Testimony in strong opposition to Californian Assisted Suicide Bill, AB2x 15September 3, 2015 Continue reading

We must work to prevent all suicides. Thursday the 10th of September is International Suicide Prevention day. This year the theme is 'Reaching Out and Saving Lives'.The following day, the 11th, and the UK House of Commons will debate the latest push for assisted suicide via the Rob Marris MP Private Member's Bill. Did no-one notice irony?Australia, like other western countries I suspect, has a glaring problem of inconsistency when it comes to suicide prevention. We get a helluva lot right and invest well in prevention lead by competent and committed agencies, but we have, thus far, failed to deal with the 'elephant in the room' that is euthanasia and assisted suicide.By ignoring the reality that suicide generally understood is intrinsically related to euthanasia and assisted suicide by the common desire for death, we send a decidedly mixed message to the community at large - and especially to vulnerable people - that whether or not a life is worth saving is dependent on factors other than the intrinsic and inviolable value of life itself. That such subjective factors comprise a view or views about others that is in essence discriminatory seems to have been largely ignored.So, what are these subjective factors that factors in the difference in attitude between the putative person on the ledge and someone facing a difficult prognosis?Both are facing a crisis. Both will have 'rationalised' their circumstances to the point where they see no other option. Continue reading

By Aaron Kheriaty writing for the Mercury News Many advocates of a California law allowing doctor-assisted suicide for terminally ill individuals claim that Oregon's law offers a suitable model. But there are serious problems with the legislation in Oregon and many documented cases of abuse.I have evaluated and treated thousands of patients who wanted to end their life. A request to die is nearly always a cry for help. Among terminally ill individuals, it is associated with depression in 59 percent of cases. Yet, alarmingly, in Oregon less than 5 percent of individuals who have died by assisted suicide were ever referred for psychiatric consultation to rule out the most common causes of suicidal thinking. Continue reading

By Alex SchadenbergExecutive Director, Euthanasia Prevention Coalition According to an article written by Sharon Kirkey and published by newspapers affiliated with the National Post, the Québec government will distribute euthanasia kits with step by step instructions for killing patients. The Québec government is following a similar protocol to the Netherlands euthanasia law.After several years of language games, it is clear that the Québec government has given physicians the right, in law, to kill their patients by lethal injection. The article states: Continue reading

This first appeared at bioedge.org and is reprinted with permission. By Michael CookThere is good news and bad news about euthanasia from the Netherlands and Belgium in JAMA Internal Medicine earlier this month. But which is which depends on which side of the fence you sit. Continue reading

By Chris Hayes MP for NSW. Article first appeared in the Labor Herald With the Tasmanian state conference debating whether Labor should create a legal framework to allow euthanasia last weekend, Fowler MP Chris Hayes outlines why euthanasia preys on the vulnerable and why the debate needs to shift to palliative care and investing in the very best end-of-life care for the sick and their carers.For me, euthanasia preys on the marginalised and disenfranchised. Just as I oppose the death penalty, I oppose a measure that would say to patients that the best we can offer you is an end-of-life solution. Continue reading

News today that the Tasmanian State Conference of the Australian Labor Party endorsed a motion in support of a push for euthanasia has reignited the issue in the island state. Euthanasia was last debated in Tasmania on the 17th of October 2013 when the Voluntary Assisted Dying Bill was defeated 13 votes to 11 in the State's Lower House. Since that time, the State Election has changed the make up of the chamber offering, perhaps, the mover of the last bill, Lara Giddings MP, some hope that this time the outcome might be different.The ALP motion - now part of the party's Tasmanian platform - is subject to the normal provision of a conscience vote and is, we understand, not binding upon State ALP Members of Parliament. Continue reading

There's a real and very natural tendency when societies and groups within societies coalesce on one side or the other of a current debate to try to 'pidgeon-hole' the opposition. It can be simply a way of trying to come to 'know thine enemy'or, at worst, it can be about creating a slur upon the 'otherside' for the sake of justifying one's own position. Opposing euthanasia and assisted suicide is no different. 'Religious fundamentalists', 'God-botherers', 'right-to-lifers', 'arch-conservatives', the list of pejoratives is extensive as it is colourful. The raison d'etre should be obvious: if opposition only comes from this small cohort, of perhaps even only a small number within this small cohort, then their concerns are easily dismissed. 'They don't represent everybody and, well, we all know that God bothering conservatives are an antiquarian anomaly in our modern world. We mustn't be held back by the rabid few.'However, of all the social issues of the last half-century, euthanasia and assisted suicide, I would argue is the issue least identifiable in such terms. Worldwide, coalitions of people 'in-the-front-line' of opposition include many who identify as political progressives or athiests, agnostics etc., many with opposing political affilliations and those with none. Continue reading

In a bizarre statement today (20th August 2015), NT Health Minister, John Elferink openly discussed 'canvassing support for cutting seniors' funding' in health that 'has been coming "at the expense" of children'. He told ABC News that 'the money would be better spent in the first year of a person's life.'"The fact is we've pretty much reached the limit of how old we can grow as a species," he told the ABC after the annual Australasian aeromedical conference in Darwin. Continue reading

This article was published in the Wall Street Journal on August 17, 2015 and republished here from Alex Schadenberg's Blog. As a physician in Oregon, I have seen the dire effect of assisted-suicide laws on patients and my profession.By Dr William Toffler Continue reading