Scotland: Assisted suicide bill moves closer

Description:

A Bill to legalize assisted dying is to be presented to the Scottish Parliament today. Full details of the bill will be made public in January by MSP Margo MacDonald, who has now completed a long consultation process.

The Care Not Killing Alliance, a coalition of palliative care groups, disabled people groups and religious groups, said: "Rather than pushing people towards assisted suicide or euthanasia, we should be assuring them that they are not a burden and working to provide effective palliative care."

[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:

Maddox, David. "Assisted suicide bill moves closer". The Scotsman. Published Date: 04 December 2009. <news.scotsman.com/politics/Assisted-suicide-bill—moves.5883852.jp>. The Scotsman, Barclay House, 108 Holyrood Road, Edinburgh EH8 8AS, UK

Tags:

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

  • assisted suicide

  • legislation

  • Margo MacDonald

  • Care Not Killing

  • Scotland

  • Britain

Overflow:

Stories that EuthaNEWSia did not get to:

  • Quebec embarking on euthanasia debate [The Globe and Mail]
    http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/quebec/quebec-embarking-on-euthanasia-debate/article1388087/

    Quebec wants to have a public debate on euthanasia next year in the hope of building a consensus that will persuade the federal government to recognize the controversial practice in law. A motion tabled yesterday in the National Assembly by the Parti Quebecois, and supported by the other opposition parties and the governing Liberals, proposes that a committee begin hearing experts on the issue by early February. The committee will report back on palliative-care conditions, the plight of terminally ill patients, supervisory conditions for exercising the right to euthanasia and other related issues. During a second phase of the debate, an ad hoc 16-member legislative committee will tour the province to hear the views of individuals and organizations in seeking common ground in defining an individual's right to die.

  • Quebec opens euthanasia debate [CBC News]
    http://www.cbc.ca/health/story/2009/12/03/quebec-euthanasia.html

    The national assembly's standing committee on health and social services will first hear from experts on the issue and prepare a consultation document.

  • Canada: Euthanasia is about killing, not the "right to die with dignity" [examiner.com]
    http://www.examiner.com/x-22884-Canada-Politics-Examiner~y2009m12d1-Euthanasia-is-about-killing-not-the-right-to-die-with-dignity

    The Ottawa bureau chief for for radio stations Newstalk 1010 in Toronto and CJAD 800 in Montreal says: What Lalonde's bill proposes to do is allow active euthanasia which requires a planned and purposeful act such as a doctor giving a patient a lethal injection. In the United States lethal injection has been challenged in court as a cruel and unusual punishment for death row inmates, here in Canada we have banned the death penalty as inhumane, too fraught with mistakes. Now Parliament is considering allowing the sick to be given what we find unacceptable for criminals.

  • Colorado: Assisted suicide controversy surfaces [The Pueblo Chieftain]
    http://chieftain.com/articles/2009/12/04/news/local/doc4b18c58eb8b44973661755.txt

    The issue of assisted suicide surfaced in Pueblo this week when an 18-year-old man was arrested for allegedly supplying the gun his father used to kill himself. Randy Edward Quaduor was arrested Wednesday on suspicion of manslaughter in connection to the Tuesday suicide of his 75-year-old father, Edward L. Quaduor.

  • Australia: What rights do cancer patients have? [Crikey.com.au]
    http://blogs.crikey.com.au/croakey/2009/12/03/what-rights-do-cancer-patients-have/

    A useful new booklet, called Understanding Your Rights, has recently been released by the Cancer Council NSW. It sets out what patients can reasonably expect, both from health services and themselves as they undertake the cancer journey. Sally Crossing, Chair of Cancer Voices NSW, reviews the booklet, and concludes with the words: My only regret is that there is no mention of a subject that many of us with metastatic cancer seriously consider — supported by 87% of people in NSW, according to latest Newspolls — how to reassure yourself of being able to die with dignity and control. This booklet was no doubt hamstrung by our current bizarre legislation which almost prohibits discussion, let alone information and assistance. However, the Dying with Dignity website — which has the best Advance Care Directive — is included.

  • UK: Bury Hospice: How seeds of an idea grew [Bury Times]
    http://www.burytimes.co.uk/news/burynews/4774260.Bury_Hospice__How_seeds_of_an_idea_grew/

    A MEETING of Manchester Human Rights Group in 1977 was the unlikely catalyst which ultimately led to the opening of Bury Hospice 14 years later. The seeds of the hospice were sown one evening when Dr Richard Lamerton spoke to the group. At the meeting were four people from Bury, one of whom was Sister Veronica from Holy Cross Convent. They were moved by Dr Lamerton's address and shared his belief that the only Christian answer to voluntary euthanasia was hospice care.

  • Colorado: Hospice of the Valley celebrates first year with Loving Tree [Snowmass Sun]
    http://www.snowmasssun.com/article/20091202/NEWS/912019992/1064

    Hospice of the Valley has now been in operation for nearly one year…. While none of us can escape that final exit from human life, how one dies is the focus of hospice. "Everyone should have a death with dignity, comfort, peace and hope. No one should die alone or in pain," said Villager Markey Butler, who is the director of Hospice in the Valley.

  • New Hampshire: Assisted suicide bill is without any merit [Nashua Telegraph]
    http://www.nashuatelegraph.com/opinion/letters/461792-263/assisted-suicide-bill-is-without-any-merit.html

    Richard E. Allard writes a letter to the editor explaining that I was the caregiver during my wife's long struggle with colon cancer. He explains the difficulties they faced, and concludes: Suicide is a sin against God, our creator, and the same applies to assisted suicide.

