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http://www.montrealgazette.com/news/todays-paper/Canadians+prepared+inevitable/3311693/story.html

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Canadian Politicians Seek Positive Alternatives to Euthanasia and Assisted Suicide [LifeSiteNews.com]
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2010/jul/10072305.html

OTTAWA, Ontario, July 23, 2010 (LifeSiteNews.com) Following the sound defeat of a bill to legalize euthanasia and assisted suicide in Canada's Parliament this spring, dozens of the country's MPs — representing all parties — have come together to address the root causes that lead some of Canada's vulnerable to desire their own deaths.

"It's not enough simply to oppose assisted suicide and euthanasia," said Harold Albrecht (Kitchener-Conestoga), the Conservative co-chair of a new Parliamentary Committee on Palliative and Compassionate Care (PCPCC). "We have to go deeper than that and ask why people are even considering it. " How can we improve the palliative care in our country so that the question won't even need to be asked?"

The committee was announced in April, and already boasts a membership of 40 MPs, representing every political party in Canada. They are conducting hearings and public consultations to seek ways to protect and care for Canada's vulnerable, and are focusing their efforts on four major pillars: palliative care, suicide prevention, elder abuse, and disability issues.

The committee began receiving submissions in May, and held their first consultations in June. They plan to gather information throughout the summer and fall with the aim of presenting a report on their findings to the government and MPs by the end of December, including specific recommendations on how to address the issues they uncover.

Later in the article:
They decided to begin with a study of the reasons why people would want to die or commit suicide. "It really boils down to, in the end, a lack of hope, a lack of meaning and purpose for their future," Albrecht suggested. The committee's work is crucial to him, he said, "because I believe in the value of life."

death

palliative care

end-of-life care

terminally ill

euthanasia

Canada

A Final Prescription [The New York Times]
http://newoldage.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/07/16/a-final-prescription/

This article explains the basics of P.O.L.S.T. ("physician orders for life-sustaining treatment".) A POLST is a short form of specific medical instructions used by patients with serious illness who are approaching death. Advance Directives may be created years in advance, and so may contain general terms, and be quite long. POLSTs are created for imminent need, and so can be short and specific, which has advantages. For example, ambulance staff will obey treatment instructions on a POLST, where they would not have time to read and interpret an advance directive.

But POLSTs are only recognized in regions that have officially adopted them — a great deal of education and coordination is needed before POLSTs become useful. The POLST web site (http://www.ohsu.edu/polst/) has information on availability in the U.S.A. My Google search does not produce information on any Canadian jurisdiction that has POLSTs in use.

Tasmania: Police drop death inquiry [The Mercury]
http://www.themercury.com.au/article/2010/07/19/159785_tasmania-news.html

The news was welcomed yesterday by Attorney-General Lara Giddings and Greens leader Nick McKim, who said their proposed new laws to legalise euthanasia would end confusion for police, doctors and families.

Voluntary euthanasia advocate and Melbourne doctor Rodney Syme was investigated by Tasmania Police over the death of Allens Rivulet man Rob Cordover. Mr Cordover, also a passionate supporter of euthanasia, died surrounded by his family in June last year after a nine-month battle with motor neurone disease.

Dr Syme admitted helping Mr Cordover to take his life by giving him advice and medication. His admissions to the Mercury last year prompted Kingston detective Scott Kregor to travel to Melbourne to interview Dr Syme. But Det Sgt Kregor told the Mercury last week he would not be taking further action. [Thanks to Dying with Dignity New South Wales for the alert on this story.]

Wisconsin: Physician, Alzheimer's-stricken wife commit suicide [Journal Sentinel]
http://www.jsonline.com/news/milwaukee/99074314.html

A few days before he committed suicide with his wife of 53 years, Daniel Gute, a retired physician, wrote a note explaining their mutual decision to die. The two-page handwritten letter is dated July 16, and it is signed by both Gute and his wife, Katherine, whom he calls "Kitty." Kitty Gute had been diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease more than a year before.

The note describes Kitty Gute's failing health, daily indignities and chronic pain. It touches on their determination not to allow the vibrant life they had shared come to an end in a nursing home, where they feared their deaths would be no better than dragged out and wrested from their control. "I am hoping that sometime this weekend I will have the guts to act to deliver us both from a more dismal situation," he writes. "I have been thinking about this for a long time. It will not be easy. However, as time goes by it will not get any better."

One of their three daughters, Mary Witte, found Daniel and Kitty Gute's bodies Sunday. The two were inclined toward each other in the front seat of Kitty Gute's car, which was parked in the garage of their River Hills home. They had asphyxiated themselves with helium, an inert gas they pumped into plastic bags that covered their heads. Kitty Gute was 78. Daniel Gute would have turned 80 on Aug. 4.

Later in the report:
The notes indicate that the Gutes struggled not so much with decision to kill themselves, but rather when. Daniel Gute feared that he would grow too frail to carry out their decision or that Kitty Gute's dementia would progress to a point that it would obliterate her ability to form will or intent.

Britain: Tonbridge mother backs right-to-die campaign [BBC News]
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-10746703

A 29-year-old mother who has been locked inside her body for the past two years has said she believes the law should be changed to allow people in her situation to die, even though she believes she has a lot to live for.

Tracey Senik, from Tonbridge, can only move her eyes - a condition that followed an accident when she was doing cartwheels with her daughter.

