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Washington State Celebrates One Year of Dignity With Death [emaxhealth.com]
http://www.emaxhealth.com/1357/24/35937/washington-state-celebrates-one-year-dignity-death.html

Most patients who died under the law in Washington last year had cancer. Doctors who prescribe the medication must submit forms to the State Department of Health about patients who received the medication and said those who died cited "loss of autonomy" as a reason for seeking it. Most also said they could no longer enjoy life and feared losing "dignity."

Ten patients said they were concerned about being a burden on their family and friends, 11 cited pain and one said finances. Critics of the law have said it could prompt disproportionate use by lower-income people. Almost all of those who died in Washington said they had private insurance, Medicare, Medicaid or some combination. None said they had no insurance at all, though coverage was listed as unknown for five people. Most died within 90 minutes of taking the medicine, though at least one person lived for 28 hours.

"We're disappointed that there are areas in the state where accessibility is very low, especially east of the mountains," said Dr. Tom Preston, medical director of Compassion & Choices, a Seattle group that advocated for the act. He said the number of requests for lethal doses was about what he expected for the first year. Robb Miller, executive director of Compassion & Choices in Washington, a group that had fought for passage of the law says, "It shows that a significant number of people are using the law for peace of mind and control, sort of like insurance," he said. "One doesn't run out and burn one's home down just because you get fire insurance."

Assisted suicide: 36 lethal doses taken in Washington in 2009 [HeraldNet.com]
http://heraldnet.com/article/20100305/NEWS01/703059898

The state health department has received no complaints from the public about doctors or pharmacists abusing the law, Moyer said. That point was echoed by supporters, including Sheila Cook of Edmonds, who helped create Compassion and Choices of Washington, a group which advocates for an individual's right to decide whether to end his or her own life. She began thinking about the issue when her mother was suffering with Alzheimer's disease.

Cook said she suspects more people will take advantage of the law as greater awareness of it spreads. In Snohomish County, no hospitals endorsed the law. Providence Regional Medical Center in Everett and Valley General Hospital in Monroe are continuing to ban the practice. Stevens Hospital in Edmonds also doesn't allow the practice, but will transfer patients to a facility that allows it upon request. No one has made a request, however, marketing director Steve Kaiser said. Cascade Valley Hospital in Arlington is remaining neutral until a case presents itself. That has yet to happen.

Washington Death with Dignity Act: 2009 report [Washington Department of Health]
http://www.doh.wa.gov/Publicat/2010_news/10-039.htm

This is the official news release, with a summary of the statistics and links to the documents.

Oregon issues 2009 report on their the Death with Dignity Act [Oregon Department of Human Services]
http://oregon.gov/DHS/ph/pas/index.shtml

This is the official government web site, with links to the reports.

Oregon physician-assisted suicide deaths remain steady. [Assisted-Suicide Blog, Derek Humphry]
http://assistedsuicide.org/blog/2010/03/04/oregon-physician-assisted-suicide-deaths-remain-steady/

There were 59 people in 2009 who brought their lives to an end with physician-assisted dying under the Oregon Death With Dignity Act, according to a report just issued by the state's department of health. The previous year the figure was 60 hastened deaths. During 2009, 95 prescriptions for lethal medications were written under the provisions of the law compared to 88 in the previous year.

Of these, 53 patients took the medications, 30 died of their underlying illness, and twelve were alive at the end of 2009. In addition, six patients with earlier prescriptions died from taking the medications, resulting in a total of 59 such deaths during last year….

Read the fuller details at this link http://oregon.gov/DHS/ph/pas/index.shtml

Oscar nomination: The Last Campaign of Governor Booth Gardner [The News Tribune]
http://www.thenewstribune.com/2010/03/05/1096815/the-last-campaign-of-governor.html

A documentary that chronicles former Washington Democratic Gov. Booth Gardner's battle with Parkinson's disease and his campaign for a Death with Dignity law has been nominated for an Academy Award. He'll fly to Los Angeles for the ceremony. This report interviews Gardner, and the contents of the documentary.

assisted suicide

Compassion & Choices

Death With Dignity Act

Washington

U.S.A.

