focus on shared decision-making…The grant, awarded by the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation, is intended to increase the human capacity to realize more efficient and … Continue reading →

The federal government will appeal last month’s ruling by the British Columbia Supreme Court that partially struck down Canada’s ban on assisted suicide, Justice Minister Rob Nicholson says. In a statement, Nicholson said, “The Supreme Court of Canada acknowledged the … Continue reading →

The federal government will appeal a British Columbia Supreme Court ruling that struck down Canada’s ban on assisted suicide, Justice Minister Rob Nicholson said Friday.  The landmark ruling last month said the ban is unconstitutional and gave Ottawa a year … Continue reading →

Neorologist Dr. Stelios Doris treated Tony Nicklinson seven years ago but said it was a “mistake” that he had survived for so long. “So when I was informed that he was still alive I was surprised and sad also. I … Continue reading →

According to Dr. Lisa Lehmann, “Prescribing a lethal medication with the explicit intent of ending life is really at odds with the role of a physician as a healer.” But the president of Compassion & Choices [the former Hemlock Society] … Continue reading →

The many ways that medical professionals push disabled people toward death are absent from journals — or masked in jargon and euphemisms. Hastings Center Bioethics Forum “Comfort Care as Denial of Personhood” July 11, 2012 View

In an article published Wednesday by the New England Journal of Medicine, Dr. Lisa Soleymani Lehmann, director of the Center for Bioethics at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, and research assistant Julian Prokopetz propose a policy they say could distance doctors … Continue reading →

Three percent of deaths in the Netherlands are the result of euthanasia or assisted suicide.  Of those, 7% were done without the explicit request of the patient, Statline (Central Bureau of Statistics — The Netherlands) Death Statistics from the Netherlands … Continue reading →

A pensioners’ campaign has suggested euthanasia might be the only option for some people faced with increasing costs of social care. Michael Stevens, vice chairman of the Gloucestershire branch of the National Pensioners’ Convention, spoke out as the Government planned … Continue reading →

The question before the court in New Mexico is absurdly simple and yet impossibly complex.  What is the meaning of “assisted suicide”? A similar lawsuit filed in Connecticut was dismissed by the state Superior Court in 2010. In its ruling … Continue reading →

Court ruling asserting a person’s right to assisted suicide reflects discriminatory attitudes toward the disabled. It’s hard enough for those of us with disabilities to deal with architectural and communication barriers, discrimination, inadequate support services and public policies that limit … Continue reading →

The Supreme Court’s decision to uphold most of President Barack Obama’s health care law will come home to roost for most taxpayers in about 2 1/2 years, when they’ll have to start providing proof on their tax returns that they … Continue reading →