By Alex SchadenbergExecutive Director - Euthanasia Prevention Coalition Katie Buck from Iowa signed an online sympathy card connected to the Brittany Maynard website without knowing that her name would be used by Compassion and Choices, an assisted suicide lobby group, to lobby for the legalization of assisted suicide in her state.Katie produced a video to explain what happened to her and to urge Americans to be aware of how the assisted suicide lobby launched a petition without choice. Katie's video: A Petition Without Choices. Continue reading

By Margaret Dore It is well established that a single suicide can encourage other suicides, which is called a "suicide contagion." If the additional suicides use the same method, they are "copy cat" suicides. Moreover, as explained below, this encouragement phenomenon is relevant to Compassion & Choices' media campaign.A famous example of a suicide contagion is the suicide death of Marilyn Monroe, which inspired an increase in other suicides. This encouragement phenomenon can also occur when the inspiring death is not a suicide. An example is the televised execution of Saddam Hussein, which led to suicide deaths of children worldwide. An NBC News article begins: Continue reading

By Kenneth R. Stevens Jr. · November 4, 2014 Article crossposted from Alex Schadenberg's Blog. Physician-assisted suicide has recently been in the media because of Brittany Maynard, diagnosed with a brain tumor earlier this year, who came to Oregon and died of suicide from an overdose of barbiturates on November 1, 2014. The assisted suicide proponent organization, Compassion & Choices (former Hemlock Society), has orchestrated and centered a skillful media campaign about her story to promote further legalization of physician-assisted suicide.She was attractive, young, recently married, and diagnosed with a malignant brain tumor. Even though she was very functional and able to travel to the Grand Canyon in recent weeks, she ended her life prematurely a few days ago with the drug overdose. Continue reading

By Wesley J. SmithThis article forst appeared on the Human Exceptionalism blog, November 5, 2014  Imagine you have Lou Gehrig's disease. You know you are dying.But your struggle is made even more difficult by advocates who claim: Continue reading

  This article was published by NewJersey.com on October 31, 2014 and reposted from Alex Schadenberg's Blog:By John B Kelly - the New England regional director for Not Dead Yet, a grassroots disability group opposed to the legalization of assisted suicide. Continue reading

Much has been written and said - especially in the USA about the case of Brittany Maynard. Brittany Maynard is a 29 year old Californian woman who was diagnosed with a brain tumour - stage 4 glioblastoma - and told she had only six months to live. She has decided to commit suicide under the Oregon assisted suicide provisions on the 1st of November - days after her husband's birthday.Brittany Maynard's circumstances are poignant and everyone expressing reservations about her intended actions and that she is being co-opted as the face of assisted suicide campaigns in the USA has acknowledged this. It is not as though those who oppose assisted suicide are not aware of what her prognosis may mean. What opponents of her decision have been clear about is that her public advocacy has serious negative implications for others in similar circumstances, for disabled people and for society's attitude to suicide generally. Continue reading

This article by Lani Candelora from TrueDignityVermont first appeared on the LifeSiteNews website: Assisted suicide is wrongly marketed to the public as a flawless, peaceful escape from suffering. But did you know that many assisted suicides experience complications? It can be a painful and scary death. It can include gasping, muscle spasms, nausea, vomiting, panic, confusion, failure to produce unconsciousness, waking from unconsciousness, and a failure to cause death.Just this week we saw a heartbreaking article about a woman named Brittany Maynard who has planned her assisted suicide death for November 1st. She is clearly terrified of a hard and painful death, and has been led to believe that assisted suicide is the best way out. However, Compassion & Choices (the leading advocates of assisted suicide) cannot guarantee Brittany the easy death they advertise. Continue reading

When the story of Brittany Maynard surfaced in the international media last week, I was approached by a few supporters to ask what could be done about the media reporting. How could we respond? To recap, Brittany Maynard is a 29 year old Californian woman who was diagnosed with a brain tumour - stage 4 glioblastoma - and told she had only six months to live. She has decided to commit suicide under the Oregon assisted suicide provisions on the 1st of November - days after her husband's birthday.With the apparent agreement of her family, Maynard moved to Oregon and has completed the statutory pre-requisite changes to her status as a resident of Oregon so as to avail herself of the Oregonian law. Continue reading

The opinion piece by Mark Penninga first appeared in the Lethbridge Herald Recently Mr. John Warren, vice chair of the organization Dying with Dignity, made the argument in this paper that the Supreme Court's upcoming decision about assisted suicide will determine who owns your life - "you or the state."He referenced Sue Rodriguez who suffered from ALS and pleaded for the right to have a doctor end her life. Although she lost her case in a 1993 decision of the Supreme Court, Mr. Warren argues that public opinion has changed dramatically since then. Continue reading

  Stephen Drake, from Not Dead Yet USA shares an excellent analysis of the UK debate and the modus operandi and larger goals fo the pro-euthanasia and assisted suicide lobby:Right now, I want to focus on a strategy being used by pro-assisted suicide advocates in the UK. Very aware that one major criticism of legalization of assisted suicide is expansion or "slippery slope" into making nonterminally ill, old and disabled people targets of the legislation. Naturally, this has meant that advocates try to steer clear of discussing the Benelux countries, which have embraced the euthanasia of nonterminally ill people, people with depression, old people who say they're tired of living and the euthanasia of "severely disabled" infants - in the Netherlands, children with Spina Bifida have been the main target of medical killing according to reports. And of course most people are aware of the group Dignitas in Switzerland, whose eligibility criteria involves mostly the ability to pay hefty fees rather than any concern about the medical diagnosis of an individual. Continue reading