Canada Letter: Disability is not sickness [Grande Prairie Daily Herald Tribune]
http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/search/euthanasia/SIG=123h5kk0d/*http://www.dailyheraldtribune.com/ArticleDisplay.aspx?e=2477064

Dave Storey writes: Disabled individuals throughout history have often been portrayed as evil, villainous, inhuman, dumb, sick, or depraved; or conversely, angelic, childlike, innocent, pitiable, or objects of charity. None of Disability is part of who WE are and WE are strong and WE have pride in what WE accomplish!!! These "word" descriptions are even close to being accurate or even appropriate. But because of our appearances sometimes, possibly behaviour and language, we have been put in nursing homes, placed in institutions, and sometimes jails.

We have been experimented upon, faced forced sterilization, and been subjected to genocide and now, possibly subjected to "legalized" genocide as one Bloc Quebecois MP Francine Lalonde, would like to legalize euthanasia and assisted suicide in Canada to rid the country of the aged, the terminally ill, and the disabled. She has brought forth a Member's Bill, Bill C-384 to Legalize Euthanasia and Assisted Suicide, which has received first reading in June/09, and was to be debated in the fall of 2009 in the House of Commons. This is Lalonde's third attempt to legalize euthanasia and assisted suicide in Canada.

Canada: Cruel, unusual trial [The Globe and Mail]
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/cruel-unusual-trial/article1483797/

The editors of The Globe and Mail write an editorial beginning with the paragraph: Prosecuting a suicidal, impoverished blind man in Thunder Bay for failing to stop his wife from killing herself is an almost sadistic use of state powers. Having kept Peter Fonteece, 47, in jail for 70 days after he was charged, and wrung a guilty plea out of him for criminal negligence causing death, Ontario justice now aims to put him behind bars for another nine months. How any of this judicial piling-on serves the public interest is beyond comprehension.

Re: "Dark lessons from our history should make us wary of euthanasia" [The Montreal Gazette]
http://www.montrealgazette.com/news/todays-paper/comparison/2638783/story.html

Commenting on the next item, Josette Lincourt writes: Comparing euthanasia to eugenics, as John Zucchi does, is another way of creating fear in the debate on euthanasia. Euthanasia laws, where they exist, are destined particularly for people who wish to end intolerable pain and suffering, and their request is usually by legal document and their desire is then scrutinized by a panel that includes some medical personnel. The decision is made when the person has all his or her wits.

Why, when my life is no longer tolerable, can I not choose to end it in the same way I've chosen to end the suffering of beloved pets? When I'm incontinent with no neurons firing, suffering chronic pain, Zucchi and his cohorts will not bear my pain for me.

Canada: Dark lessons from our history should make us wary of euthanasia [The Montreal Gazette]
http://www.montrealgazette.com/Dark+lessons+from+history+should+make+wary+euthanasia/2626137/story.html

McGill University historian John Zucchi tells the story of the eugenics movement in Canada 100 years ago, and suggests that the right-to-die movement is comparably tainted: Fast forward to February 2010. Last week, Quebec began public hearings on the question of euthanasia. How things have changed! The province most resistant to social engineering is at the forefront when it comes to introducing licensed killing of the infirm, that is, people who might be too lonely and distressed to make a rational decision.

Idaho: A bad day for patients, a good day for lawyers [Idaho Statesman]
http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/search/euthanasia/SIG=12n8vl6vb/*http://www.idahostatesman.com/2010/03/03/1102062/a-bad-day-for-patients-a-good.html

The editors of the Statesman attack the recent move of the Idaho Senate: Last week, 21 Idaho senators injected themselves into private, painful decisions about conception, abortion and euthanasia. Some of these same lawmakers are usually the quickest to complain about government intrusion. Instead, at the behest of the anti-abortion lobby, they tossed those concerns aside. They passed Senate Bill 1353, which speaks innocuously, but misleadingly, about the "freedom of conscience" of health care professionals. What this bill also does is limit patients' freedoms to explore their legally and constitutionally protected options.

Baroness Finlay: "Doctors must redouble efforts to relieve patients' distress" [Wales Online]
http://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/health-news/2010/03/04/in-the-debate-over-how-to-treat-the-seriously-ill-doctors-must-redouble-efforts-torelievedistress-not-simply-process-death-by-appointment-91466-25958835/

Baroness Finlay, professor of palliative medicine at Cardiff University and Velindre Hospital, writes in opposition to euthanasia (including assisted suicide): The practice of assisted suicide or euthanasia would be doubly dangerous if it becomes part of health care; healthcare must help patients with illness and disability in living and dying well, not taking shortcuts by helping them kill themselves.

