By Alex SchadenbergInternational Chair, Euthanasia Prevention Coalition First posted on Alex's blog on June 10th.The British House of Lords has debated many assisted suicide bills over the past few years. In fact the House of Lords debated the Falconer assisted suicide bill in the past year, a bill that died on the order paper before the election. The House of Commons has not debated an assisted suicide bill in 20 years. Continue reading

On the 3rd of February, the parliament of the Isle of Man (known as The House of Keys) rejected a euthanasia initiative by a margin of 17 to 5. The Isle of Man, like the Channel Islands, is a self-governing British Dependency with the British Monarch as its head of state.( NB: Jersey, Channel Islands, (the writer's ancestral home) debated euthanasia many years ago; nearby Guernsey rejected a bill in 2004.) Continue reading

Godelieve De Troyer was euthanised by Belgium's 'doctor death' for severe depression. Her case must make us think twice about allowing assisted dying in Britain. Dr Kevin Yuill's recent opinion article published in the UK Telegraph reflects on the tragic death of Godelieve De Troyer and the consequent grief and bewilderment of her family, especially her son Tom Mortier. Yuill says:"Tom Mortier never paid much attention to the discussion about voluntary death in his country. "I was like just about anyone else here in Belgium: I didn't care at all," he said. "If people want to die, it's probably their choice. It didn't concern me.""But in April, 2012, ten years after the law changed to allow euthanasia, Mortier, a university lecturer, received a message at work. His 64-year-old mother, Godelieve De Troyer, who suffered from severe depression, had been euthanised the previous day. Would he be able to make the arrangements at the morgue? Continue reading

An assisted suicide bill is slowly making its way through various committees of the Scottish parliament before ultimately being debated in Holyrood, the Scottish Parliament itself. This bill is something of a 'legacy bill' following as it does the death last April of the former champion of this cause, Margo MacDonald MSP who had sponsored an earlier, failed attempt.It is certainly worth a hat-tip to the Scots inasmuch as both MacDonald's bill and this new bill by Green MSP Patrick Harvie take some radically different approaches to the issue, presumably to attempt to make these efforts more palatable than other failed initiatives. However, the same concerns arise as with all legislation on euthanasia or assisted suicide: vulnerable people are not protected; the legislation is unsafe and open to abuse.I want to focus, however, on some of the rhetoric and suggestions from the UK pro-assisted suicide lobby on this bill that are as dangerous as they are facile and errant. Slogans and catch phrases are fine in so far as they highlight and encapsulate a policy position or campaign thrust, but when they attempt to lead the reader to a simplistic and patently false conclusion, they deserve scrutiny.This from a submission to one of the inquiries conducted on the Scottish bill:"A change in the law would allow honest conversations around dying to happen. Healthcare professionals could discuss options with patients who raise the question of assistance to die, exploring reasons for requesting assistance and what palliative and supportive options are available." Continue reading

  Taken from the Daily Mail report. An excerpt from Baroness Campbell's speech to the House of Lords on Lord Falconer's 'Assisted Dying' Bill.I am fearful not least because the Bill defines terminal illness as an 'inevitably progressive condition which cannot be reversed by treatment'. That could apply to many disabilities, my own included. Not a single organisation of disabled or terminally ill people is actively campaigning for this legislation. Continue reading