  • Australia: Euthanasia could prevent suicides [The Sydney Morning Herald]
    http://www.smh.com.au/opinion/society-and-culture/euthanasia-could-prevent-suicides-20091201-k3af.html

    Christopher Bantick writes of his cousin's recent suicide. His cousin, 64 years old, could not cope with life after the death of his wife. He concludes: My cousin died an unspeakably lonely Tasmanian death. He has left a weeping family in Hobart who are confused and torn by grief. It is surely not beyond reason to avoid these kinds of scenarios with the terminally ill? Should we not permit death with dignity, death by choice and death, so those who love the terminally ill can be prepared and have the time to say goodbye?

  • Britain: Rugby player paralysed in first match overcomes disability to become lawyer for top City firm [Daily Mail]
    http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1232395/Rugby-player-paralysed-match-overcomes-disability-lawyer-City-firm.html

    It was just 20 seconds into Matt King's first professional rugby match when the teenager collapsed after a player crunched into him. But five years on the 22-year-old has overcome his disability to graduate with a first class law degree and accept a training contract with a top London firm of solicitors - specialising in personal injury claims. Today Mr King - whose injuries are more severe than those of Daniel James, 23, who ended his life at the Swiss Dignitas clinic in 2008 after being paralysed in a rugby training session - spoke of his initial devastation before deciding to face his nightmare head-on.

  • Assisted suicide - where will Canada draw the line? [OneNewsNow.com]
    http://www.onenewsnow.com/Politics/Default.aspx?id=791328

    This story is about House of Commons Motion 388, which asks the government to clarify the Criminal Code to protect Canadians against Internet suicide predators who may attempt to convince vulnerable individuals to commit suicide. This "Christian news service" suggests that Motion 388 is really "a motion to clarify laws dealing with assisted suicide."

  • NY Man Charged With Murder In Alleged "Mercy" Kill [wcbstv.com]
    http://wcbstv.com/topstories/mercy.killing.shooting.2.1341779.html

    The New Rochelle man accused of fatally shooting his ailing wife in an alleged "mercy" killing in September was indicted on murder charges Monday, CBS 2 has learned. Paul Weinstein, 77, of 35 Maple Ave., is charged with one count of second-degree murder and second-degree criminal possession of a weapon, also a felony. He had been held without bail following the shooting of his ailing wife, Helena, on September 23 on the 12th floor of the senior citizens complex where the couple resided.

    Days earlier, there was a similar case in Newburgh when 74-year-old Richard Benson killed his ailing wife, Florence, and then himself.

  • Australia: Euthanasia group quizzed over death [The Canberra Times]
    http://www.canberratimes.com.au/news/local/news/general/euthanasia-group-quizzed-over-death/1691175.aspx

    The police investigation into the death of Graham Daly on October 30 continues, with members of Exit International invited to interviews at the police station. Dr Philip Nitschke says that everyone was provided with lawyers, even though it does not appear that anyone has done anything illegal.

  • Winnipeg: Conscious, but helpless if plug had been pulled [Winnipeg Free Press]
    http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/local/tombits-conscious—but-helpless-if-plug-had-been-pulled-77046627.html

    A staff writer gives us what appears to be a typical reaction to the Rom Houben case: This can only be bad news for the mercy-killing brigades, the well-wishers and do-gooders who continually campaign for the right to put other people out of their misery, to spare others from enduring lives that they themselves do not think are worth living.

  • Calgary Herald: Humans are never vegetables [The Calgary Herald]
    http://www.calgaryherald.com/health/Humans+never+vegetables/2278703/story.html

    The editors of the Calgary Herald take the position that all people must have their bodies kept alive as long as machines can do the job: The lesson from Houben's case—and reinforced, sadly, too late by Schiavo's case-- is that if doctors and courts must err, it should always be on the side of life, and on the assumption that despite all outward appearances, the "I" is "indeed there."

  • Naomi Lakritz: Test these bioethicists for consciousness [The Calgary Herald, Canwest]
    http://www.calgaryherald.com/health/Test+these+bioethicists+consciousness/2281951/story.html

    Anti-euthanasia columnist suggests the Rom Houben case shows "it is the bioethics profs who appear to be the soulless ones", and re-asserts her view that forcing all patients in a passive vegetative state to live as long as technology can sustain them is "a policy [that] is not only obvious and intuitive, it is the only moral choice there is."

  • Locked-in syndrome: Unlocking the cruellest prison [Times Online]
    http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/science/medicine/article6936226.ece

    The Times reviews the current science on locked-in syndrome, and recent cases, including Rom Houben, the Belgian thought to have suffered from it for 23 years.

  • Korea: Law Unnecessary for Treatment of Comatose [The Korea Times]
    http://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/news/nation/2009/11/117_56355.html

    The Supreme Court of Korea has rejected a petition asking the court to order the National Assembly to enact a law allowing the death with dignity — a physician-assisted death with certain restrictions, or passive euthanasia. The petition was filed in June by children of Kim Ok-kyung, a 77-year-old woman in a vegetative state who became the nation's first person allowed to have death with dignity under a Supreme Court ruling.

  • Saving the dying from futile care [The Sydney Morning Herald]
    http://www.smh.com.au/opinion/blogs/godless-gross/saving-the-dying-from-futile-care/20091127-jw5y.html

    Dick Gross urges doctors to concentrate on helping to save the dying from futile care. [Thanks to Dying with Dignity New South Wales for the alert on this story.]

ID:

The EuthaNEWSia ID for this advisory is: enid200912045469.
Mailed: Friday, December 4, 2009 14:41:37 -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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