Aussie Pro-Deathers Angry About Banned Ad - Too Bad

Ho-hum. As I reported a few days ago, the Aussie pro-deathers led by the ghoulish Philip Nitschke tried to run pro-death ads on Aussie TV and were prevented from doing so. They’re outraged. Too bad, IMO.

Outrage over euthanasia ad ban

SUNSHINE Coast advocates of voluntary euthanasia are outraged an advertisement calling for governments to rethink their stance on the controversial issue has been banned from TV.

The advertisement was given the axe by classification body CAD (Commercials Advice) on the grounds it related to “promotion or encouragement of suicide”. more

Scottish Medical Opposition To Legalizing Assisted Suicide

It’s good to see, as in Quebec, that many medical professionals are urging Scottish MPs to reject proposals to legalize assisted suicide.

Doctors warning over assisted suicide law change

SOME doctors could become specialists in assisted suicide if a proposed change in the law is passed, MSPs have heard.

Hospice chiefs warned the measure could "inhibit" dialogue with terminally-ill patients amid fears they could be seen as directing people towards assisted suicide. more

 

Canadian MP Pushing Legal Euthanasia Has Cancer

As we know, the world is full or irony, both good and bad. I’m very sorry to hear that Quebec MP Francine Lalonde has bone cancer that will effectively end her political career. No word as to whether she’ll use her medical condition to push for legalized euthanasia in Canada, where, in Quebec at least, she has been the main protagonist of just that.

Bloc MP Francine Lalonde has cancer

Veteran Bloc Québécois MP Francine Lalonde has announced she won't run in the next federal election because she has bone cancer.

The 70-year-old said the cancer she battled a few years ago has returned and is progressing rapidly. more

Oregon Has Taught That All Suicide IS OK

Suicide is out of control in Oregon – I’m shocked I tell you!! Now let’s see, the state prides itself on being the first to make assisted suicide legal, thereby legitimating a previous social taboo. Why wouldn’t the message be that suicide, assisted or otherwise, is OK?

Oregon Suicide Rate Tops U.S., By Far

SALEM, Ore. -- Oregon's suicide rate is a stunning 35 percent higher than the national average, a new state report out Thursday said.

The Oregon rate is 15.2 suicides per 100,000 people, compared to the national rate of 11.3 per 100,000.

After decreasing in the 1990s, suicide rates have been increasing significantly since 2000, according to a new report, "Suicides in Oregon: Trends and Risk Factors," from Oregon Public Health.

The report also details recommendations to prevent the number of suicides in the state. more

Clueless German Press Thinks Assisted Suicide Is Euthanasia

OK, here’s why the press does such harm to our cause and aids and abets the pro-deathers: A story of a prominent German couple who went to Dignitas in Switzerland and were killed via assisted suicide NOT voluntary euthanasia. Voluntary euthanasia ia when someone requests euthanasia and is then killed, usually by a doctor. Assisted sucide is when someone helps another commit suicide. Assisted suicide is what this story’s about.

Report: German Flick industrialist died by voluntary euthanasia

Berlin - A former German industrialist who was at the centre of one of West Germany's biggest political scandals died alongside his wife through voluntary euthanasia in a Swiss clinic, media reports said Saturday.

The daughter of Eberhard von Brauchitsch was reported by the news magazine Focus as saying her father and mother Helga had decided to end their own lives.

"Due to the rapid deterioration of their health, my parents took this step into consideration - and then took the step at an appropriate time for them," daughter Bettina von Brauchitsch said.

The couple died on Thursday, and news of their death was first made known the following day. Eberhard von Brauchitsch was 83.

Voluntary euthanasia is a controversial practice whereby patients with terminal illnesses are aided in causing their own death. It is illegal in most European countries. more

Doctor Power: WE Know What's Best For You, So Shut Up

I missed this when it first came out, but this is exactly why we need to be constantly vigilant. This article is an exemplar of what I call doctor power. Where doctors actually ignore the wishes of the patient and their families and legal proxies – just because. Douglas DeGuerre’s medical records absolutely stipulated that all measures be taken to keep him alive. Guess what? The doctors ignored that legal directive and let him die in front of his distraught daughter.