On Friday the 16th of January the debate continued on Lord Falconers 'Assisted Dying' Bill. Even those supporting the bill now admit that it has no chance of passing now before the UK General Election. Another bill is also under consideration in the Scottish Parliament; again NotDeadYetUK protesters were outside the parliament recently as they were in force at Westminster. This report first appeared on the Disability News ServiceBy John PringDisabled activists were outside the House of Lords today (Friday) for a highly personal protest about the latest attempts to legalise assisted suicide.As peers continued the committee stage of Lord Falconer's assisted dying bill, protesters from Not Dead Yet UK (NDY UK) made their voices heard outside parliament.But they also displayed 80 hard-hitting placards featuring the message: "Assist Us To Live Not Die."Each placard includes the name and picture of a disabled or terminally-ill person whose impairment has prevented them from attending the protest, and a message explaining why they oppose the bill.One of them, Chris, says on his placard: "I have a job, I have family, I want to live, NOT BE KILLED OFF!"Another, Meghan, says: "House of Lords: If your laws have not stopped discrimination against disabled persons in everyday life, then they will not stop discrimination in the practice of assisted suicide."Deborah says: "I live with chronic pain. I feel devalued when told this is a reason to die."Performer John Kelly says on his placard: "We gotta fight for the right to liveâ�¦ to rock n' rollâ�¦ to party, not die. Give us our basics, and we'll show ya, life's worth living."Another performer, comedian Laurence Clark, says: "Throughout my life, doctors' negative prognoses about me have consistently proved wrong."So it's not a good idea to legalise ending people's lives on the basis of such wisdom."Activist Lisa Egan says: "I want access to the same suicide prevention measures and mental healthcare available to people who are physically healthy. Not to be offered assisted suicide instead."Dennis Queen, a leading NDY UK member, says on her placard: "I need help like everyone else, not euthanasia!"And Liz Carr, the actor and performer who is also playing a key role in the NDY UK campaign, says on her placard: "To prevent even one innocent life being lost, capital punishment is no longer legal in the UK."How then can we justify state assisted killing of ill and disabled people in the UK? Kill the Bill - Not Us!"Lord Falconer's assisted dying bill would make it legal for doctors to help end the lives of those they judged to be terminally-ill, if the individual requested such help.NDY UK said that "celebrity supporters" of the bill were well-known but politicians needed to "hear and value the opinions of people living with terminal illnesses and severe disabilities", because the proposed legislation would put lives at risk, while the safeguards contained in the bill were inadequate.NDY UK member Sian Vasey added: "When people ask to be assisted to die, this is often in isolation and before everything possible has been done to alleviate their situation in terms of medical, social and emotional support."Fears for the future are the most common reasons for a person to request assisted suicide."Reports this week suggested that the pro-assisted suicide organisation Dignity in Dying (DiD) would not be staging a counter-demonstration outside the House of Lords, but would rely instead on social media to make its case.NDY UK members had been concerned at what they say was aggressive behaviour by DiD supporters at a protest outside the Lords on 7 November, during the first day's discussion of the bill's committee stage.One disabled protester was allegedly hit with a fist, others were intimidated and verbally abused, while some pro-euthanasia campaigners apparently encouraged drivers to run over disabled activists who were blocking the road in a peaceful direct action. The claims were denied at the time by DiD.Meanwhile, disabled campaigners in Scotland staged their own protest outside the Scottish parliament, as MSPs on the health and sport committee discussed a bill originally devised by the late MSP Margo MacDonald.Her assisted suicide (Scotland) bill is now being spearheaded by the Green MSP Patrick Harvie. His party's official policy is to legalise assisted suicide.The committee was holding the first of several sessions in which it will take expert evidence on issues such as the law, ethics and palliative care, and hear from disability organisations, including Inclusion Scotland. Continue reading

If assisted dying is a medical treatment, then all are entitled to it - including convicted murderers. Kevin Yuill in an article published in Spiked, reflects on the situation of the Belgian prisoner, Frank Van Den Bleeken. Van Den Bleeken was granted his wish for euthanasia only to have it cancelled days before it was to be carried out.Yuill observes the hypocrisy of some in the British commentariat: Continue reading

Purdy's case thrust the legalization of assisted suicide onto the front burner in the UK in 2009, where it remains today. Ironically, even though she wasn't terminally ill at the timeâ��and died now because she stopped eatingâ��UK assisted suicide promoters continue to pretend that legalization is about terminal illness. Considering Purdy's caseâ��and the support she received for the right to assisted suicideâ��it clearly is not. Any such limitation is only the proverbial foot in the door.I am reminded of the 1941 German pro-euthanasia propaganda movie Ich Klage An! (I Accuse!). As in the Purdy case, the plot involved a woman who contracts progressive MS. As she loses abilities, she wants to die. Her physician husband eventually assists her suicide and is arrested. The movie ends with the character looking into the camera, as if the audience were the judges, declaring: Continue reading

Talk about a death panel! The House of Lords is debating again to legalize assisted suicideâ��struggles with the nonsense of fashioning "strict guidelines" to protect against abuse. (As I have repeatedly shown, guidelines don't protect, they just give the illusion of control.)The latest scheme is to create what could be called "suicide courts," where suicidal people will ask a judge to approve their doctor-prescribed suicide. From the Independent story: Continue reading

It has long been an argument of the pro-euthanasia and pro-assisted suicide lobby to say that having a bottle of poison (Nembutal) in the cupboard provides a certain level of comfort and restores a sense of control. Many would add 'for those who are experiencing a terminal illness', or something similar. Philip Nitschke these days is marketing his suicide methods more broadly under the sales pitch: 'You might be healthy now - but you never know!' or similar. We reported recently that Dr Rodney Syme was claiming this affect as his intention in supplying Nembutal to Steve Guest in Victoria in 2005:"My intention was to provide the most effective palliation for his psychological and existential suffering. There is ample evidence in medical and palliative care literature that the provision of control is a powerful palliative intervention." Continue reading