Jacqueline Jencquel: Care not kill

Description: [of the article from JacquelineJencquel.com]

Jacqueline Jencquel, a pro-choice activist, vigorously defends the need to enable people to have a good death. She begins:

Care not kill

This is what we are told by those who oppose our right-to-die activism.

Of course we care and of course we are not killers.

We want grown-up people to make their own choices. Old people are not children, who need grown-ups to patronize them.

We will all be old one day. Most of us are old, not yet that old that the question arises: do we want to go on living or are we ready to say good-bye to our loved ones and depart while still autonomous and fully conscious?

[There are other related stories in the Links section below.]
[There are stories in the Overflow 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.)

Source:

Jencquel, Jacqueline. "Care not kill". JacquelineJencquel.com. Publie le 23 aout 2010. <www.jacquelinejencquel.com/post/care-not-kill.htm>.

Tags:

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

  • assisted suicide

  • euthanasia

Overflow:

Stories that EuthaNEWSia did not get to:

  • Euthanasia debate heats up in Quebec [CBC News]
    http://www.cbc.ca/canada/montreal/story/2010/08/26/quebec-euthanasia-debate.html

    CBC News reports on the activities of an informal group of doctors: A group of medical specialists is speaking out against euthanasia ahead of a Quebec-wide consultation on the controversial practice, warning that previous attempts at legislation elsewhere in the world have failed.

    A provincial legislature committee is scheduled to travel to 11 Quebec cities in the fall to consult with the public on the polarizing practice, in which patients with terminal diseases request a doctor's help to die.

    Quebec's Federation of Medical Specialists has already publicly supported government legislation on euthanasia for "exceptional circumstances," stating the practice already happens across the province. But a handful of Montreal-based medical specialists cautions the government about regulation. "I think that ultimately, we're going to go down a slippery slope, where eventually, what patients purport to want, which is autonomy of decision-making, will be lost," said Paola Diadori, a pediatric neurologist at the St-Justine Hospital.

  • New Zealand: Living wills rule out euthanasia need [Wairarapa Times-Age]
    http://www.times-age.co.nz/local/news/living-wills-rule-out-euthanasia-need/3920453/

    Masterton Hospital's former surgeon says "living wills" rule out the need for legal euthanasia - he also says assisted suicide runs counter to medical ethics. Former GP Owen Prior, 82, is a long-time advocate for advance directives - instructions outlining specific, personal medical orders in the event that a person is mentally incapable of making decisions regarding their health.

    Later: Mr Prior said an advance directive for health care can been obtained from a doctor or lawyer and said he knew of no case where one had been challenged in court. However, he warned that family members - as well as doctors and lawyers - must be informed of the agreement and consent to its specific instructions before it is signed.

  • Why the world is running out of helium [The Independent]
    http://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/why-the-world-is-running-out-of-helium-2059357.html

    The US National Research Council has issued a report on a probable shortage of helium within 25 to 30 years. Helium is is a non-renewable resource that cannot be manufactured, and the US Congress has passed a law that stipulates: the US National Helium Reserve, which is kept in a disused underground gas field near Amarillo, Texas - by far the biggest store of helium in the world - must all be sold off by 2015, irrespective of the market price. This about half the world's reserves.

  • Britain: Killing Time - or Wasting It? [Journal of Medical Ethics blog]
    http://blogs.bmj.com/medical-ethics/2010/08/24/killing-time-or-wasting-it/

    Iain Brassington finds the charge of wasting police time laid against Ray Gosling to be worrying and directs us to an articulate and expert analysis which shares that view. The analysis concludes: All round, the prosecution of Mr Gosling appears flawed and contrary to the public interest.

  • Britain: Retired GP "feared assisted suicide probe would put her in deep trouble" [The Telegraph]
    http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/crime/7958725/Retired-GP-feared-assisted-suicide-probe-would-put-her-in-deep-trouble.html

    This report begins: Dr Libby Wilson, 84, was the first person to be arrested in connection with an assisted suicide after new guidelines on euthanasia were published by Keir Starmer, the Director of Public Prosecutions. She allegedly spoke to Cari Loder, a multiple sclerosis sufferer, twice on the telephone in the days before she took her own life last year.

