Barbara Coombs Lee: An Idea Whose Time Has Come

Description:

Barbara Coombs Lee, president of Compassion & Choices writes in The Huffington Post, agreeing with a recent National Review cover story that social change about end-of-life choices is on the way. She suggests that this is not "a creeping culture of suicide and euthanasia", but "a culture of dignity, human liberty and personal choice."

"The opposing forces remain essentially unchanged from last century to this. Individuals asserting their own values and beliefs seek control over important decisions in their lives, especially health care decisions. Dogmatic churches, autocratic institutions and authoritarian politicians fight to limit individual authority over self…. The struggle for end-of-life choices is a movement whose time has come."

Coombs Lee omits the name of the author of the National Review piece, or a link to the National Review article. A link to a copy of the article is below.

[Note: Some other recent stories related to this topic are in the Links: section below.]

[Note: there are stories in the Overflow: section below.]

Links:

To read the full article click on one of these links, both of which go to the same destination. A short link is provided for the convenience of readers. Also, readers may search and browse past advisories on the web (see bottom.)

Source:

Coombs Lee, Barbara. "An Idea Whose Time Has Come". The Huffington Post. Posted: October 21, 2009 03:40 PM. <www.huffingtonpost.com/barbara-coombs-lee/an-idea-whose-time-has-co_b_328978.html>.

Tags:

Tags (or keywords) briefly indicate some major topics of the report.

  • end-of-life decision

  • Compassion & Choices

  • U.S.A.

Overflow:

Stories that EuthaNEWSia did not get to:

  • Exit International confirms dates for Canadian and American workshops [Exit International]
    http://www.exitinternational.net/

    Vancouver (BC) - 11am, Wed 4 November; Bellingham (WA) - 1pm, Saturday 7 November; San Francisco (CA) - 11am, Tuesday 10 November; Anaheim (CA) - 1pm, Saturday 14 November.

  • Peer's 11th hour bid to legalise assisted suicide [The Christian Institute]
    http://www.christian.org.uk/news/peers-11th-hour-bid-to-legalise-assisted-suicide/

    "A Peer in the House of Lords has launched another bid to legalise assisted suicide, just weeks after the House rejected a different attempt to weaken the law. Lord Alderdice has tabled an amendment to the Coroners and Justice Bill, which is scheduled for a Report Stage debate in the House of Lords on Monday."

  • Nitschke banned from Canada library [Bundaberg News Mail, AU]
    http://www.news-mail.com.au/story/2009/10/22/nitschke-banned-from-canada-library/

    "AUSTRALIAN euthanasia activist Dr Philip Nitschke has been banned from a Canadian government-run library for a second time, despite weeks of negotiations and legal assistance from a civil liberties association. Instead, the director of the assisted suicide group Exit International has found an ally in a church, which has provided an alternative venue, after the Vancouver Public Library on Canada's west coast made a final decision on Wednesday to deny his booking."

  • Let's Talk about the Right to Hospice Palliative Care Instead [Canadian Hospice Palliative Care Association and the Alzheimer Society]
    http://alexschadenberg.blogspot.com/2009/10/media-release-from-canadian-hospice.html

    A joint news release quoted by the Euthanasia Prevention Coalition is from the Canadian Hospice Palliative Care Association and the Alzheimer Society. It says, in part: "The CHPCA believes it is time to shift the focus to the right to high quality hospice palliative care at the end of life before we enter into the debate around the contentious issue of euthanasia and physician assisted suicide."

  • November 2 - World Right to Die in Dignity Day [The World Federation of Right to Die Societies]
    http://worldrtd.net/node/926

    October 21, 2009: For the second year a large meeting will take place to commemorate the World Right to Die in Dignity Day in Paris, France on the Parvis des Droits-de-l'Homme at the Trocadero on November 2nd, 2009. The idea for a World Right to Die in Dignity Day was brought forward by president de l'ADMD-FRance Jean-Luc Romero to the World Federation, after which the first day was organised at the end of the 2008 Paris World Conference at the same place. ADMD-F will organise this year also meetings as part of this day in a number of places through France.

  • Sen. Rockefeller Repeats Call for Advance Care Planning Legislation [The Official Compassion & Choices Blog]
    http://compassionandchoices.org/blog/?p=686

    Senator John D. Rockefeller IV repeated his call Monday to included advance care planning in health care legislation.

  • Assisted suicide law "a matter of conscience" [Yahoo UK & Ireland]
    http://uk.news.yahoo.com/11/20091020/tpl-assisted-suicide-law-a-matter-of-con-0a1c1a1.html

    Any change in assisted suicide law should be a matter of conscience, Lord Bach said today. He was responding to a question from Lord Warner on the House of Lords judgement on July 30 on the case of R (on the application of Purdy) v Director of Public Prosecutions. The case dealt with the circumstances in which individuals would or would not be prosecuted under the Suicide Act 1961 for assisting another person to commit suicide. Bach said that the government felt the issue was most appropriately dealt with by a private members bill.

  • Assisted suicide a step toward euthanasia in New Hampshire [The Telegraph, New Hampshire]
    http://www.nashuatelegraph.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20091018/OPINION04/910189970/-1/opinion

    OpEd piece by Robert H. Rowe, a state representative for Milford and Amherst in New Hampshire. "There is no question that for a person who is terminally ill, in severe pain, and whose life is drawing to an end, suicide is an option. It is a very personal decision and act for those who feel that there is absolutely no alternative and who believe that there is nothing more to live for. But this is a personal decision for the individual alone; not to be encouraged by law."

  • Assisted-suicide statute challenged by 2 Connecticut doctors [American Medical News]
    http://www.ama-assn.org/amednews/2009/10/19/prsd1019.htm

    "Connecticut judges sympathetic to terminally ill patients' plight but afraid to assert a constitutional right to physician-assisted suicide might find the new lawsuit's argument appealing, said Robert Burt, professor of law at Yale Law School. He opposes physician-assisted suicide. "It's not a crazy position," Burt said of the legal argument in the case. "As a matter of English language, though, it's not very convincing. It looks gimmicky.""

  • The Bishop and the atheist: Assisted suicide debate [Bedford Today, UK]
    http://www.bedfordtoday.co.uk/bed-news/Assisted-suicide-debate.5718057.jp

    Geoff Morris, member of the British Humanist Association, will debate euthanasia with The Bishop of Bedford Richard Inwood. Both are against it.

ID:

The EuthaNEWSia ID for this advisory is: enid200910236232.
Mailed: Friday, October 23, 2009 14:23:11 -0600
at Saskatoon, Saskatchewan.

Etcetera:

EuthaNEWSia is a free Canadian news advisory service covering end-of-life issues such as right to die, assisted suicide, and euthanasia. EuthaNEWSia is produced by the Right to Die Society of Canada which works toward a good death for all, including open, regulated and equitable access to euthanasia and assisted suicide. The editor is Michael Dawson <editor@euthanewsia.ca>. 

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