Quebec: A Recipe For Euthanasia

See? This is why we need euthanasia – it’ll get rid of all the old people.

Quebec seniors bear brunt of home-care cuts

In 2003, the Quebec government instituted a policy favouring home care for the elderly and disabled over long-term care institutions, but complaints are growing that the government is not delivering on its commitment.

Provincial ombudsman Raymonde Saint-Germain has found that while Quebec’s home-care policy does not allow the government to deprive anyone of home-care services, some people needing help to remain in their homes are excluded, others have their service reduced, waiting lists are getting longer and caregiver burnout is growing among family members.

“There are not enough resources,” Saint-Germain told The Gazette in a telephone interview explaining the conclusions of her March 30 report, Is home support always the best option? more

UK: The Fear Begins

One shouldn’t be shocked at a poll like this from the UK – the elderly are beginning to fear what the on-marching culture of death will mean for them – especially after the recent decision to allow an assisted sucide to proceed.

Poll shows older people fear assisted suicide law

Older people are considerably more likely than younger people to think the elderly and the disabled would feel their lives would be “less valued” if a law was passed to legalise assisted suicide on the National Health Service, a new opinion poll has found.

The Assisted Suicide Survey, conducted by ComRes on behalf of ALERT, the anti-euthanasia pressure group, asked members of the public the following question: “If assisted suicide were made available on the NHS, do you think that this would make elderly or disabled people feel that their lives were less or more valued?” more

Yes - The Elderly Are Worthy Of Care And Love

Some sanity in New Zealand - understanding that the elderly, especially those with dementia, are still people in need of medical and other care.

Conference looks at healthcare pressures

New Zealand - no country for old men (or women)?Increasing pressures on the healthcare system, including the effects on older people, were discussed yesterday during day one of the New Zealand Bioethics Conference in Dunedin. more

Dutch Elderly Want Death Option Just Because They're Old

The drumbeat from the Dutch elder death lobby is growing, that they should be euthanized if they decide they have lived too long. It’s a very selfish proposition. However, those death-loving Dutch will be sure to agree and make it into law, trust me.

Right to choose

Around 4,000 Dutch senior citizens will be making an emotional appeal to politicians in The Hague on Tuesday; ‘if we're tired of living, allow us to end our lives. Even if we’re not suffering from an incurable disease, allow doctors to prescribe suicide medication’. 

At the end of January, the lower house of parliament will debate a controversial bill that expands existing euthanasia legislation.

"I'm 81 years old and still reasonably healthy. However, if I start to decline I want to be able to determine whether not I have treatment. Hospitals frequently mean having a lot of pain and suffering for only a few extra months of life, and I want to decide whether or not I have treatment. It is my life, after all." more

Now Some US Elderly Taking Up Pro-Death Agenda

Well, yes, they keep on coming out of the woodwork – elderly people who think assisted suicide and euthanasia should be a “right.” Uh-huh.

King: Death with dignity should be a right

This is the year I turn 80. I've written hundreds of columns for this paper, but this could "push the envelope" and may upset many people.

Here it is: If we are a free people living in a free country, we should have the right to die at a time and in the manner of our own choosing; but for all our many freedoms and civil rights, Americans cannot say, "This is enough. I'm ready to go."

Suicide is an ugly word, but as long as an individual does not have a legal right to end his life when and how he wants, regret, grief, even guilt will accompany every passing. more

Novel Idea: Care For Elderly, Don’t Kill Them

Here's a novel idea - instead of killing the elderly, care for them!! The way the pro-deathers are invading everywhere, this message need to get out a lot more.

Elderly need to be cared for, not killed

The Nathaniel Centre - The New Zealand Catholic Bioethics Centre - is appalled at suggestions that legalising euthanasia could be a solution to the increasing number of suicides amongst elderly New Zealanders. more

We Need More Vids Like This To Counter The Pro-Deathers

We need more videos like tis one, that show how easily coerced euthanasia is possible - especially if people see the sick as a "burden." Funny, but true.

US Poll Shows Pro-Deather Influence On Citizens

Here we go - asserting that in the US at least some people think that medical care for the elderly could be rationed, and that the elderly have the right to end their lives if they wish. Prediction: The pro-deathers will jump on this immediately as "proof" that we should legalize all kinds of weird things.

End-of-life economics

Americans have a complicated relationship with death.

Most, when asked in surveys, say they favor allowing patients who are terminally ill to end their own lives. Over the past three decades, that sentiment has steadily risen, from 59 percent of those surveyed in 1977 to nearly 70 percent last year, according to the General Social Survey conducted by NORC at the University of Chicago. more

UK: Things So Bad MDs Prescribe WATER

Here's another UK report about how bad things are in the UK - I'm not making this up: Doctors prescribing WATER to their elderly patients. God help us all.

