Final Exit Network: Death with dignity

Description: [of the article from the Baltimore Sun]

Jerry Dincin, president of Final Exit Network, writes on three topics:

Baltimore physician Dr. Larry Egbert is currently awaiting trial in both Arizona and Georgia, accused of assisted suicide. The charges are unfounded. Dr. Egbert, a former Johns Hopkins professor, simply counseled patients with incurable diseases about their options as the end of their lives drew near. By talking to these folks, Dr. Egbert was fulfilling his responsibility as a medical professional.

An example of the need: Consider the 42,000 Americans diagnosed in 2009 with pancreatic cancer, a disease that is usually inoperable and accompanied by crippling abdominal and back pain until the end. All those patients will know is a future of intense agony followed by death. Some "life." An aging nation means that these terrible diseases will become more common, and protecting the right to die with dignity, more urgent. For example, 5.3 million Americans are living today with Alzheimer's. By 2050, that number will be 16 million. In a country where there isn't enough good health care for those who want to live, doesn't it seem insane to take those who desperately want to die and force them to stay alive against their wishes?

Dincin explains how the Network does its work: What we do is wholly different from physician-assisted suicide, since we never supply any equipment or administer any lethal chemicals. We are careful to keep our efforts within the law. That, however, has not prevented some local governments, notably Georgia and Arizona, from persecuting many of my colleagues - including our former medical director, Dr. Egbert. Ending a life of unbearable pain and indignity is a basic human right. We at Final Exit Network provide compassion in the form of information and empathy, and we are proud of our work.

[There is information in the Notes section below.]
[There are other related stories in the Links 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 and future advisories on the web (see bottom.)

  • http://tinyurl.com/22smpf6

  • http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/opinion/oped/bs-ed-right-to-die-20100607,0,4412862,full.story

    Also see:

  • Hemlock Society: Compassion & Choices and the Final Exit Network [World right-to-die news list]
    http://lists.opn.org/pipermail/right-to-die_lists.opn.org/2010-June/003898.html
    Joining an online discussion, Wye Hale-Rowe reviews her view of the role of the Hemlock Society and its successors, Compassion & Choices and the Final Exit Network.

  • Connecticut: Doctors, Patients Disappointed in Court Decision [Compassion and Choices blog]
    http://compassionandchoices.org/blog/?p=1040
    This page also links to the full June 2nd judgement dismissing the Blick case.

    Connecticut physicians, terminally ill patients and Compassion & Choices, the nation's largest and oldest nonprofit organization working to improve care and expand choice at the end of life, today expressed disappointment with the recent Blick et al v. Connecticut court decision. On July 2, 2010, Judge Julia Aurigemma ruled to dismiss a case that sought to clarify the ability of mentally competent, terminally ill patients to obtain aid in dying from their physician if they find their dying process unbearable. Attorneys for the State of Connecticut filed a motion to dismiss the case, which asked whether a physician providing aid in dying is subject to criminal prosecution under an old nonspecific statute that makes it a crime to aid another to ‘commit suicide’.

  • Connecticut: Terminally ill need choices, compassion [The New Haven Register]
    http://www.nhregister.com/articles/2010/06/04/opinion/doc4c090ce334fda233647802.txt
    Barbara Coombs Lee, responding to a negative editorial, writes in support of the need to recognize that physician aid in dying is not suicide, and that doctors should not face prosecution for helping suffering, terminally ill patients to end their lives.

Source:

Dincin, Jerry. "Death with dignity". Baltimore Sun. June 7, 2010. <www.baltimoresun.com/news/opinion/oped/bs-ed-right-to-die-20100607,0,4412862,full.story>. Baltimore Sun, 501 N. Calvert Street, P.O. Box 1377, Baltimore, MD 21278 U.S.A.

Tags:

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

  • assisted suicide

  • Final Exit Network

  • U.S.A.

Notes:
ID:

The EuthaNEWSia ID for this advisory is: enid201006072030.
Mailed: Monday, June 7, 2010 14:31:45 -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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