EuthaNEWSia (www.euthanewsia.ca)

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http://www.theage.com.au/national/woman-charged-over-suicide-drug-20100204-ng70.html

Nembutal

Philip Nitschke

Exit International

Australia

WFRtDS World Conference Melbourne, October 2010 [The World Federation of Right to Die Societies]
http://worldrtd.net/node/944

February 4, 2010: Today the preliminary program for the 18th WFRtDS Conference was announced in the quarterly Magazine Update, Summer 2010, nr. 149, of DWDV Australia. It will be held from Wednesday evening October 6 till Sunday October 10 2010 at Rydges on Swanston in Carlton, Melbourne. (Link to Update as a PDF file)

Scotland: Fury as Margo MacDonald's right-to-die bill "falls victim to Holyrood skulduggery" [The Scotsman]
http://news.scotsman.com/politics/Fury-as-Margo-MacDonald39s-righttodie.6041416.jp

THE reputation of the Scottish Parliament was last night called into question after it emerged that senior MSPs deliberately altered the progress of a landmark right-to-die bill in order to quash legislation on an independence referendum. The Scotsman has learned that opposition MSPs involved in managing the parliament's diary ordered Margo MacDonald's high-profile assisted suicide legislation to be considered by a special "ad hoc" committee, rather than through the expected health committee. The effect of this change means that the SNP's flagship referendum proposals will now be chaired by a Labour MSP, rather than an SNP member.

Scotland: Rethink urged over assisted suicide bill plan [The Press and Journal]
http://www.pressandjournal.co.uk/Article.aspx/1591417/?UserKey=

Right-to-die campaigner Margo MacDonald is urging Scottish Parliament business bosses to back down over plans to set up a new committee to consider her bill to legalise assisted suicide north of the border. The independent MSP had expected her member's bill to be heard by Holyrood's health committee, but said last night she was surprised and puzzled to have been told it would go before a panel set up specifically for the purpose instead. . . . She said three of the business managers on the bureau, which proposes the business for parliament to debate, were opposed to her bill, and there would "always be a suspicion" about the MSPs they would pick to sit on a new committee.

Low pressure Nitrogen delivery system for a peaceful (and undetectable) hypoxic death [Exit International Peaceful Pill Blog]
http://peacefulpill.blogspot.com/

Interest in Nitrogen as the gas of choice for peaceful undetectable hypoxic death has grown as post mortem forensic tests have become increasingly common in establishing the presence of Helium as a cause of death. A low pressure (~3kPa) constant flow delivery system provides the gas flow needed (> 15l/min) making use of a pressure regulator and large (~2mm) jet. The re-fillable 8 litre cylinders are readily available, and can be initially filled with air to practice the procedure needed for a peaceful death. Details of the regulated low pressure Nitrogen delivery system will be published in the March 2010 update of the Peaceful Pill eHandbook and demonstrated at the 2010 Exit International Workshop series.

Canada: Swiss chocolate, swift death [Vancouver Sun]
http://www.vancouversun.com/health/Swiss+chocolate+swift+death/2524757/story.html

In a letter to the editors, M. Mitchell writes: Beverly Welsh, of the Euthanasia Prevention Coalition, seems to have a bit of an "I'm all right, Jack" attitude. I presume she can walk, bathe and dress herself, feed herself and be fairly independent. I have a degenerative neurological disease. My neurologist tells me that eventually I will not be able to talk, walk or feed myself. When someone feeds me, I will choke on every mouthful. I hope that when my time comes, our elected representatives will be more enlightened and I will be able to die with dignity in my own country.

Britain: Public opinion behind "right to die" says Dr Michael Irwin [WalesOnline]
http://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/wales-news/2010/02/02/public-opinion-behind-right-to-die-says-campaigning-gp-91466-25740256/

A DOCTOR who helped a terminally ill businessman end his own life says new polls revealing overwhelming support for assisted suicide show public opinion is behind him. Dr Michael Irwin made the claim on the day author Sir Terry Pratchett used a public lecture to call for assisted suicide to be legalised. Two polls revealed most back the move.

Dr Irwin, 78, a former medical director of the United Nations, wants a change in the law to go further than making death an option for those with serious or terminal illness. He believes euthanasia should also be available to elderly people with "multiple medical conditions" like arthritis and blindness if they decide they have had enough.

