By Steve Passmore Steven Fletcher MP has introduced euthanasia bills with language that specifically focuses on people with disabilities because his bills are about him dying by euthanasia.Steven Passmore Continue reading

A Canadian man, Edward Hung, suffering from the ravages of advancing ALS, published a letter about his condition and experiences before dying in a Swiss death facility.  Former Chief Commissioner of the Continue reading

Having been diagnosed by a physician with an illness, a disease or a disability (including disability arising from traumatic injury) that causes intolerable physical or psychological suffering that cannot be alleviated by any medical treatment acceptable to that person, or; Being in a state of weakening capacity with no chance of improvement and being of sound mind and capable of fully understanding the information provided to him or her under other sections of the law. Continue reading

Baroness Campbell, who is wheelchair bound and suffers muscular atrophy, said she already felt like she was "on the list" of those who could eventually be brought within the scope. Lady Campbell, who sits as an independent member of the Lords, said there were already signs the safeguards could be relaxed in the future.The final report of Lord Falconer's Commission on Assisted Dying, on which the bill is based, remarks: "We have taken on board the strong concerns expressed by many disabled people and do not consider that it would be acceptable to society at this point in time to recommend that a non-terminally ill person with significant physical impairments should be made eligible under any future legislation to request assistance in ending his or her life." Continue reading

LivesWorthLiving  Australia really is drawing together the best in commentary opposed to euthanasia from a disability perspective.  Continue reading

Mary Warnock, for example, often described without irony as "Britain's leading moral philosopher" has opened the door to the State becoming a mass killer of its older, sicker citizens. As well as supporting euthanasia for the terminally ill, in a magazine interview she recommended a much wider use of the lethal injection or poisoned broth. "If somebody absolutely, desperately wants to die," she has said, "because they're a burden to their family, or the State, then I think they too should be allowed to die." Lord Falconer of Thoroton would not admit to such an ambition for his much more modest assisted suicide Bill, now in its early parliamentary stages, but we shouldn't be under any illusions about the journey it would set the country on. Wherever assisted suicide (or any other form of euthanasia) has been legalised for narrow circumstances, a loophole opens up through which convoys of hearses are driven.In the Netherlands people with early dementia are already being visited by mobile euthanasia units. In Belgium the law allows euthanasia only when, technically, "the patient is in a medically futile condition of constant unbearable suffering". Wesley J. Smith, of the US-based Centre for Bioethics and Culture, has listed examples of ways in which the law has been interpreted much more expansively. Continue reading

A group of Canberra MLA's, advocates and people in the aged care and allied health sector today got an insight into the moral, legal and political puzzle that is voluntary euthanasia. Suicide is now decriminalised in all States and Territories so there was discussion about whether choosing to end your life should still be stigmatised. Should we talk about suicide at all or maybe have a term like elective death? A valid question given where the law stands. But it begs other questions which I asked at the forum.Back on earth we regulate autonomy all the time - to guard against the worst decisions and outcomes. There are a long list of choices we regulate where autonomy intersects with the lives and wellbeing of others, such as selling and consuming hard drugs or naming your child Adolf Hitler. Continue reading

From :Alex Schadenberg's Blog Continue reading

Baroness Jane Campbell of Surbiton , disability advocate, convenor of NotDeadYet UK Continue reading

When I first heard that a disability group would contest the 2010 South Australian election for a seat in our Upper House I was mildly pleased. Though, on the face of it, they did not stand a chance of gaining a seat, disability issues are very personal to our family and my son Joseph who has Down Syndrome.  Early on, however, a friend warned me that he thought the use of the word 'Dignity' was the same usage as for pro-euthanasia groups. His words of caution were to prove to be well founded. Their slogan 'Dignity through Choice' is another pointer. Continue reading