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Evelyn Martens dies [Times Colonist]
http://www.timescolonist.com/news/Woman+cleared+aiding+suicides+dies/4061623/story.html

Evelyn Martens, whose trial in Duncan sparked a national debate on assisted suicide, has died.

Martens's son, Les Poelzer, said his mother died Sunday in Misericordia Hospital, Edmonton, from complications thought to be from a gall bladder infection. She was 79.

Martens had been visiting another son in Hinton, Alta., when she fell ill. In recent years, Martens had lived in Kelowna.

In October, 2004, when living in Langford, she went on trial for assisting two women to kill themselves. She was acquitted after 14 days.

Giving Death A Hand [CBC News]
http://www.cbc.ca/fifth/givedeathahand/index.html

In June of 2002, a 72-year-old grandmother named Evelyn Martens was arrested by the RCMP as she traveled by ferry from Vancouver to Victoria, British Columbia. She was charged with assisting in the suicides of two British Columbia women. Although committing suicide is not illegal in this country, assisting someone to do so is.

The fifth estate story, "Giving Death a Hand", tells the story of Evelyn Martens, her life and her connection not only to the two women here in Canada, but, also to the suicide of another woman half way around the world, in Ireland. "Giving Death a Hand" examines these three cases and raises the difficult moral and legal questions associated with the issue of assisted suicide in Canada.

What makes a 72-year-old grandmother risk becoming involved in a criminal activity that could send her to prison for the rest of her life? What makes her decide whom she will help and why? Evelyn Martens did not take the witness stand at her trial in 2004.

Giving Death A Hand: Life of Evelyn Martens [CBC News]
http://www.cbc.ca/fifth/givedeathahand/life.html

A time-line of the life of Evelyn Martens from 1931 to 2004.

The Trial of Evelyn Martens [Humanist Perspectives, 2005]
http://www.humanistperspectives.org/issue152/index.html

An issue of the magazine devoted to euthanasia and the right to die, featuring Gary Bauslaugh's story on the Trial of Evelyn Martens.

Canada: Evelyn Martens has died [World right-to-die news list]
http://lists.opn.org/pipermail/right-to-die_lists.opn.org/2011-January/004204.html

Evelyn Martens, one of the founders of the Right to Die Society in Canada, who faced a two-year long battle with the law — and won —  died on 3 January 2011 in hospital in British Columbia.

Evelyn Martens

assisted suicide

prosecution

Right to Die Society

Canada

Assisted suicide will be high on Swiss political agenda in 2011. [swissinfo]
http://www.swissinfo.ch/eng/politics/Case_puts_assisted_suicide_at_a_crossroads.html?cid=29157532

This article begins: The acquittal of a doctor accused of euthanasia has rekindled the debate on assisted suicide in Switzerland, ahead of votes at the cantonal level on the issue.

Later: The verdict has had political consequences. Two senators have submitted postulates to the federal government.

One politician, Didier Berberat, a centre-left Social Democrat who represents canton Neuchatel, had called on the cabinet to propose solutions to problems posed by the penal code that punishes those who assist in another's suicide with a maximum of three years in jail or a fine.

And: In his postulate, senator and Green party member from canton Vaud, Luc Recordon, asks that any changes to the law ensure that assisted suicide can never become a commercial activity.

But Recordon also wants to see that foreigners are able to come to Switzerland for assisted suicide. This service offered to people from abroad by the Zurich-based Dignitas organisation has been the target of widespread disapproval.

And: Pressure on the government to act is also coming from the cantons. The authorities in Basel Country have filed a cantonal initiative calling for improved monitoring of right-to-die organisations. And in May, voters in Zurich will decide on proposals to further tighten or introduce an outright ban on assisted suicide at the cantonal level.

Switzerland: Doctor's acquittal will not be appealed [World Radio Switzerland]
http://worldradio.ch/wrs/news/wrsnews/doctor-acquitted-of-assisting-suicide.shtml?22490

Neuchatel's former cantonal doctor has been acquitted of illegal assisted suicide.

The public prosecutor has decided not to appeal a judge's ruling in her favour last month.

Hospice best for patients with dementia [World right-to-die news list]
http://lists.opn.org/pipermail/right-to-die_lists.opn.org/2011-January/004206.html

Food Consumer magazine reported 3 Jan 11:

Hospice care good for nursing home residents with advanced dementia

Life is not easy for elderly people with advanced dementia like Alzheimer's who reside in a nursing home. If there are not many days left for them, they may better off being referred to hospice, a new study suggests.