    Speaking on Sunday after the case against her was dropped, Dr Wilson, founder of Friends At The End (FATE) lobby group, vowed to carry on helping people end their lives. She said she had "no regrets" about her contact with Ms Loder but revealed she feared that police would find evidence relating to other cases which could have led to her facing action.

    Later in the article, Wilson said: "But, of course, the whole experience has been unpleasant. If I was some little flower it could have finished me off but thankfully I'm not and I didn't lose too much sleep.

    "My main worry was if the police had started going in to FATE. I did think about getting rid of my computer hard drive as it was full of documentation about other cases. If they had really gone into FATE I felt I could be in deep, deep trouble. "My main concern now is that pro-life campaigners call pretending to be people looking for advice on how to kill themselves. These people may try to trap me and start a new case. That's a risk I will just have to take.

    "I have campaigned for more than 30 years for assisted suicide to be legalised and I will continue to do so."

  • New York: Paul Weinstein interview [LoHud.com]
    http://www.lohud.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=20108220376

    Paul Weinstein gives an extensive interview after his manslaughter conviction in his wife's death, explaining the sequence of events and his frame of mind.

  • Survey: 70 Percent Of Quebec Residents Favor Euthanasia [All Headline News]
    http://www.allheadlinenews.com/articles/7019668562

    [Previously published as a EuthaNEWSia Also See item.] Montreal, Quebec, Canada (AHN) - A new survey released over the weekend found out that about 70 percent of Quebec residents favor euthanasia. The study, made by Leger Marketing, came out while the province is pondering if it would legalize mercy killing and assisted suicide.

    A Quebec committee will get public feedback next month on euthanasia following a move from the Quebec College of Physicians in 2009 to give euthanasia a push for cases when the patient's death is imminent and unavoidable.

    This report concludes with: Kelley [chair of the National Assembly committee] cited a Quebec study that said 83 percent of residents are in favor of mercy killing, while an Angus Reid survey in February 2010 yielded 77 percent pro-euthanasia responses.

  • World Federation of Right to Die Societies newsletter now available on the Internet [World right-to-die news list]
    http://lists.opn.org/pipermail/right-to-die_lists.opn.org/2010-August/004029.html

    [Previously published as a EuthaNEWSia Note item.] Faye Girsh, Editor of the newsletter of the World Federation of Right to Die Societies writes that the latest newsletter is now available on the WfRTD site. Choose Archives under the WF Newsletter menu item [http://www.worldrtd.net/taxonomy/term/527].

  • New UK Dignity in Dying Newsletter CAMPAIGN published [World Federation of Right to Die Societies]
    http://worldrtd.net/node/1020

    [Previously published as a EuthaNEWSia Note item.] August 23, 2010: The latest issue of DiD's Newsletter CAMPAIGN can be downloaded from this web page.

  • HEMLOCK Florida unveils new website [World Federation of Right to Die Societies]
    http://worldrtd.net/node/1018

    [Previously published as a EuthaNEWSia Note item.] This report begins: August 23, 2010: The Hemlock Society of Florida this month announced its new website which features a comprehensive, one-stop resource for free, downloadable forms that allow Floridians to specify their own end-of-life choices. The forms are Florida-specific and include an advance directive, a do not resuscitate order, a designation of health care surrogate form and instructions for completing the forms and where to keep them on file.

    The new website is to be seen at www.hemlockflorida.org.

  • RELEVANT - NVVE's quarterly 3rd edition published [World Federation of Right to Die Societies]
    http://worldrtd.net/node/1019

    [Previously published as a EuthaNEWSia Note item.] August 23, 2010: The English summary of the third issue of 2010 RELEVANT can be downloaded in PDF from this web page.

ID:

The EuthaNEWSia ID for this advisory is: enid201008270809.
Mailed: Friday, August 27, 2010 14:46:32 -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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