Lawsuit could set precedent about end-of-life decisions

Joy Wawrzyniak's face is reflected in a photograph of her father, Douglas (Dude) DeGuerre. She is suing Sunnybrook hospital and two doctors, alleging they failed to try to save DeGuerre's life despite the family's wishes.

As her father lay struggling for breath in a Toronto hospital bed, Joy Wawrzyniak pleaded with doctors to intervene and save his life.

Medical staff instead stood back and allowed the World War II veteran to die, against his wishes and to the shock of his daughter, Wawrzyniak claims in a stunning $1 million lawsuit filed this week against Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre and two doctors responsible for her father’s care.

While Wawrzyniak and her father, Douglas (Dude) DeGuerre, had repeatedly requested he receive life-saving treatment in case of a medical emergency, doctors unilaterally overruled those wishes without consent or consultation, the lawsuit claims. more

Canadian Pro-Deathers Show Their True Colors

As the Canadian euthanasia hearings continued last week, the pro-deathers started to show their colors by whining that the hearings ere being sidetracked by other groups calling for better palliative care and more hospital resources for palliative care. Well, that’s not what the pro-deathers want to talk abut, because it’s a rational and sensible alternative to killing.

Euthanasia debate straying off course: group

Quebec's public hearings into assisted suicide continued in Montreal Wednesday, with an appearance by the president of the Right to Die With Dignity Association, among others.

Quebec's public hearings into assisted suicide continued in Montreal Wednesday, with an appearance by the president of the Right to Die With Dignity Association, among others.

Hélène Bolduc told the all-party panel of MNAs leading the hearing that the debate is being sidetracked by calls for better palliative care, more hospital beds and better pain management. more

Encouraging: Many in Canadian Press Oppose Euthanasia

I’m actually encouraged that there is so much opposition to euthanasia in Canada – particularly from the press, who are often in the pro-deather camp.

If angels can wait, so can we

I am weary, let me rest, says the narrator in the song by Alison Krauss and Union Street Station. It's a thought that most of us have had at one moment or another when life seems to have become a little too rough and rocky to endure, but it's one that usually passes in the course of ordinary living.

It is in the course of ordinary dying that the question becomes acute. How should we deal with people who are terminally ill and are weary and want to rest? And that raises the even more vexatious question of people who are facing death and may well be weary but don't want to go. more

Aussie Pro-Deather TV Ads Pulled

As I reported last week, the Aussie pro-deathers jumped on a TV PR game show that tasked participants to sell the unsellable and enlisted them to make euthanasia propaganda ads. They have, at lest for now, been pulled. I’m not optimistic that the ban will last, however.

Pro-euthanasia ads pulled from TV

An advertisement which calls for a government re-think on euthanasia cannot be shown on Australian television following a "last minute" backflip by a classification body.

Pro-euthanasia advocate Dr Philip Nitschke was informed of the revised position of CAD (Commercials Advice) on Friday afternoon.

Filming for the ad was completed earlier this week. more

Calgary Herald Calls It As It Is

As I’ve noted before, the Quebec hearings on assisted suicide/euthanasia are completely biased to the pro-deather side. This piece in the Calgary Herald gets it right.

Euthanasia brings culture of death

There's an all-party panel of Quebec politicians travelling across that province to gather public opinion on the legalization of euthanasia and assisted suicide. The hearings are aptly titled "Dying with Dignity," but since the right-to-kill crowd long ago co-opted that phrase to mean the individual right to choose the time and means of one's own death, there's little doubt which side of life the hearings will be biased toward. more

Quebecois Officials Deny Euthanasia A Cost-Cutting Measure: Uh-Huh

Here’s another pro-deather lie that’s popping up in the Quebec assisted suicide hearings – the official denial that euthanasia will not morph into a cost-cutting measure. Earth to Quebec: It’s already happening. Just yesterday a grieving widow testified that her husband, who had MS, committed suicide because of pain associated with his condition. Why the pain? Because the energies of much of the medical community is focused on killing people, not putting the resources into effective pain management – which is, by the way, very effective indeed.

Euthanasia hearings not linked to cost-cutting: MNA

A Quebec government committee looking into euthanasia and assisted suicide was not convened to find a way to cut health care costs and empty hospital beds, said the committee chair Thursday.

