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Tuesday August 15, 2006

Things Are Getting Very Secretive in Brave New Britain

By Wesley Smith
 
This time the issue is advanced medical directives and their interpretation by courts: New regulations permit these court rulings--which are often literally a matter of life and death--to be held in secret. This is terrible development. We have open courts in free societies for a reason. Secrecy permits corruption, discrimination, and heightens the potential for profound injustice. Indeed, secrecy permits the law not to be followed at all.

Living will disputes are not issues of national security where confidentiality is sometimes justified. The way to keep people complacent is to, quite literally, keep them in the dark.
 
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(c) Copyright: Secondhand Smoke

Wednesday August 9, 2006

Euro Court Refuses To Guarantee Ill British Man Won't Be Dehydrated to Death

By Hilary White
 
LANCASTER, August 9, 2006 (LifeSiteNews.com) – The European Court of Human Rights has ruled that Leslie Burke, a 46 year-old Lancaster man suffering from a degenerative neurological disease, has no reason to fear that he will be dehydrated to death when his illness renders him unable to speak.

The court has rejected Burke's attempt to ensure that he will not be dehydrated or starved to death in the final stages of his ultimately fatal illness. This in spite of the growing number of instances of death by dehydration in Britain and abroad – most notably the dehydration death of Terri Schindler-Schiavo in 2005 – and the growth in influence in Britain of the euthanasia movement.
 
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(c) Copyright: LifeSiteNews.com is a production of Interim Publishing. Permission to republish is granted (with limitation*) but acknowledgement of source is *REQUIRED* (use LifeSiteNews.com).

A recent history of starvation/dehydration

When one reads stories about Terri Schindler-Schiavo, one often encounters a timeline which places her on a continuum with Karen Ann Quinlan and Nancy Cruzan. It is difficult, however, to understand why these cases are thought to be related. Quinlan's parents removed a respirator, not a feeding tube, from their daughter. "When asked if he also wanted her intravenous feeding ended, her father said, 'Oh, no, this is her nourishment!'" according to Nat Henthoff [1]. In Nancy Cruzan's case, it was her own parents who, unlike the Schindlers, fought to kill their daughter. Instructively, Joe Cruzan, Nancy's father, also killed himself shortly thereafter. So as we ponder the meaning of Terri's execution-by-court-order this week, why not situate it in the context of precedents that are more pertinent?

Oregon - The Blanket of Secrecy

The doctor-assisted suicide law in the US state of Oregon was implemented in 1998. Earlier this state had pioneered a rationing system to abolish free health care for certain conditions.

"Advocates promised Oregon voters that legalisation of assisted suicide would bring this previously rare and clandestine practice out into the open", writes Dr Gregory Hamilton, an Oregon doctor, in a recent book. The Case Against Assisted Suicide.- For End of Life Care edited by Kathleen Foley MD and Herbert Hendin MD, pub John Hopkins University Press. ISBN 0-8018-6792-4. "Some advocates emphasise that physician-assisted suicide should be an experiment conducted in the 'laboratory' of the states. Yet the culture of silence that has developed around assisted suicide in Oregon has led to the result of this practice largely being kept secret..."

"Right to life wins in the landmark case"

Mr Wesley J Smith, Attorney-at-Law, author and Columnist said, "People throughout the UK should be celebrating the decision in the baby MB case. The court has ruled that no one can be declared by others - even doctors - to have a life not worth living and it reaffirms that important principle that in these difficult cases family decision-making is to be honoured and respected".

"A Patient's claim to life" launched by ALERT

Britain's own "Dying Rooms" attacked

Following reports of a Brunel University survey indicating that involuntary euthanasia is now being carried out in Britain's hospitals, ALERT is issuing 'A PATIENT'S CLAIM TO LIFE', a wallet sized card, and documents that go with it (see ALERT's website, http://www.donoharm.org.uk/alert). Click here for more information about the form and card.

If you care, please join us
TODAY!

Alert aims to act as a bridge between individuals and organisations, in Britain and abroad, which are concerned by the growing threat of legalised euthanasia.

It has been founded to provide well-documented information on euthanasia and related issues, and to defend the lives and rights of the medically vulnerable.

Alert is a British initiative, funded only by donations from people in this country. It is affiliated to the International Task Force on Euthanasia and Assisted Suicide, the U.S.A.'s primary source of information opposing euthanasia, and is in touch with the World Federation of Doctors who Respect Human Life, of which the headquarters is in the Netherlands.

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Against Legalised Euthanasia Research and Teaching
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