The study led by DK Kiely and colleagues of Hebrew SeniorLife Institute for Aging Research in Boston Massachusetts found hospice recipients were more likely to regularly receive opioids for pain and symptomatic treatment for dyspnea and they had fewer unmet needs at the end of their life.

Australia: Right of reply on right to die [The Australian]
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/opinion/right-of-reply-on-right-to-die/story-e6frg6zo-1225983866944

Christopher Pearson responds at length to critics of his anti-euthanasia article Test of conviction on a life and death issue, The Australian, Jan. 1st.

[Note: For those interested in reviewing the state of the euthanasia debate, Pearson's two articles pretty well cover the anti-euthanasia territory.]

Canada: Watching grandma die taught me lessons about living [Calgary Herald]
http://www.calgaryherald.com/news/Watching+grandma+taught+lessons+about+living/4067452/story.html

[Note: The Calgary Herald is one of Canada's most determined anti-euthanasia newspapers.] Paula Arab writes a column, ending with:

[My grandmother], like most people thinking about dying, no longer realized it, but her life contained tremendous meaning for those around her, to the final breath. Those contemplating assisted suicide should remember that all life has value, until it ends.

Top 10 Canadian stories of 2010 [The Interim]
http://www.theinterim.com/features/top-10-canadian-stories-of-2010/

The Interim, "Canada's Life and Family Newspaper", rates the establishment of the anti-euthanasia, ad hoc Parliamentary Committee on Palliative and Compassionate Care as #10:

Formation of Parliamentary Caucus. On an April 21 press conference a group of MPs announced the creation of the non-partisan Parliamentary Committee on Palliative and Compassionate Care to promote "awareness of glaring deficiencies in Canada's palliative and compassionate care network, fostering constructive dialogue and substantive research on an array of related subjects and implementing policies to address this critical deficiency in the nation's approach to long-term health." The PCPCC is co-chaired by Harold Albrecht (Conservative, Kitchener-Conestoga), Michelle Simson (Liberal, Scarborough-Southwest), and Joe Comartin (NDP, Windsor-Tecumseh). The committee will research four central issues - palliative care, suicide prevention, elder abuse, and disability issues - and expect to submit its report in early 2011.

South Korea: Hospital Ordered To Pay Family 40 Million Won [Bernama.com.my]
http://www.bernama.com.my/bernama/v5/newsgeneral.php?id=553921

SEOUL, Jan 3 (Bernama) — A local court ordered a Seoul hospital to pay 40 million won (US$35,555) in compensation to the family of a patient who died last year after winning the country's first legal battle for the right to "die with dignity," Yonhap news agency reported Monday.

The 78-year-old woman fell into a vegetative state after suffering brain damage from heavy loss of blood while undergoing a bronchial endoscopy in February 2008 at Severance Hospital in western Seoul.

She died early last year after the country's top court recognized the patient's right to die with dignity and ordered the hospital to remove the respirator in the first case of its kind in the country.

The family sued the hospital a month after she fell into a coma, demanding 140 million won in compensation for malpractice and misdiagnosis and failure to explain to the patient the full risks involved in the medical procedure she would undergo.

Vermont: All Dems in Montpelier [The Burlington Free Press]
http://www.burlingtonfreepress.com/article/20110104/NEWS03/110103024/After-six-years-of-divided-government-it-s-all-Dems-in-Montpelier

An extract: Physician-assisted death advocates also backed Shumlin in the race for governor because he supports their cause. They will be pushing for an Oregon-style bill this year that would allow those with terminal illnesses to opt for a lethal dose of medication. Smith said the issue "may" come to a vote in the House this session.

That's also no guarantee it'll pass. The House wrestled with a physician-assisted suicide bill in 2007 before defeating it in a 82-63 vote that did not strictly follow party lines. Members' votes more often came down to personal experience.

Smith, who has been speaker for two years and will return to the role for the upcoming session, noted that many times political differences don*t fall along party lines, but instead there are competing goals between branches of government or even the two chambers of the Legislature. Just because Shumlin served the last four years as Senate leader doesn*t mean the Legislature*s going to be in step with him all the time as governor, Smith said.

Austria to exhume bodies in Nazi euthanasia probe [Reuters]
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE7032NC20110104

HALL, Austria (Reuters) - Hundreds of graves found at an Austrian state hospital will be exhumed once the ground thaws to see if any are victims of a Nazi-era purge of patients deemed unworthy to live, authorities said on Tuesday.

The discovery of about 220 bodies in a hospital cemetery during a construction project in Hall, near the Tyrolean capital Innsbruck, aroused suspicions that some of those buried there between 1942 and 1945 were victims of a euthanasia campaign.