A Quebec government committee looking into euthanasia and assisted suicide was not convened to find a way to cut health care costs and empty hospital beds, said the committee chair Thursday.

Liberal MNA Geoff Kelley made a rare intervention at the committee's public hearings in Montreal to discredit the conspiracy theory put forward by some that economic arguments are at the heart of the debate started by the government.

"This is not an exercise in eugenics; this is not an exercise in finding some fast remedy to our budgetary problems," Kelley told those who came to participate in the hearings at a downtown Montreal hotel. more

Pro-Deathers Lie: Hospice NOT In The Business Of Killing

Here’s how things get blurred by the pro-deathers to their advantage. This piece asserts that more hospices in Oregon should participate in assisted suicide because it’s somehow their responsibility. What crap. This lie is being promulgated as the pro-deathers infiltrate the hospice movement. The whole idea of hospice has NOTHING to do with killing people. It’s all about celebrating love and keeping people comfortable until they die.

Research: Most Oregon Hospices do not Fully Participate in the Death with Dignity Act

(HealthNewsDigest.com) - Garrison, NY A survey in the latest issue of the Hastings Center Report found that most hospices in Oregon, the first state to legalize physician-assistance in dying, either do not participate in or have limited participation in requests for such assistance. Both legal and moral reasons are identified.

This finding is significant because hospices are considered important for assuring that physician-assisted death is carried out responsibly, write the authors, Courtney S. Campbell, the Hundere Professor of Religion and Culture at Oregon State University, and Jessica C. Cox, the Hundere Program Assistant and a second year graduate student at Oregon State. Most patients in Oregon who choose physician-assisted death are enrolled in hospice care. Hospices’ role is largely confined to providing information about the law in a neutral manner, the study found. Patients must then work on their own to find physicians who are willing to help them die. more

Pro-Deather Lies In Scottish Hearings

Usually, the pro-deathers are pretty artful at spinning things their way. An then comes someone who didn’t get the memo and actually lies – saying that legalizing assisted suicide (a) doesn’t lead down the slippery slope to death-on-demand for any reason, and (b) that the number of euthanasia cases in Holland has remained stable. Here’s the truth: In the Netherlands they went vey quickly from euthanasia for a very narrowly defined group of patients to where now anyone can request euthanasia for just about any reason. Also, the Netherlands’ own official figures show that the numbers of euthanasias, both reported and unreported, are increasingly quite quickly.

GP describes dilemma over assisted suicide

Doctors are afraid to help people to die and do it only out of compassion for their patients, a medical expert claimed yesterday.

A specially-convened committee of MSPs has started to scrutinise proposals that would make Scotland the first part of the UK to change the law on assisted suicide.

Doctors and professors from Switzerland and the Netherlands gave their personal experiences of the process. . . . .

Dr Rob Jonquiere, communications director of the World Federation of Right to Die Societies and a former GP who has carried out euthanasia in the Netherlands, said the law had not led to a “slippery slope” in the number of people asking to die.

He said: “The percentage of euthanasia cases has more or less stayed the same.” more

India: A Sane Response To Euthanasia Request

This story is important because it shows that at least in some places, in this case India, there is a legitimate counter to requests for euthanasia. The woman in the story is old, and has several medical conditions, none of them fatal and all treatable, but she wants to be euthanized. Instead of caving in, the common-sense court ruled that she get free medical care for a month and then be reassessed. What’s the bet that once she’s treated, she won’t want to die? I certainly like the odds.

Karnataka high court orders free treatment for woman seeking euthanasia

The high court on Tuesday directed the National Institute of Mental Health and Neuro Sciences (Nimhans) to give free treatment to 70-year-old HB Karibasamma for four weeks and then submit a report.

In the earlier hearing, Karibasamma had sought that Nimhans too be made a party to the case.

Justice Ajith Gunjal, while listening to the petition filed by Karibasamma seeking to be allowed euthanasia or mercy killing, on Tuesday asked Nimhans to treat the woman for a month at no cost and then submit her medical records to the court. more

Illogical Arguments Pushing Quebec Euthanasia Hearings

Here’s a Canadian piece that shows why societal taboos are often adopted. The writer basically says that because many Canadians think euthanasia is OK, it should be legalized. Frightening illogic, I’m afraid.