Dangerous delusion of recovery: Rom Houben [The Australian]
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/health-science/dangerous-delusion-of-recovery-rom-houben/story-e6frg8y6-1225837144766

DISMISSED for half a lifetime as being in a vegetative state, Belgian Rom Houben seemed able to communicate for the first time in 23 years. An assistant sensed tiny movements in his finger and helped him to tap out sentences on a computer. His poignant observations and lack of bitterness at spending so long "locked in" a completely paralysed body touched many when his case came to light, causing an international sensation. He was said to be writing a book.

But Houben's care home now has banned the contentious technique of facilitated communication and Houben's thoughts are again considered beyond reach. The 46-year-old's brief period of lucidity was a fantasy, his doctors declared after carrying out further tests. The issue has led to bitter recriminations between medics, carers and relatives who are refusing to abandon the approach that had apparently brought Houben back to life. As well as raising painful questions about the true state of his consciousness, the case has implications for hundreds of other brain-injury patients suspected by their families of retaining full awareness while lacking the physical means to communicate.

China: Drug dealer of death tracked by online cops [AsiaOne.com]
http://news.asiaone.com/News/AsiaOne%2BNews/Crime/Story/A1Story20100304-202344.html

Beijing police are investigating the case of a drug dealer who advertises himself as a humanitarian selling euthanasia drugs in the capital. The online promotion has a long list of drugs that include the highly toxic and potentially lethal sodium cyanide.

Massachusetts: Time to let terminally ill on their own terms [Salem News]
http://www.salemnews.com/puopinion/local_story_063001023.html

This conservative columnist writes in support of euthanasia, including the comment: In my opinion, one question at least should be asked if the patient has been diagnosed as terminal: Do you want to continue dying awhile longer, or not?

Melbourne Gathers Against Internet Censorship [The Inquisitr]
http://www.inquisitr.com/64735/wire-melbourne-gathers-against-internet-censorship/

March 3, 2010: (Inquisitr Wire) - A broad cross-section of concerned citizens, advocacy groups and local activists have gathered to organise a forum to voice public opposition to the Labor Government's controversial and unpopular Mandatory Internet Filtering scheme. Coming together under the banner of STOP THE FILTER, their efforts are part of a nationwide push to inject much-needed balance and public voice to the debate, with Saturday 6 March designated as a National Day of Action.

Australia: Report slams suicide mother's treatment [The West Australian]
http://au.news.yahoo.com/thewest/a/-/breaking/6866430/report-slams-suicide-mothers-treatment/

A damning report by WA's chief psychiatrist that the Health Department fought to keep secret for nearly a year found a depressed Perth mother-of-four who killed herself in Mexico with a euthanasia drug received "superficial" treatment from a specialist mental health clinic. Erin Berg's family say Dr Rowan Davidson's report highlights the "breathtaking incompetence" of staff at the southern suburbs centre, which was managing the 39-year-old's case as a community outpatient after her involuntary stay at King Edward Memorial Hospital.

Scotland: Call for views over assisted suicide Bill [The Scotsman]
http://news.scotsman.com/politics/Call-for-views-over-assisted.6118614.jp

A COMMITTEE of MSPs set up to look at Margo MacDonald's Bill on assisted dying is to ask for public comments on the proposals. The committee held its first meeting yesterday and appointed former Liberal Democrat minister Ross Finnie as convener and Lothians SNP MSP and former Wester Hailes GP Ian McKee as deputy convener…

Mr Finnie said: "Following our committee's first meeting, our next step will be to issue a call for written evidence to all interested parties. This will enable us to gain as much information as possible before calling witnesses to give oral evidence."… The call for written evidence will be issued later this week, with ten weeks for responses. The committee is expected to start taking oral evidence in September.

Scotland: End of Life Assistance Committee to Meet [The Press and Journal]
http://www.pressandjournal.co.uk/Article.aspx/1624421

A HOLYROOD committee set up to examine the case for legalising assisted suicide is meeting for the first time next week. Liberal Democrat MSP Ross Finnie is expected to be sworn in as the convener of The End of Life Assistance (Scotland) Bill committee on Tuesday. Members will scrutinise the merits of introducing new legislation at the behest of independent MSP Margo MacDonald, who suffers from Parkinson's disease.

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