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Also see:

WA Euthanasia Bill provides informed choice, not "killing without consent" [Dying with Dignity New South Wales]
http://www.dwdnsw.org.au/ves/index.php/Articles/wa-euthanasia-bill-provides-informed-choice-not-killing-without-consent
Dying with Dignity New South Wales issued a media release:
All State and Territory Dying With Dignity and Voluntary Euthanasia societies today called on Western Australian parliamentarians to get behind Robin Chapple's Voluntary Euthanasia Bill, introduced in the WA Parliament this week.

"The Bill provides for someone suffering intolerably and without relief from a terminal illness the right to seek and obtain their doctor's help to die peacefully if that is their wish," said Neil Francis, President of Dying With Dignity Victoria. "The Bill contains a comprehensive suite of safeguards, ensuring that only those who make an informed, rational and enduring request have access to assistance to die," he said.

Francis continued:
But, says Francis, "It's time that those ideologically opposed to reform stopped masquerading gratuitous opinion as fact." Careful, published scientific studies have repeatedly shown that the stringent processes of lawful assistance means that the vulnerable, are in fact not. "Studies show clearly that the elderly, the lesser educated, the poor, the chronically ill, the physically disabled, the uninsured, and other supposedly disadvantaged groups are not at any heightened risk from such legislation," Francis said.

Conroy: We'll block 50,000 sites [The Stump]
http://blogs.crikey.com.au/thestump/2010/05/25/conroy-well-block-50000-sites/
In Senate Estimates last night, Communications Minister Stephen Conroy warned the Government would consider blocking up to 50,000 websites based on new filtering technology that may become available in the future.

Another excerpt:
Conroy later launched an attack on euthanasia websites, which he linked to the deaths of teenagers involved Nembutal, and on Facebook's problems with privacy settings.

Australia: Stephen Conroy's Internet Filter [Brisbane Times]
http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/opinion/politics/filtering-by-computer-fails-on-judgment-20100524-w7w1.html
George Williams, the Anthony Mason Professor of Law at the University of NSW, writes:

The plan to filter the Internet for material refused classification under Australian law is legally flawed. Australia's classification law is not compatible with the Rudd government's proposal, and in fact has its own problems that make it unsuitable as a basis for any internet ''clean feed''.

Publications, movies and computer games ''refused classification'' cover a wide spectrum. They deal with child pornography, explicit sex and extreme violence, and controversial areas such as euthanasia and abortion, which are outlawed in all or part of Australia.

Working out whether something should be refused classification cannot be undertaken in any mechanical or formulaic way, like using word recognition or other automated techniques. The decision requires a personal, individual judgement that is, by its nature, highly subjective.

Australia: NT pollies "lacking ticker" says Perron [Northern Territory News]
http://www.ntnews.com.au/article/2010/05/26/150541_ntnews.html
A Former Territory chief minister who introduced the world's first voluntary euthanasia laws said today's politicians "don't have the ticker" to try again. Yesterday was the 15-year anniversary of Territory parliament passing the Rights of the Terminally Ill Bill.

Former chief minister Marshall Perron said the law was a world-first and was expected to have a flow-on effect around the country. But the legislation was overturned by the federal government two years later.

Perron went on to say that: there had been 11 separate attempts to introduce similar laws around the country, which had all been defeated - except for one Bill still before the Western Australian parliament. "But they are only a couple of votes away from success in South Australia," he said.

Robin Chapple

voluntary euthanasia

Western Australia

Australia

Wisconsin: Assisted suicide case asks: When is help criminal? [Chicago Tribune]
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/chi-ap-wi-akillerssuicide,0,2498623.story
A Wisconsin inmate is expected to stand trial next month on allegations that he helped his cellmate, a killer, commit suicide. Joshua Walters could face up to 10 years in prison if convicted of assisting in the January 2009 suicide of Adam Peterson. Prosecutors say Walters encouraged Peterson to take his life and even helped tie the noose from a bed sheet in their cell at the Dodge Correctional Institute in Waupun.

Montana: Death With Dignity Declared A Choice [KFBB.com]
http://www.kfbb.com/news/local/94982154.html
A news video interview on Montana's access to assisted suicide.

Barbara Coombs Lee: The Crime of Assisting a Suicide [Huffington Post]
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/barbara-coombs-lee/the-crime-of-assisting-a_b_590847.html
Barbara Coombs Lee writes an opinion piece extolling the virtues of assisting the suicide of elderly patients in the final stages of terminal illness, and decrying the vice of all other types of assisted suicide. Coombs Lee conflates the acts of persuading a person to commit suicide and the act of assisting a person to commit suicide.

