Others' Care Changes Man's Mind About Euthanasia

This is encouraging: Several years ago a Hong Kong quadriplegic wrote to the government asking to be euthanized. The story prompted a outpouring of public support (as well as from the government) and he was eventually able to move back home. Guess what? With support, improved care, and knowing that people cared about him, he changed is mind about dying. I wonder how many people have died by assisted suicide, suicide, or euthanasia because they thought nobody cared about them or because they were not receiving adequate supportive care?

A quadriplegic man who six years ago wrote to Hong Kong's leader demanding the right to die has moved out of hospital. . . .  Tang Siu-pun later changed his mind and said he wanted to live, but he still believes that the choice to live or die is a basic human right. more

A Sane Alternative To The Pro-Death Spin & Lies

Here’s a very sane articulation of the difficulties around end of life issues that should be ore widely read. There are, indeed, other ways of managing the emd of life than assisted suicide or euthanasia.

Physician Assisted Suicide: A Spiritual Challenge

Last week’s piece on Physician Assisted Suicide (PAS) [2]by Dr. Juliana Eng addresses in simple and clear terms an issue that, at times, occupies the front pages of our newspapers or becomes the center of heated public debate or the theme of elaborated ethical argumentations. For long periods, however, the request of some of our patients to be helped in putting an end to their suffering, be it physical or existential or both, goes on silently in the professional lives of many of us.

As Ethics Editor of Clinical Correlation, I would very much like to see Dr. Eng’s piece stir a debate in our community as members of New York University regarding PAS and its many medical, moral, psychological and social implications. In my opinion, to be useful, this debate should not be adversarial or focused on dogmatic reasoning. Rather, it should be a forum where each one of us feels at ease to express his or her views as a practicing physician who may have encountered patients requesting PAS, but also as a person who may have been personally touched by the extreme suffering of a relative or friend. more

US Assisted Suicide & Euthanasia: The Dark Underbelly Of Abuse

Well, there are some things in this piece that I don’t agree with, but it does point out just how precarious the state of assisted sucide/euthanasia is in the US. First, euthanasia happens, even though it is illegal. Second, as this piece points out, and as many of us predicted ahead of legalization, that where assisted suicide is available in the US, it is not the transparent process everyone said it would be – in fact, it’s so under-the-table that the chances of abuse having happened are very high, I think.

Physician-assisted Suicide – Is Now the Time?

. . . Many studies indicate that a small, but definite proportion of U.S. physicians have performed physician-assisted suicide (PAS), even though it is illegal.2 The only national survey conducted found that, among a representative sample of 1,902 U.S. physicians with a high likelihood of caring for dying patients, 18.3 percent reported having received a request from a patient for medication to use with the primary intention of ending the patient’s life.  Of those physicians, 16 percent (or 42 physicians) had actually written the prescription and 59 percent of those patients (or 25 patients) used the prescriptions to end their lives. more

A Timely Word Of Wisdom To Canadian Pro-Deathers

I consider Bill a friend and colleague. He makes eloquent sense here in strongly suggesting that Canada not become another pro-death nation.

A message to my Canadian neighbors

By: Dr. Willam Toffler, MD

Since assisted suicide has become an option in my state of Oregon, I have had at least a dozen patients discuss this choice with me in my practice.  Most of the patients who have broached this issue weren’t even terminal.

One of my first encounters with this kind of request came from a patient with a progressive form of multiple sclerosis.  He was in a wheelchair yet lived a very active life. In fact, he was a general contractor and quite productive.  While I was seeing him, I asked him about how it affected his life.  He acknowledged that multiple sclerosis was a major challenge and told me that if he got too much worse, he might want to “just end it.” “ It sounds like you are telling me this, because you might ultimately want assistance with your own suicide- if things got a worse,” I said.  He nodded affirmatively, and seemed relieved that I really understood what he was feeling.

I told him that I could readily appreciate his fear and frustration and even his belief that assisted suicide might be a good option for him. At the same time, I told him that should he become sicker or weaker, I would work to give him the best care and support available. At the same time, I told him that no matter how debilitated he might become, that, at least to me, his life was, and would always be, inherently valuable. As such, I would not recommend, nor could I participate in his assisted-suicide.  In response, he simply said, “Thank you.” more

Depressed & Your Wheelchair Hurting? Time For Assisted Suicide!

Margaret Page, the NZ woman who is refusing food and almost all hydration, has become the poster person for why NZ should legalize assisted suicide. Of course, they quote a pro-death person who did jail time for trying to help someone else commit suicide a while ago. Great!! The thing that caught my attention is some insight into how flimsy the reasoning has become to want to die - Page had a wheelchair that was ill-fitting and caused her great discomfort and pain, and she was depressed. How about getting her a new wheelchair and taking care of the depression? Nah, might have reduced her discomfort to where she didn't want to die. Now, we don't want that, do we?

Starving woman 'tip of the iceberg'

Disabled woman Margaret Page, who has refused food in an attempt to end her life, represents "the tip of the iceberg'' in a country which has not adopted voluntary euthanasia, Dignity New Zealand founder Lesley Martin says.

Mrs Page, 60, suffered a brain haemorrhage in 1991 which severely limited her speech and mobility.

A patient at Wellington's St John of God care home since 2006, she has now gone 11 days without food and with only a small amount of water.

Euthanasia advocate Ms Martin, who was jailed for 7-1/2 months for the attempted murder of her terminally ill mother in Wanganui in 1999, said she often spoke to individuals and families of those who were planning to end their lives.

"We see cases like this surface all the time, but they really are the tip of the iceberg. They don't necessarily make the media in this way. more