British actress, comedian, broadcaster and disability activist, Liz Carr is in Melbourne with her show: Assisted Suicide: The Musical. This is an edited transcript of her address to Victorian Parliamentarians who will likely debate assisted suicide later this year. I don't come at this from a religious point of view. I'm not coming here to tell you what to do.I'm telling you what I believe and how it worked in the UK, because in the UK, in 2015, the Rob Marris Assisted Dying Bill that was defeated in the House of Commons. Continue reading

Alex Schadenberg Executive Director - Euthanasia Prevention Coalition I have amazing news to share. Hawaii assisted suicide SB 1129 was defeated by being sent back for amendments. Hawaii political leaders listened and understood that the assisted suicide bill was different than what the assisted suicide lobby was saying.The paternalism of the assisted suicide lobby astounds me. They assume that legislators will not read the language of the bill but vote based on sound bites alone. Hawaii legislators read the bill. Continue reading

Article first appeared onMonday, March 20, 2017 7in the SantaFe New Mexican By John KellyThanks to the state Senate's rejection of the assisted suicide bill, Senate Bill 252, residents of New Mexico can breathe easier. As Sen. Craig Brandt said during last week's debate, "This bill is dangerous. Doctors make mistakes every day." Continue reading

by Paul Russell: In June last year the Legal and Social Issues Committee of the Victorian Parliament released its report in the matter of the 'Inquiry into End of Life Choices'.Recommendation 49 of that report called upon the Victorian Parliament to legislate assisted suicide for people, "suffering from a serious and incurable condition which is causing enduring and unbearable suffering" and that these persons must be "at the end of life (final weeks or months of life)". Continue reading

Alex Schadenberg International Chair - Euthanasia Prevention Coalition I have sad news. Yesterday Germany's federal court decided that "in extreme circumstances" the refusal of a suicide drug is illegal.According to a DW news story: Continue reading

by Paul Russell: The Australian Tropfest Short Film Festival winner for 2017 is a dark comedy called The Mother Situation. The largest film festival of its kind in the world, now in its 25th year, gave its prestigeous gong to a film about assisted suicide.Australians are known for their sometimes dark humour. This is not the first Australian film to take a comedic look at this sensitive subject. In 2015 the film 'Last Cab to Darwin' won a raft of awards for the story of a Cab driver with stomach cancer who travels to Darwin in the mid-1990s to die under the Northern Territory's short-lived euthanasia laws (see promotional video). Based loosely on the true story of Cab Driver, Max Bell who travelled thousands of kilometers by car from his home in Broken Hill seeking euthanasia, the film is an interesting look at life, death and relationships that diverges from the true story in some significant ways. Continue reading

By Alex Schadenberg Executive Director - Euthanasia Prevention Coalition The 2016 Oregon annual assisted suicide report is similar to prior years. The report implies that the deaths were voluntary (self-administered), but the information in the report does not address that subject.According to the 2016 Oregon assisted suicide report:There were 133 reported assisted suicide deaths in 2016.There were 204 lethal prescriptions obtained in 2016.There were 8 deaths from "other illnesses" which included illnesses such as diabetes, hepatitis and alcoholic liver disease.Oregon's assisted suicide law lacks effective oversight. Continue reading

by Paul Russell: In what is clearly becoming a drip feed exercise, Dr Brian Owler, head of Premier Daniel Andrews' advisory panel charged with creating an assisted suicide law for Victoria, was talking in the pages of The Australian newspaper (again) about the supposed safeguards he and his team are working on.The latest supposed 'safeguard' is what they're calling a 'time to live' option. Whereas the original recommendation of the parliamentary committee was that assisted suicide be made available in the last 'weeks and months' of life, Owler's committee wants to make that definition clearer at a fixed point. Well, supposedly clearer because Owler is not telling us where this supposed line in the sand will be drawn; not yet anyway. Continue reading