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

As regular readers know, I am increasingly impatient with the phoniness of the assisted suicide debate. Hemlock sellers pretend that it will be strictly limited. But they also claim that assisted suicide is the ultimate civil right.If that is so, how can it be limited strictly? Indeed, other than, say, a troubled teenager or someone with an impulsive or transitory desire to die, how can it be restricted at all? Continue reading

The 'only as a last resort' idea has often been peddled by supporters of euthanasia & assisted suicide legislation. But it simply is not the case as Wesley Smith explains. Remember: people have the right to refuse treatment - even palliative care! What we're being asked to accept in such cases is that because they refuse a legitimate choice, we must bend to their requests. Paul. This article was published on September 25 on Wesley Smith's blog.By Wesley Smith Continue reading

The current First Things contains a vivid article about one of K's deathsâ��who was found to have no illness upon her autopsyâ��illuminating the real Kevorkian behind the myth. Psychiatrist Kalman J. Kaplan was contacted by letter several times by Martha Wichorekâ��doomed to become K's 70th customerâ��and had several phone calls with her. (These poor people were not in any real sense "patients." K was an unemployable pathologist with no experience after medical school in treating living people.)The elderly woman wasn't ill or disabled, but rather, terrified about a potential future "miserable life." Despite initiating the contacts, she refused meetings and efforts by Kaplan to reach out. (I have met such people many times in my 21 years fighting assisted suicide. As sad as it sounds, I have found that for some, becoming dead gives their life purpose.) Continue reading

  By Wesley J. SmithHow often have we heard our elderly brothers and sisters say they don't want to be "a burden." Who made them think such a thing? We did! Continue reading

  This article by Wesley Smith forst appeared in the journal, First Things. It relates specifically to the USA but the lessons and observations are universal.It shows the level of suspicion people have for government and the health care system that many of us distrust paying doctors to engage in end-of-life discussions. Indeed, during the run-up to the passage of Obamacare, Sarah Palin labeled a never-passed provision to pay doctors for such conversations, "death panels." That political sound bite struck such a powerful chord that it quickly entered the lexicon. Continue reading

  Wesley Smith writes:Here's the advocacy con advanced by suicide promoters in the UK to bludgeon Parliament into legalizing doctor-prescribed death. Continue reading

  Recent botched execution in the USA with euthanasia drug highlights the myth of a 'peaceful death'. Wesley Smith writes:The drugs that are used in lethal injection executions are also used in assisted suicide/euthanasia. Continue reading

  by Wesley SmithWe are quickly becoming a pro-suicide cultureâ��indeed to the point now that organizations like the Hemlock Society Compassion and Choices, bioethicists, and the mainstream media promote suicide by self-starvation as the new big thing in making oneself dead. Continue reading

The UK House of Lords will debate Lord Falconer's assisted suicide bill this Friday the 18th of July. This is the first in a series fo three blog posts about the debate.Earlier we also posted an article from a UK Newspaper where Prof Boer, a Dutch former supporter of euthanasia now admits that he got it wrong and urges the UK not to follow the Dutch path. You can read that story HERE. Continue reading