UK doctors prescribe drinking water to prevent death of elderly in hospitals

LONDON, May 31, 2011 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Doctors who wish to keep their elderly patients alive amid the squalid conditions of some UK hospitals have been forced to prescribe drinking water for them, a report has revealed. more

Push Back Against Brit Documentary Showing Man Dying

Here's some push back to the death documentary to be show on the BBC tonight.

Andreas Whittam Smith: Television is not how to witness the passing of a life

My unease starts from the fact that for most of the audience this will be the first time they have been in the presence of death. For death has been institutionalised

In a straw poll I took this week, I discovered that few of us have ever seen somebody die. I wanted to find out how acquainted we were with death because I was thinking about the BBC One programme due to be screened this evening at 9pm entitled Inside the Human Body. It shows the death of an elderly man from natural causes. This is not quite a first. Sky showed an assisted suicide in a film called Right to Die? in 2008. In 1998 Robert Winston's BBC documentary, The Human Body, dealt with the final moments of an elderly German called Herbie. A documentary on Alzheimer's made by Terry Pratchett and due to be screened in the summer also shows an assisted suicide, this time at a clinic in Switzerland. more

Swiss Pro-Deathers Pushing For Easier Assisted Suicide

Well, so it goes. Switzerland is already infamous for the death clinic Dignitas. Now the pro-deathers are taking things to the next level - they want "barriers" to assisted suicide for the elderly removed. This is simply spin-talk for getting to the ultimate goal: death on demand, anywhere, anytime, for anyone for any reason.

Aged "should have easier assisted suicide access"

The assisted suicide organisation Exit wants to make it easier for the elderly to end their lives.

Exit, which helped 257 people to die last year, amended its statutes accordingly on Saturday, the organisation said on Sunday.

The goal is the reduction of “unnecessary hurdles placed in the way of the aged who are of a sound mind and wish to die,” the Exit statement said. more

Dutch Move Closer To Death On Demand For Any Reason

So goes the slippery slope in the Netherlands. After a survey last year found that many elderly Dutch, even if in perfectly good health, wanted a mechanism to kill themselves just because they were “tired of living,” they’re actually going ahead, as this piece points out.

Euthanasia society calls for clinic to help people end their lives

The Dutch voluntary euthanasia society is looking for a partner to open a special clinic later next year where people can go to end their lives, the Volkskrant reports.

The NVVE says its research shows some hospitals and hospices are prepared to back a clinic, which would help around 1,000 people a year to die. People suffering incurable physical complaints, chronic psychiatric conditions and dementia could turn to the centre if their own doctors are not responsive to their wish to end their lives. more

Legal Assisted Suicide Means Abuse By Family Members - Trust Me

Ah, yes, let’s make killing people a “family matter.” You know, all those “family members who can’t wait to get their hands on the inheritance, checks for which are nowhere to be found in any assisted suicide statutes.

Right-To-Die Should Be Law Of The Land — It Should Be A Family Matter

The morning of March 11, 1997, Denise Oquisanti Kiernan told Harry, her husband of three years, that she was going to take a ride.

They'd been discussing that ride for some time. Denise, a 42-year-old East Hartford native, had lived for a decade with multiple sclerosis. She'd written a letter to Dr. Jack Kevorkian, the controversial right-to-die proponent, in which she said, "I am in constant, unbearable pain. This has been a very slow death to me. Please help me."

What happened next was the focus of two trials in which a jury and two judges tried to decide whether Harry had aided Denise in her death, which she accomplished by asphyxiating while sitting in an idling van in the couple's Glastonbury garage. more

Scots Push-Back To Elder Care Rationing - Good!!

Yes, the bone-headed suggestion by a Scots surgeon yesterday that medical care for the elderly be rationed, is, indeed horrifying, as noted in this piece.

Proposal to rein in treatment for elderly ‘horrifying’

Proposals to rein in aggressive therapies and treatments for older people in the final stages of life have been compared to “euthanasia for the elderly” by one of Scotland’s foremost patient advocates.

Dr Jean Turner said she had been horrified by suggestions put forward in The Herald yesterday by Professor Phil Hanlon, a former adviser to the Scottish Executive, that the elderly should be prescribed far fewer drugs and given fewer tests and procedures as they enter physical decline. more

So It begins: UK Doctor Wants Limited Treatments For Elderly

So it continues in the UK: Now the medicos are calling for discriminating against the elderly by suggesting the NHS give them less care (cost cutting, anyone??). Can making a similar argument for people with disabilities be far behind?

Call for less aggressive treatment for elderly

A leading public health expert has called for the NHS to give elderly people less treatment as they approach the end of their lives.

Professor Phil Hanlon, a former adviser to the Scottish Executive, believes the health service is in danger of collapse unless drastic action is taken to halt its soaring costs.

In a controversial new book, he argues the elderly should be prescribed far fewer drugs and given fewer tests and procedures as they reach serious physical decline. 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

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