Washington State was the second US state to legalise assisted suicide after a ballot initiative. The law commenced in March 2009. The latest data release from the Washington Department of Health for the 2015 calendar year highlights and reinforces concerns. This is particularly important for Victorians where a recent Parliamentary Report recommended a form of legislation that would make it lawful for a doctor to prescribe a lethal dose.Washington's so-called Death with Dignity Act allows adult residents in the state with six months or less to live to request lethal doses of medication from a physician. Like in Oregon, the doctor is required to report all deaths under the act to the Health Authority, not, as Andrew Denton recently said on national television, to the coroner. Continue reading

by Paul Russell: It is almost exactly two years since South Australian euthanasia campaigner, Max Bromson took his own life in a motel at a seaside suburb of Adelaide.After two years of investigation, South Australian Police confirmed today that they will not be laying charges against former doctor and head of Exit International, Philip Nitschke nor Mr Bromson's family members who were present when he died. Continue reading

This last week I changed my profile picture on my social media accounts for the first time. A seemingly common reaction to world events these days, I have never before been motivated to do so. Not that I have not grieved over horrible events such as the Charlie Hebdo massacre, the terrorist attacks in Paris or Nice or any of the other atrocities that seem sadly to be all too common these days. I have. But on July 26, 19 intellectually disabled men and women were executed as they slept in a pre-dawn attack upon a care facility in Sagamirihara, Japan. Aged from 19 to 70 years, there were also 26 others who were injured in the attack.The media characterised the attacks as 'senseless' and 'incomprehensible'. At one level, this attack on innocent defenceless people by a lone madman is, indeed, 'incomprehensible'. But for my many friends in the disability community it is, perhaps, an extreme and example of the kind of prejudice that they experience all too often; a chilling and visceral reminder of the subtle and not so subtle discrimination that is never far from them and that echoes through history. Continue reading

by Canberra writer and member of Lives Worth Living, Daniel Pask (pictured) Disability activists from Melbourne and Canberra gathered to protest the message of the film, Me Before You at a screening in Melbourne.Me Before You focusses on the lead character who becomes a quadriplegic after an accident. (Spoiler alert) The film closes with his suicide in the Dignitas death facility in Zurich. Continue reading

By Peter Saunders Today (21st June 2016) the Annual Representative Meeting (ARM) of the British Medical Association (BMA) in Belfast voted against going neutral on assisted suicide by a two to one majority (see detail here).Delegates rejected motion 80, 'that this meeting believes that the BMA should adopt a neutral stance on assisted dying', by 198 to 115 (63% to 37%). Continue reading

Alex Schadenberg Executive Director - Euthanasia Prevention Coalition The assisted suicide lobby is once again pressuring medical association's to become neutral on assisted suicide.Last Monday, the American Medical Association (AMA) reacted to pressure from the Oregon Medical Association, to change the AMA stance on assisted suicide to neutral (Resolution 015) by establishing a Study on aid in dying. Continue reading

This article was published by Dr Peter Saunders on his blog on June 20, 2016. Tomorrow, 21 June, the Annual Representative Meeting (ARM) of the British Medical Association (BMA) will consider two motions on assisted suicide.The BMA is the UK's professional association and registered trade union for doctors and currently has 170,000 members. Continue reading

by Paul Russell: Few would question the need for accuracy and clear language in any public debate with such grave and possibly irreversible (for the individual) consequences as euthanasia and assisted suicide.On occasions people will get it wrong. No-one should begrudge anyone any understandable mistake made with good intent. Nevertheless, those who venture into the public arena on these matters do hold themselves up to scrutiny and possible correction. Of course, I include myself in that cohort. Continue reading

Alex Schadenberg Executive Director - Euthanasia Prevention Coalition Canada's Senate passed Bill C-14, the euthanasia and assisted suicide bill.The Senate first passed Bill C-14 a few days ago with seven amendments from the original bill that was passed in the House of Commons on May 31. Continue reading