Four Moral Issues Sharply Divide Americans [gallup.com]
http://www.gallup.com/poll/137357/Four-Moral-Issues-Sharply-Divide-Americans.aspx?utm_source=tagrss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=syndication&utm_term=Politics
The findings are from Gallup's annual Values and Beliefs survey, conducted May 3-6, 2010. While doctor-assisted suicide is the most controversial of the issues tested, with the public tied at 46% over its moral acceptability, Americans are fairly unified in their opposition to another life-ending choice — suicide —  with 77% calling this morally wrong.

Dutch euthanasia laws now better reported [World right-to-die news list]
http://lists.opn.org/pipermail/right-to-die_lists.opn.org/2010-May/003888.html
Researchers from the Dutch Research institute for Health Care, Nivel, write in the general practitioners periodical The British Journal of General Practice that the number of requests for euthanasia have not increased since the euthanasia law came into existence. The number of reports did increase, but not the requests to general practitioners.

‘It means that euthanasia does not happen more often, but that it is reported more frequently’ says epidemiologist Ge Donker on the Nivel-website `and this is good for the quality: better means are being use in the correct dose.'

assisted suicide UK - Michael Bateman [World right-to-die news list]
http://lists.opn.org/pipermail/right-to-die_lists.opn.org/2010-May/003889.html
Chris Docker of EXIT, Scotland, concludes an overview of the Bateman case:

Change is most likely if their is a near consensus of public opinion. The 'exceptions to the rule' method seems to be the way things are going. Unfortunately, parliamentarians suggesting new assisted suicide laws tend to put forward prescriptive measures that alienate and polarise the populace. This can mean sympathetic organisations are faced with the difficult dilemma of whether to support a badly crafted law that 'means well.'

Britain: Laws on mercy killing questioned [BBC News]
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/essex/8701835.stm
The eldest son of a woman convicted of murdering her brain-damaged child has called for changes in the law governing "mercy killing". Frances Inglis, 57, injected a lethal shot of heroin into her 22-year-old son Thomas in November 2008 after an earlier attempt had failed.

In an interview on BBC 5Live, Alex Inglis said his mother had acted in Thomas' "best interest". He explained that the family and Thomas' doctors were discussing the possibility of applying to the courts to have food and water withdrawn from him to end his life but that he believed the process was "cruel". He said his mother had acted to spare Thomas from being "dehydrated to death".

Later, Inglis said: He said that he would have considered ending Thomas' life himself if his mother had not done so and suggested that the law was failing to address the issue of mercy killing.

Connecticut letter: Assisted suicide is my choice [New Haven Register]
http://www.nhregister.com/articles/2010/05/22/opinion/doc4bf5f6fb40342864540973.txt
An extract from Carol Hummel's letter: Unless you've cared for a loved one with Alzheimer's disease, you could never understand the torment you both suffer. I cared for my beloved mother in my home, and it was the hardest thing I've ever done in my lifetime. I have told my husband of 48 years I would not want my son to be responsible for my care if I should be diagnosed with Alzheimer's. I would hope my husband would have the courage to end my suffering.

I am strongly in favor of assisted suicide laws. I've worked in the nursing field for 25 years, and witnessed abuse to patients who could not speak or complain.

For me, assisted suicide is my choice. If I could have ended my mother's suffering, I would have.

Connecticut: Editorial: North Haven deaths are the exception [New Haven Register]
http://www.nhregister.com/articles/2010/05/28/opinion/doc4c00046af2529904545032.txt
The deaths of the Vanacores are being cited as an example of why the state's law barring assisted suicide should be changed. It is, however, more an example of what advocates for the disabled fear - that such a law would be used to end their lives.

The doctors are asking the courts to make a decision that should be taken by the legislature. But, the legislature has refused to act on amendments to the 1969 law. Lawmakers inclined to change the law hope the courts will rule first.

A favorable ruling would mean a fundamental change in the doctor-patient relationship. Counseling or providing the means to commit suicide is a far step beyond treating or curing a patient.

Assisted Suicide Shouldn't Be Option [Hartford Courant]
http://www.courant.com/news/opinion/editorials/hc-digbrflets0522.artmay22,0,3831317.story
Nancy Ann Foley, a person with a disability, writes opposing the legalization of assisted suicide: Furthermore, it seems that advocates for assisted suicide place physicians on a pedestal as compassionate caregivers who can be entrusted with the task of helping someone die. In my experience, too many physicians are callous and cause the disabled to suffer unnecessarily.

And Richard A. Castagno is living on his own and driving, after recovering from a very serious stroke. Castagno writes: I think Kathryn Tucker, legal director for the national end-of-life care advocacy group Compassion & Choices, would say that my situation is not what she's talking about. However, the first few days after my stroke, I continued going downhill. The prognosis was hopeless at best. If doctors had been given the authority to withhold treatment because my situations looked so bleak, would compassion have dictated, in my case, that they pull the plug?

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