Britain: MPs accuse BBC of promoting euthanasia in 'biased' coverage of topic [Daily Mail]
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1248499/MPs-accuse-BBC-promoting-euthanisa-biased-coverage-topic.html

Tory Ann Winterton is part of a group of one Tory and four Labour MPs: A group of MPs have accused the BBC of promoting euthanasia after it aired a speech by Sir Terry Pratchett calling for assisted suicide to be legalised. The cross-party group of MP called on the Government to threaten to cut off public funding to the broadcaster. A Commons motion said the corporation 'misused public funds' in its coverage of euthanasia, highlighting the high profile given to Sir Terry's speech in favour of assisted suicide.

Sir Terry Pratchett's portrayal of 'assisted death' is pure fantasy [The Telegraph]
http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/willheaven/100025158/sir-terry-pratchetts-portrayal-of-assisted-death-is-as-fantastical-as-his-discworld-novels/

Will Heaven quotes from his column in the Catholic Herald: Quite apart from the reality of assisted suicide — that it is not about a present "my choice" but a past one, or even a "their choice" — I've always disputed the Romantic idea that it is in some way rebellious to kill yourself; that it is a "right" or a great freedom. It is, to me, the loneliest possible admission of defeat. To be faced with the beauty, the love, and the torment of the world — and to slope away to a dark corner of nothingness.

Britain: A doctor's secret gift to a dying friend [The Telegraph]
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/7148721/A-doctors-secret-gift-to-a-dying-friend.html

A doctor explains how he helped a friend to end her life, concluding: There is no doubt that I could have lost my career if it had been discovered, or if I had been open about this. It would be interesting to know if other doctors have acted in a similar way, and I welcome the current debate on assisted suicide, although I am far from an active advocate of it. I have never for a moment regretted my actions — sometimes I wonder if any of my medical friends would help me in this way if I asked them to. [Thanks to Exit International for the alert on this story.]

USA: Right to die documentary film up for Oscar prize [Assisted-Suicide Blog]
http://assistedsuicide.org/blog/2010/02/02/right-to-die-documentary-film-up-for-oscar-prize/

Among the nominations for Oscars in the short documentary category announced in Hollywood today is "The Last Campaign of Governor Booth Gardner," from Just Media, which is a portrait of the former governor of the state of Washington who led a campaign on behalf of the state's Death with Dignity Act, which permits assisted suicide. The 82nd Academy Awards will be held March 7 at the Kodak Theatre at Hollywood & Highland Center.

Britain: Crown Prosecution Service says daughters did not assist mother's suicide [Times Online]
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/article7012870.ece

Two daughters who sat with their mother for four days as she lay dying will not be charged with assisted suicide. Jane Aiken Hodge, 91, who had high blood pressure and mild leukaemia, held a "Do not resuscitate" card. She wrote a letter to her GP saying she did not want to be revived when she took an overdose of sleeping pills in June last year. Michael Jennings, a reviewing lawyer for the Crown Prosecution Service, said that he was satisfied the death was an independent suicide. Mrs Hodge from Lewes, East Sussex, was a bestselling author of over 40 novels, most of them historical romances. Her final book Deathline, written six years before her suicide, was about a woman nursing a terminally ill patient.

Britain: In 37 years as a cancer doctor, I've never had a patient who asked for euthanasia [Daily Mail]
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-1248090/In-37-years-cancer-doctor-Ive-patient-asked-euthanasia.html

Karol Sikora writes: In all my 37 years as a cancer doctor, I have never had a patient who asked for euthanasia. In my line of work, it is not an issue. People don't want to die. And, usually, we can make patients comfortable, thanks to modern drugs. . . . For my part, I know with certainty that when my time comes, I would rather be in the hands of a doctor than the next case on the agenda of a death committee.

Britain: Reasonable, yet appalling [Guardian]
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/belief/2010/feb/03/assisted-suicide-terry-pratchett

Austen Ivereigh writes: Changing the law would enshrine the idea that we can and should choose the time and place and manner of our death. Death would come under our control. Inevitably, we would use that new power in such a way as to avoid the pain and suffering which dying often entails; and we would soon be persuaded that it was a generous thing to do, because it would free up NHS budgets. And this new cultural norm would gradually dispense with the whole object of dying, which is precisely that it is out of our control. Those who accompany the dying — as I did recently, at the bedside of my father — know that it is an incredibly profound process, the crystallisation of human life and meaning. It is no accident that hospices and care homes, the places where these journeys are undergone every day, are the most vigorously outspoken against those who are urging a change in the law; they know dying — in all its agony and serenity — and they declare it to be a process so important, so vital, and so necessary that it must be preserved, not as a right for religious freaks but as the norm of a society which sets the value of humanity higher than the narrow constraints of reason.