Britain: Inglis: "Mercy killing" case adjourned [BBC Blogs]
http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/thereporters/ferguswalsh/2010/07/inglis_mercy_killing_case_adjourned.html

Fergus Walsh writes:
The Lord Chief Justice and two fellow High Court judges were there to hear an application by Frances Inglis against her murder conviction. The judges were ready and the case was set down for the whole day. Ready too were the barristers and solicitors for the Crown and the defence.

The only person not ready was the applicant herself. A letter emerged yesterday in which Frances Inglis stated she wanted alternative counsel - effectively sacking her legal team. Inglis had been found guilty in January of the murder and attempted murder of her brain-damaged son, Thomas. She injected him with heroin because she said she wanted to release him from a "living hell".

Speaking from behind the bars of the dock today, Inglis told Lord Judge, "I don't feel I'll get a fair hearing if it goes ahead now. There are a lot of issues I'd like you to consider regarding the trial and it would be sad if that was denied." The judges agreed to adjourn her application for permission to appeal against conviction, but no new court date was set.

Edinburgh Pensioner Sentenced in Attempted Murder of Disabled Wife [LifeSiteNews.com]
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2010/jul/10072201.html

During his trial for attempted murder, an Edinburgh pensioner told the court that he thought killing his disabled wife by smothering her with a pillow would "be a good thing to do" "for both of us." The Edinburgh High Court found John Millar, 67, guilty of attempted murder last week and has sentenced him to four and half years in prison. His wheelchair-bound wife, Phyllis Millar, has suffered from Multiple Sclerosis for 20 years and Millar was her primary caregiver. He pleaded guilty to charges of attempted murder.

Lady Justice Smith told Millar, *You quite deliberately tried to kill her. Fortunately, your wife was able to get one of her hands between her face and the pillow so as to enable her to breathe and to shout for you to stop. "Had she not been able to shout at you, it does not seem that your attempt to murder her would have stopped when it did."

The prosecuting attorney said that Phyllis "was quite clear throughout this investigation that she had not at any stage told the accused that she wanted her life to end, and had never requested his assistance to help her to die."

New Zealand: Doctor refutes claims of patient euthanasia [tvnz.co.nz]
http://tvnz.co.nz/national-news/doctor-refutes-claims-patient-euthanasia-3666143

A specialist who has worked with geriatric patients for two decades, has said he has never seen any doctor perform euthanasia.

On Tuesday night's Close Up programme Dr John Pollock, who is terminally ill, claimed many doctors are already practising euthanasia. "It's called pain control or anxiety control, but the reality is many of the doctors who do this are deliberately shortening the lifespan of the patient, quite rightly," claimed Pollock.

But on Breakfast today, Professor Martin Connolly from North Shore Hospital's geriatric unit, said he has never known of it. "Clearly there has to be a distinction made between active euthanasia - that is, bringing a patient's life to an end on purpose… and a person deciding not to have active treatment because they believe that treatment would be futile. But that is not the same as active euthanasia," Connolly told Pippa Wetzell. "If patients decline treatment, then that's something we respect. But in terms of ending a patient's life on purpose, that is not something I have ever come across."

USA: Euthanasia Billboards, Books Fight for Death on Your Own Terms [ABC News]
http://abcnews.go.com/Health/MindMoodNews/billboards-advertise-death-terms/story?id=11164242

On the Final Exit Network billboards: Mixed in among the billboards for radio stations and fast food restaurants in San Francisco and New Jersey are controversial roadside ads appealing to the seriously ill who want help in committing suicide. Emblazoned with the slogan "My Life. My Death. My Choice," the black billboards are part of a larger campaign by the Final Exit Network to spur discussion and raise awareness of what it considers the inalienable right to die with dignity.

While many right-to-die advocates argue for the legalization of physician-assisted suicide for the terminally ill, Final Exit Network offers "exit guidance" to those with serious but not necessarily terminal illnesses, allowing them to take their death into their own hands, either with a physician's help or not.

On the distribution of Final Exit to libraries: Final Exit Network's philosophy is soon to get even more exposure, thanks to an anonymous $50,000 deathbed donation to the like-minded Euthanasia Research and Guidance Organization, headed by Derek Humphry, who founded the assisted-suicide movement in the U.S. and wrote "Final Exit," a do-it-yourself guide to assisted suicide.

The $50,000 donation was made with the express purpose of supplying as many public libraries as possible with Humphry's book. So far, 2,000 copies of "Final Exit" have been sent to libraries around the country. "No library has not wanted to carry the book. We've been getting thank-you letters," Humphry says.

The July 2010 issue of The Voice is available. [Dying With Dignity Canada]
http://dwdcanada.blogspot.com/2010/07/below-is-link-to-our-july-2010-issue-of.html

The focus of this issue is on our Annual General Meeting, held on June 05 in Toronto, with summaries of most presentations and questions asked. We were happy to have had almost 60 members attend our AGM - however, many more were not able to attend. For those who were not in attendance, we hope you find this summary full and inclusive of topics discussed at the three hour meeting.

If you were among the members at the AGM, there is also new information for you in this 8 page issue: new Canadian cancer statistics, international news, new Canadian polls, book reviews and more.

[A PDF of The Voice is available from a link on the above web page.]

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