The Pro-Deathers Push In ireland

The pro-deathers heat up the assisted suicide/euthanasia debate in Ireland.

Right-to-die campaigner won't face charges over suicide

AN Irish assisted-suicide campaigner will not face prosecution over his visit to an elderly multiple sclerosis sufferer (MS) who took a fatal overdose to end her life because there is "insufficient evidence".

Tom Curran, who says he will risk up to 14 years in an Irish prison to assist his partner Marie Fleming -- also a MS sufferer -- to die at a time of her choosing, was interviewed by British police following the death of a wheelchair-bound grandmother of five. Ann Veasey (71) died in August 2011 at her nursing home in Harrogate, North Yorkshire, after she overdosed on pills she had bought online from China. more

Slippery Slope? Of Course It Is

Here’s an excellent piece about the dangers of legalizing assisted killing.

The slippery slope of assisted suicide

Proponents of physician-assisted suicide tell us that there is no danger of a slippery slope, that in Oregon the cases are "not that numerous" and are "carefully monitored." I hope that reasonable people will question these claims and reflect further on whether a law with insufficient safeguards is what we want in the commonwealth.

Slippery slope arguments involve small decisions that lead to undesirable outcomes that never would have been supported at the outset. Often, it is impossible to prove that one small step will have significant negative effects, but common sense allows reasonable people to judge the likelihood that a sequence of events that have happened in one place are likely to happen in another place in a similar way. more

More On NJ Push To Legalize Assisted Suicide

Here’s more on New Jersey’s push for legalized assisted suciide.

Assisted Suicide for the Terminally Ill Gets Support From N.J. Legislators

New Jersey legislators are pushing for adoption of a law that would make New Jersey the third state, after Oregon and Washington, to allow assisted suicide.Legislation pending in the Assembly and Senate would let a terminally ill patient with less than six months to live receive and self-administer life-ending medication if he or she expressed a wish to die. more

More On Quebec's Proposed Death Legislation

Here’s more on the Quebec government’s push to legalize euthanasia and assisted suicide.

Quebec government reveals plan to legalize euthanasia and assisted suicide

Quebec’s newly elected government announced that it plans to table legislation legalizing euthanasia and assisted suicide as early as next spring, even though Canadian federal law prohibits the practice.

A spokeswoman for the minority Parti Quebecois government of Premier Pauline Marois said the proposed legislation was part of the party’s election platform and was based on recommendations from the report of the province’s Special Commission on Dying with Dignity. more

Pro-Deather Headline Misleading

Well, the headline for this piece is quite misleading. Read the report carefully and you’ll find that it’s not as simple as the headline suggests – it’s much more equivocal.

Study: Assisted suicide legality does not increase patient death wish

A team of psychology and ethics researchers has published a study revealing that liberal legal attitudes to assisted suicide do not increase the desire for death in patients with incurable diseases. The study, carried out in Switzerland, does however show that patients can imagine asking their doctor to administer a lethal drug -- something Swiss law forbids. more

Jeck Kevorkian Rises From The Ashes

This is a review of a new book just out about one of Jack Kevorkian’s many victims. It’s heartbreakingly sad. However, I don’t think it justifies assisted suicide.

Acts of mercy ... A horrific football injury, an assisted suicide by Dr. Jack Kevorkian and a family trying to spare others

It’s getting toward noon on an early autumn morning as 50-year-old Jim Miley steps out from his rundown ranch house and into the sunshine, a rusty horseshoe hanging next to the front door. He found it behind the house and put it up for good luck. It hasn’t worked all that well, but Miley wants to believe that might change, that a lot of things might change.

Maybe he can’t do anything about what happened to his brother on that football field all those years ago, or about the way he sabotaged his own shot to play pro baseball.

But who says he can’t do something about what happens today, or tomorrow? more