Like many others engaged in the assisted suicide fight I read David Brooks’s op-ed titled Death and Budgets in the opinion pages of the July 14th New York Times with shocked repulse. His op-ed suggests that end-of-life care is a primary cause of our current financial crisis, and assisted suicide should be promoted for the sick, disabled and elderly to reduce medical costs and … [Read more...] about Assisted Suicides for Debt Reduction?
Euthanasia: An Inevitable Step beyond Assisted Suicide
We recently posted an article entitled “ Euthanasia of People with Dementia in the Netherlands”. Marcie Landell correctly points out on our Facebook wall that euthanasia is a “step beyond assisted suicide”. We believe it is an inevitable step. While it is important to distinguish between assisted suicide, in which a person takes his or her own life, and euthanasia, or … [Read more...] about Euthanasia: An Inevitable Step beyond Assisted Suicide
Vermont’s Assisted Suicide Bill Allows for the Same Kind of Abuse Identified in this Article about Washington’s Assisted Suicide Report
The article in parentheses below was published in the July 2011 bulletin of the bar association of Kings County, Washington's largest county (https://www.kcba.org/newsevents/barbulletin/BView.aspx?Month=07&Year=2011&AID=article10.htm). The concerns about abuse it details are as relevant for Vermont as for Washington, because the Vermont bill is similar to the statutes … [Read more...] about Vermont’s Assisted Suicide Bill Allows for the Same Kind of Abuse Identified in this Article about Washington’s Assisted Suicide Report
A Test to Predict Alzheimer’s Could Drastically Increase Assisted Suicides
Erik Parens and Josephine Johnston, scholars from the Hastings Center, have written a thought-provoking commentary published in Time.com. The article speaks about researchers currently developing a test to predict whether a person will develop Alzheimer’s disease. The test will be used to predict the disease before it sets in, and long before the person shows any signs of the … [Read more...] about A Test to Predict Alzheimer’s Could Drastically Increase Assisted Suicides
Legalizing Assisted Suicide is a Mistake: Another Physician Writes to the Vancouver Sun
I am a cancer doctor in Oregon. The combination of assisted-suicide legalization and prioritized medical care based on prognosis has created a danger for my patients on the Oregon Health Plan (Medicaid). The Plan limits medical care and treatment for patients with a likelihood of a five per cent or less five-year survival. My patients in that category, who say, have … [Read more...] about Legalizing Assisted Suicide is a Mistake: Another Physician Writes to the Vancouver Sun