This reflection by Kevin Yuill first appeared on The Lancaster Review blog and is reproduced with permission. Continue reading

comments on the bill before the Quebec Provincial legislature that may be voted on anytime from today: Wesley SmithSign the  Continue reading

Please support this initiative from :NotDeadYet UK Continue reading

This article from Michael Cook at . The reference to a court challenge if the bill succeeds would, I expect, revolve around the separation of powers in respect to the criminal code, as outlined in the article.MercatorNet Continue reading

But what about people who can eat and drink by mouth? Assisted suicide advocates argue that it isn't fair that they can't die too. So, activists promote a form of "self-deliverance" that they call "voluntary stopping eating and drinking," (VSED), by which suicidal people declare their wish to starve to death. Bioethicist Paul T. Menzel and physician M. Colette Chandler-Cramer create a sophistic argument to justify their conclusion: People have the right to commit VSED; people also have the right to refuse life-sustaining treatment in an advance medical directive; hence, people have the right to order themselves starved to death (commit VSED via advance medical directive). Continue reading

Death-with-dignity [assisted suicide] patients are victims of a global political battle over capital punishment in the U.S., according to the federal Food and Drug Administration, which regulates pharmaceuticals, and the Oregon Health Authority, which oversees application of the state's Death With Dignity Act. Access to pentobarbital, also known as Nembutal, has all but ended in the United States because U.S. prison officials use it in lethal injections for executions.This comes shortly after two botched executions in the USA as reported on by Nic Steenhout: Continue reading

"how it is possible for euthanasia to be performed on physically healthy people" "There are problems with the Belgian euthanasia law.""That is cold comfort for the dead." Continue reading

Just in case you missed it, Sunday 25 May - Saturday 31 May 2014 is National Palliative Care Week in Australia.You can see what's planned and what's being talked about at the Palliative Care Australia's website HERE.Some great developments: In January, Palliative Care Australia sponsored a motion for the World Health Organisation's (WHO) Assembly held in May this year. The resolution was adopted by the Assembly. Well done!From PCA's Press Release: The resolution calls for countries to ensure that palliative care is a core part of health systems, that palliative care is embedded in the basic and continuing education and training for all health workers, and to ensure adequate access to pain medications.As we've often observed, the problem in Australia is not that we don't have the best of care available - we do - it's just that not everyone currently has access when they need it. Such is the thrust of PCA's National Palliative Care Consensus Statement.PCA CEO, Dr Yvonne Luxford, commenting on The Aging Agenda website is also calling for more attention to be given to Advance Care Planning both in public education and in the education of health service providers - particularly aged care service providers, in making sure that people's wishes are known and understood. Continue reading

The Swiss Exit group, that provides assisted suicide services in Switzerland for Swiss residents only, has upped the ante recently by declaring that the elderly - even if they are not ill - can access their services.     The membership of Exit voted for this policy change at their recent general meeting, The UK Guardian reporting that Exit would now allow, 'people suffering from psychological or physical problems associated with old age the choice to end their life.' Continue reading

also chaired the Belgium Control and Evaluation Commission since euthanasia was legalized in Belgium in 2000 (a commission unique in its inglorious record of never having investigated a single death), is organizing an instructional tour about euthanasia for health care professionals to take place in â�¦ Auschwitz.  Continue reading