"But one should not speak of 220 murder victims," historian Oliver Seifert told Reuters Television, noting that some of the patients buried there may have died of undernourishment or natural causes.

Officials told a news conference a panel of experts would oversee the two-year project to identify the dead from hospital records and genetic samples.

Nazi Germany, which annexed Austria in 1938, introduced mass killings of the physically and mentally handicapped in an effort to eradicate people deemed inferior. Thousands in Austria died in gas chambers at the Hartheim Castle euthanasia center near Linz.

At least 360 patients from the hospital in Hall were sent to their deaths before the so-called T4 euthanasia program officially ended in August 1941, ushering in a new phase in which victims died from neglect, hunger or drug overdoses. "This phase of 'wild euthanasia' between 1942 and 1945 has really been examined in just a cursory way," Seifert said.

Final Exit Network Messages Now on Commercial Airline Flights [PR Newswire]
http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/final-exit-network-messages-now-on-commercial-airline-flights-and-in-airports-across-the-us-112798139.html

PENNINGTON, N.J., Jan. 3, 2011 /PRNewswire/ — This week an interview with Final Exit Network President Dr. Jerry Dincin will begin to play on more than 4000 airline flights during January and February, throughout the Americas and Europe. Along with these interviews spot announcements will run on television monitors in 48 American airports.

The interview stresses the information and compassionate support Final Exit Network provides to mentally competent adult members who suffer from an irreversible illness that has for them become unbearable, and who wish to hasten the end of their life. Dr. Dincin says that, consistently, national polls have shown that 75-80% of the American public favor a person's right to die when medical circumstances warrant their decision.

The public service announcement on airport monitors speaks to the right to die with dignity and asks viewers' support in advocating for the organization and for this ultimate human right of the 21st century.

The display of Final Exit Network highway billboards around the country continues with one now up in Pittsburgh, another to follow later this month in Cleveland and then in Boston. These efforts are being paid for by member donations. Anyone wishing to make a tax-deductible contribution toward future billboards is welcome to do so by making a donation on the organization's website.

Right-to-die group posts advertisement in Pittsburgh [Pittsburgh Post-gazette]
http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/10363/1114055-53.stm

A new billboard erected Tuesday at the intersection of the Boulevard of the Allies and McDevitt Place in Oakland says simply, "Die with Dignity —  the Final Human Right."

Nothing much to argue with about that. But Final Exit Network, the national organization that paid for the billboard and offers its contact information on it, hopes there is plenty of debate in the next month over the right-to-die issues the sign raises.

"What we're trying to do is get a dialogue going and raise public awareness about the need for discussion and information with loved ones about their final wishes," said Frank Kavanaugh, a spokesman for the New Jersey-based nonprofit group.

Obama Returns to End-of-Life Plan That Caused Stir [New York Times]
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/26/us/politics/26death.html?_r=1

Under the new policy, outlined in a Medicare regulation, the government will pay doctors who advise patients on options for end-of-life care, which may include advance directives to forgo aggressive life-sustaining treatment.

Congressional supporters of the new policy, though pleased, have kept quiet. They fear provoking another furor like the one in 2009 when Republicans seized on the idea of end-of-life counseling to argue that the Democrats' bill would allow the government to cut off care for the critically ill.

The final version of the health care legislation, signed into law by President Obama in March, authorized Medicare coverage of yearly physical examinations, or wellness visits. The new rule says Medicare will cover "voluntary advance care planning," to discuss end-of-life treatment, as part of the annual visit.

Under the rule, doctors can provide information to patients on how to prepare an "advance directive," stating how aggressively they wish to be treated if they are so sick that they cannot make health care decisions for themselves.

Assisted death advocate keen to start South African group [Otago Daily Times]
http://www.odt.co.nz/news/dunedin/142111/assisted-death-advocate-keen-start-south-african-group

The man charged with the attempted murder of his terminally ill mother has joined a group that promotes assisted death and wants to start his own group in South Africa.

Sean Davison might also tour his adoptive country with a high-profile New Zealand euthanasia campaigner before he faces trial in the High Court in Dunedin.

Later in the report: Davison told the Otago Daily Times he would return to Dunedin and that he wanted to contribute to seeking changes to end-of-life laws in South Africa.

He joined the Dignity New Zealand Trust, formerly EXIT NZ, before he left Dunedin and he wanted to set up an affiliate organisation in South Africa, Davison said.

He was in regular contact with Dignity New Zealand founding trustee Lesley Martin who, in 2004, was sentenced to 15 months' jail for the attempted murder of her terminally ill mother.

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