Perspective Needed On Increased Number Of Brits Going To Dignitas To Die

Here’s a good commentary by my colleague Peter Saunders in the UK related to the number of Brits going to Swiss death clinic Dignitas (see post below) noting that the numbers need to be kept in perspective.

Significance of Dignitas assisted suicide deaths greatly overhyped

An article in the Daily Telegraph this morning attempts to make news of the fact that figures from Dignitas, the Swiss assisted suicide organisation, show a slight rise in the number of Britons registered.

893 members from this country had registered with the controversial facility by the end of last year,up 14 per cent on the figure for 2010. This means that more Britons belong to Dignitas than people from every other country except Germany.

In total, 182 people from this country have now ended their lives with the group’s help since it was set up in 1998, although the annual figure fell from 26 in 2010 to 22 last year.

No doubt this report will lead for further demands from the pro-euthanasia lobby for a change in the law.

But we need to keep it all in perspective. more

Good Reply To Scot MP Margo MacDonald's Attempts To Legalize Assisted Suicide

My colleague Peter Saunders provides a riposte to the latest attempt by Scottish MP to introduce legislation legalizing assisted suicide.

MARGO MACDONALD DISHES UP THE SAME CONFUSED EUTHANASIA PROPOSALS AGAIN

Margo Macdonald Tuesday announced that she is going to try again to legalise assisted suicide and/or euthanasia (it’s not clear which) in Scotland, just over a year after her last spectacular failure.

Ms MacDonald, Scotland’s only independent MSP, said in unveiling a new consultation on the issue, that she has ‘learned lessons’ from her previous attempt and is proposing a ‘clearer, more straightforward process’. more

An Argument For Life For People With Disabilities

Here’s another eloquent piece from my UK colleague Peter Saunders opposing assisted suicide.

LESSONS FROM STEPHEN HAWKING AND KATHRYN HIGHAM ABOUT ASSISTED SUICIDE

Congratulations to Stephen Hawking  internationally renowned Cambridge physicist, who turned 70 this week.

Hawking is probably the world’s most famous sufferer of motor neurone disease (MND) and apart from his contributions to science has also taught us two very important things relevant to the euthanasia debate. more

What The Falconer Commission Does Not Say

Another good piece from my colleague Peter Saunders in the UK. Here he focuses on what is omitted fro the Falconer Commission report, realeased today.

What Falconer does not say about assisted suicide is even more worrying than what he does say

On New Year’s day, Lord Falconer (pictured) wrote an opinion piece for the Daily Telegraph with the specious title ‘A duty of care to our last days on Earth’. It was subtitled ‘Do Britain’s laws on assisted dying work, and if not, what should replace them?’

The piece was an advertorial for the much trumpeted (by the cheerleading BBC) publication of his ‘Commission on Assisted Dying’ final report this Thursday which he tells us will provide a ‘possible way forward, which addresses the need for safeguards’ for the legalisation of assisted suicide in Britain.

I have summarised his main points here along with my comments . . . : more

UK: Why Pro-Death Ideas Always Get Worse

Here's an excellent piece on how the pro-death idea gets progressively worse by my colleague and friend, Peter Saunders.

WHY LEGALISING ASSISTED SUICIDE INEVITABLY ALSO LEGALISES EUTHANASIA

The Falconer Commission on ‘Assisted Dying’ is about to be put out of its misery when it reports later this month.

Having been suggested by Dignity in Dying (formerly the Voluntary Euthanasia Society), paid for by one of its patrons and stacked full of euthanasia sympathisers by Lord Falconer’s own admission (and also for these reasons discredited by the British Medical Association) the Commission is expected to recommend that assisted suicide for mentally competent terminally people be legalised with so-called ‘strict safeguards’. more

More Push-Back To BBC Assisted Suicide Documentary

Here's the latest push-back to the BBC documentary filming an assisted suicide from my colleague and friend Peter Saunders. Note the spin in the title - it's not "assisted suicide" or "assisted killing," but "assisted death."

Terry Pratchett film to show an assisted death

Viewers of the BBC2 show will see the writer, whose Discworld series of books have sold millions of copies worldwide, at the Dignitas clinic in Switzerland with the 71 year–old motor neurone disease sufferer, named only as Peter.

Sir Terry, who was diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease in 2008, also reveals that he is "a believer in assisted death".

In 2008, a documentary on Sky Television called Right To Die? showed 59–yearold Craig Ewert ending his life. He also suffered from motor neurone disease. more

Care Not Killing UK Refuses To Participate In Falconer's Kangaroo Court

My friend and colleague Peter Saunders has written a hard-hitting letter to the Falconer Commission in the UK declining to give testimony before this kangaroo court loaded with pro-deathers. Well done, Peter!!