Hébert: Quebec leads the way with euthanasia debate

A bit more than three decades ago, the ordinary men and women who made up a Quebec jury opened the way to unrestricted access to abortion in Canada when they refused to find Dr. Henry Morgentaler guilty of a crime for performing the procedure on demand.

The Quebec government of the day was appalled by the verdict but eventually it had no choice but to relent and stop prosecuting abortion-related cases. More than a decade before the federal abortion law was struck down by the Supreme Court, it became inoperative in Quebec.

Today the sons and daughters of that generation of jurors have grown up to become the most liberal group of legislators in the country and they push the social frontiers from inside the National Assembly.

A few years ago Quebec was at the forefront of the battle to legalize gay marriage, with public support for that change running higher in the province than anywhere else in Canada.

Now Quebec may be about to push the envelope on euthanasia. more

Quebec Hearings Bring Out The Same Tired Pro-Death Tactics

More on hearings – this time in Quebec. Of course, the usual lame arguments and horror stories are trotted out to convince everyone that assisted suicide and euthanasia is almost a human right. It’s these kinds if arguments, often without the counterbalance of palliative care and the fact that pain management is a highly developed intervention, that allows the pro-deathers to perpetuate their lies.

Quebec euthanasia inquiry hears gruelling tales of suicide

He was an MS patient in rapid decline, and he spent three years searching for the best way to end it all.

Laurent Rouleau went to doctors, looking for a painless way. He studied the law, quickly realizing there was no legal way. In the end, the 59-year-old paper-mill worker was left alone, with two .22 calibre bullets to the gut. more

Seeking Dutch Foxes' Advice On The Scottish Henhouse

The “hearings” in Scotland continue as to whether assisted suicide should be legalized. Unsurprisingly, they’re bringing in killing experts doctors from Holland to say it’s OK to kill people. I’m shocked, I tell ya!

Right to die 'is hard for doctors to face'

Dr Rob Jonquiere said a request from a patient for assistance in ending their life was the most difficult ever received by a doctor, as he told MSPs most of his medical colleagues were scared to carry out such procedures, but did so out of compassion to their terminally ill patients. more

UK Police Wild Goose Chase - Assisted Suicide Will Not Be Punished

Pity the UK police. They’re trying to enforce the laws against assisted suicide while the legal beagles have issued a mealy-mouthed “clarification” of the law that basically says assisted suicide in the UK is still illegal, but not really. The coppers are wasting their time, energy, and the public’s money. The legal system will never prosecute the woman who went with Douglas Sinclair to Switzerland where he was assisted in being killed by death-palace Dignitas thugs.

Police to hand over death file

POLICE and legal officials are due to meet tomorrow over South Tyneside man Douglas Sinclair's assisted suicide. Retired engineer Mr Sinclair, 76, suffered from the debilitating disease multiple system atrophy, and travelled to the controversial Dignitas assisted suicide clinic in Zurich, Switzerland, where he took his own life on July 28.

Former neighbour Janet Grieves, who acted as Mr Sinclair's carer after his wife, Monica, died 10 years ago, has been arrested, questioned and bailed by police for allegedly assisting a suicide.

The 47-year-old, of Westhope Close, South Shields, was arrested, along with a 48-year-old man. He has also been bailed.

Northumbria Police officers will meet Crown Prosecution Service officials in York tomorrow to hand over their file on the case.

It is understood that file includes a DVD of Mr Sinclair's final moments at the clinic. In it, he is seen to drink a lethal cocktail of drugs, smile at the camera and give a thumbs-up sign to nurses in the room. more

The Propaganda Machine In Full Swing In Scottish Hearings

The lies are perpetrated, with a patina of officialdom, in Scotland, where “experts” say that in some countries where assisted suicide is legal, most of the population agree with it. Mmmm, smell a rat, anyone?

Scottish Parliament

International experts on euthanasia and assisted suicide have told the End of Life Assistance (Scotland) Bill Committee that in countries where such practices were legal, they were widely accepted by the public.

The committee began taking evidence on the End of Life Assistance Bill on 7 September 2010.