Seven-in-Ten Britons Want Legal Euthanasia [Angus Reid]
http://www.angus-reid.com/polls/view/seven_in_ten_britons_want_legal_euthanasia/

Angus Reid publishes a summary of its poll results, along with a PDF download of the complete poll.

COLUMN -- Montana's moral failure [Holland Sentinel]
http://www.hollandsentinel.com/opinions/x402458818/COLUMN-Montana-s-moral-failure

Bob Ashby concludes: How a person dies is as important as how he or she lives. But the "how" should not have to do with methods or maladies or exercise of rights. In this day of magnificent medical achievements, death still reigns in our mortal bodies, but it does not have to become a goal, for whatever reason. The good death is not born out of personal desperation, futility or rebellion. The highest goal is to beat death altogether in Christ's life. For those without that victory, their passing must still be a testimony to their life, not the manipulation of their death.

Britain: Assisted suicide — God forbids it, but isn't it the greater moral act? [New Statesman]
http://www.newstatesman.com/blogs/the-staggers/2010/02/god-euthanasia-reconcile

It's hard to reconcile a merciful God with a deity who demands humans endure years, even decades, of lives they don't consider worth living. Doesn't easing a painless exit seem to be the greater moral act?

Britain: Anne Atkins: I know the curse of ME well but I'm sorry, it was wrong to let Lynn die [Daily Mail]
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-1247348/ANNE-ATKINS-I-know-curse-ME-Im-sorry-wrong-let-Lynn-die.html

In a deeply-felt account, Anne Atkins —  whose own family has known the curse of ME —  questions the widely-held view that Kay Gilderdale was justified in hastening the end of her daughter's life

Britain: Battersea woman's life support cut 'without family's permission' [yourlocalguardian.co.uk]
http://www.yourlocalguardian.co.uk/news/4881529.Wife_s_life_support_cut__without_family_s_permission_/

Doctors switched off a Battersea woman's life support machine without her family's permission to save NHS resources, her husband has claimed. Shun-Yuen Pang, a former British serviceman, asked for his wife Lai-Mei to be kept alive for two more days at Kings College Hospital so that her three sons could have a chance to say a last goodbye. . . . But at about 4.30am on December 23, doctors said her head injuries were so severe she would never recover and made the decision to switch off her ventilator. Her three sons, Ka-Chun, 37, Ka-Yip, 36, and Ka-Hing, 35, arrived the next day — Christmas Eve.

Kay Gilderdale: killing my girl broke me…but I'd do it again [Daily Express]
http://www.express.co.uk/posts/view/155217/Kay-Gilderdale-Killing-my-girl-broke-me-but-I-d-do-it-again

Former nurse Kay Gilderdale, 55, said watching her daughter die felt like having her "heart ripped out", but she insisted: "I know I did the right thing for Lynn. She's free and at peace. Whatever the consequences, I would do it again." Lynn, 31, who suffered from the chronic fatigue disease ME for 17 years, begged her mother "to end her pain" after taking a morphine overdose, so she gave her more drugs.

Isaiah is a baby in distress — not a martyr nor a political symbol [Vancouver Sun]
http://www.vancouversun.com/news/Isaiah+baby+distress+martyr+political+symbol/2504359/story.html

Paula Simons writes: I understand the young couple's reaction. Isaiah is their first and only child. They've dedicated the last three months of their lives to watching over him. He has become the centre of their existence. But as Isaiah's parents, they don't have the objectivity or the expertise to judge whether their desperate fight to keep their profoundly brain-damaged son alive is actually in their baby's best interests. The doctors and nurses at the Stollery aren't baby-killing ogres. They are highly trained specialists, who dedicate themselves every day to keeping seriously compromised newborns alive. I guarantee you that the medical staff at the Stollery didn't come to this decision because they got tired of looking after Isaiah 24 hours a day. And despite the incredible expense of keeping the baby on life support, with round-the-clock nursing care, I guarantee you they didn't make this decision to save money. I have no doubt that the Stollery doctors made a decision, based on their years of experience, that Isaiah's quality of life was so poor, his outlook so hopeless, that removing him from the ventilator would be a mercy, both for the suffering baby and his agonized family.

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