The bill, brought forward by Independent MSP Margo MacDonald, would allow terminally ill people to seek help to die at a time of their choosing, a form of legalised assisted suicide. more

In Aussie, Euthanasia Fiction Becomes Reality

Yesterday I posted the YouTube clip of an Aussie game show that asks two competing ad agencies to produce ads to sell the unsellable, in this case euthanasia. Well, predictably, the Aussie pro-deathers have jumped on board and are considering actually hiring one of the companies to REALLY produce pro-death ads. The propaganda re-education machine will be in full swing soon, I’m sure.

Pro-euthanasia ads to hit TV screens

A "hard hitting" pro-euthanasia campaign will soon appear on television screens and billboards across Australia.

Dr Philip Nitschke, an advocate of assisted suicide, said the campaign was an Australian first and it was hoped to provoke private introspection as well as a public debate. more

Words Of Wisdom In The Quebec Assisted Suicide/Euthanasia Hearings

Beryl Wajsman of the Canada Free Press gets the current furor over assisted suicide/euthanasia hearings in Quebec just about right in this excellent piece.

Guard against blind justice in the shadow of life

One is struck by why the euthanasia and assisted suicide issues are so important as to be brought forward at this time in Quebec’s history in a roving commission. It is to be hoped that it is because of compassion to reach new definitions in light of pleas from suffering people who wish to terminate their lives. However, reasonable people can be forgiven if they suspect that this issue is being pushed to set new standards to allow a bloated health-care system the right to decide when to terminate life. If there is even one scintilla of truth in that possibility then the whole exercise is venal and obscene. more

Dice Are Loaded For Pro-Deathers In Quebec

Well, this is rich. As readers know, hearings on the legalization of assisted suicide are currently been held in Quebec. Pop quiz: With a commission entitled “Dying with Dignity,” whose side do you think the commission’s on?

Euthanasia hearings spark questions over Ottawa’s role

Quebec could take a cue from B.C.’s ‘‘selective’’ stance on prosecuting assisted suicide cases, according to the head of a provincial commission who suggests the public may be open to a solution that doesn’t involve asking the federal government to change the Criminal Code.

“It’s been suggested that British Columbia has been far more selective in charging people with assisted suicide,” said Geoff Kelley, a Liberal member of Quebec’s National Assembly and president of the commission, which begins public hearings today. “Palliative care, questions of the code of ethics for medical professions, all those are under the provincial jurisdiction, as are questions of the administration of justice.”

Hoping to reignite a national debate about assisted suicide and the way patients die, the ethics of euthanasia will be debated by Quebecers through a travelling commission that will make stops in 10 cities, starting today in Montreal, before its conclusion. The commission, entitled “Dying with Dignity,” first held hearings for medical, legal and ethical experts in February. Now, the provincial politicians want to hear from the public in Quebec. more

Mad Margo Is Getting Her Way In Scotland

So it goes: Hearings on legalizing assisted suicide – this time in Scotland, related to a bill introduced by Margo MacDonald (yes, she who, when she first proposed this about a year ago, actually suggested that assisted suicide be available for children. Yes. You read correctly. For children.

MSPs take evidence on End of Life Assistance Bill

MSPs have begun taking evidence on plans to give terminally ill people the right to die. Independent MSP Margo MacDonald, who has Parkinson's disease, brought the bill to make it legal for someone to seek help to end their life.

A special Holyrood committee is spending the next few weeks questioning a wide range of witnesses on the End of Life Assistance Bill.

The proposals will face their first parliamentary vote in November. more

Aussie Euthanasia Ads - A TV Game Show - For Now

Here's an Aussie show that gets 2 ad agencies to compete in selling the unsellable. In this case, they're tasked with selling euthanasia. It's tongue-in-cheek, but closer to the truth than these guys know . . .

Quebec "Hearings" - Thin End Of The Wedge

Yup, this is the thin end of the wedge – agitate for legalized murder until the government caves and officially holds “hearings.” If you think these “hearings” won’t be completely stacked in favor of the pro-deathers, then you’re not paying attention.

Right to die debate takes centre stage in Quebec

QUEBEC — The national debate on euthanasia and helping end the life of someone who wants to die is about to be rekindled by public hearings kicking off this week in Quebec.

Euthanasia and assisted suicide are illegal under the Criminal Code, a federal statute that provinces cannot change.

But Quebec is determined to weigh in on the issue and has set up a commission that will travel to some 10 cities, starting Tuesday in Montreal. more