| Killing isn't mercy |
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''In France a State Prosecutor has dropped charges against a mother and a doctor who co-operated in the killing of her handicapped son'' (report Daily Telegraph). ''Where the law does not allow killing, Governments get round the difficulty by failing to prosecute. Either way, disabled people lose out.'' Ann Farmer - ALERT Press Release 4th January 2006 |
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| Suicide on the Net |
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Nitschke to continue euthanasia meetings - ''Voluntary euthanasia campaigner Dr Philip Nitschke says he will continue to discuss suicide options with people in Australia despite a new law curtailing his activities.'' The Age, 5 January 2006. |
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| Website security |
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''Websites that offer advice on how to commit suicide have been scrutinised by a minister after charities voiced concerns. Rosie Winterton, the Health Minister, has asked service providers to close so-called suicide websites. ChildLine and the Samaritans had said the sites were popular with some depressed young people.'' News in Brief - The Times 28 December 2005 |
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| 'I said to the nurse, please feed her' |
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''Pauline Pringle's mother went into hospital for a hip operation and came out close to starvation. And as Blake Morrison reports, hers is not an isolated case.'' The Guardian, 7 January 2006. |
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| MPs campaign for 'a better death' |
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'' 'NHS resources should be restructured to give everybody the opportunity of a dignified death,' a new cross-party parliamentary group said today. The Dying Well group, launched today, will campaign for better palliative care for the dying in England and Wales.'' Society Guardian.co.uk -Hélène Mulholland and agencies 10 January 2006. |
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| Legislation victory in fight for life |
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''Kath Woolf sees new laws against online suicide talk as a blessing for all. From this week, Australians are a little bit safer. They're safer from suicide spruikers who are happy to sell their one-off solution to anyone.'' The Courier Mail 11 January 2006. |
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| Dutch Study Shows Patients Requesting Euthanasia Likely Depressed |
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''A study published by Dutch researchers in the September 20, 2005 edition of the Journal of Clinical Oncology (JCO) has shown that at least 50% of patients killed under the Dutch euthanasia programme were suffering from depression. In addition, 44% of those suffering from cancer showed clinical signs of depression when they asked for euthanasia.'' - By Hilary White, LEIDEN. (LifeSiteNews.com) 16 January 2006 |
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| Doctors killing patients survey |
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'Commenting on press reports today of research published in the Journal of Palliative Medicine, Dr. Richard Lamerton, Dame Cicely Saunders' first pupil in St. Joseph's Hospice, Hackney, said; ''Good pain control, by reducing stress, if anything enables people to live a little longer. Professor Clive Seale thinks that controlling pain shortens someone's life. This is complete nonsense.'' ' ALERT Press release 18 January 2006. |
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| Fury as euthanasia group puts dignity in new name |
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''Plans by the Voluntary Euthanasia Society to rename itself Dignity in Dying came under bitter attack last night. Critics said the phrase was used by terminally ill people seeking a better quality of life - not asking for euthanasia or assisted suicide.'' Daily Telegraph 21 January 2006. |
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| The dying need TLC, not rulings |
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''Tuesday's 6-3 decision by the U.S. Supreme Court preventing the federal government from punishing doctors who prescribe federally controlled substances -- narcotics -- for suicide is being spun by euthanasia advocates as a big boost for their cause. But spin can only take you so far. It is the real world in which assisted suicide would be carried out, not threats from the federal government that has kept the practice from being legalised beyond Oregon.'' San Francisco Chronicle 22 January 2006 |
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| Doctors' role in euthanasia |
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'Your report ''Doctors hasten one third of deaths by using pain relief'', based on a study on euthanasia by Professor Clive Seale of Brunel University (Jan 18), gave a misleading and worrying picture of what this excellent and important piece of research uncovers. In fact, what the study found was that deaths which might be attributed to euthanasia on the part of doctors are extremely rare (0.16 per cent in the case of voluntary euthanasia) and that such instances are less common in the UK than in the other countries that have undertaken this study.' See ''Doctors Killing Patients survey,'' Letter to The Times DAVID PRAILL Chief Executive, Help the Hospices London WC1 23 January 2006 |
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| Palliative Care for the Terminally Ill |
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Palliative care for the terminally ill—Motion for leave to introduce a Bill under the Ten minute rule (Jim Dobbin M.P,) 25 January 2006 This was unopposed. The Bill will have a second reading on 17th March. PLEASE ASK YOUR M.P. TO SUPPORT THIS. |
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| Assisted Suicide |
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''The death of a person by their own hand is always a great sadness. It has wide repercussions and in the case of someone facing a disabling disease sends out a strong message to others that what life remains may not be worth living. It is but a short step from that to the view that they are no longer valued.'' Ann Farmer, ALERT Press Release 25 January 2006 |
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| Dying with "Dignity" |
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''The tragic death of Dr. Anne Turner in a Swiss suicide clinic does not change the grim fact that she was fighting not for the right to die (suicide was decriminalised in 1961) but for the right to be killed.'' Ann Farmer - ALERT Press Release 25th January 2006 |
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| Third time lucky my Lord? We sincerely hope NOT. |
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Lord Joffe will re-introduce his 'Assisted Dying' Bill this spring. ''If 'assisted suicide' is legalised, you're taking away thousands of people's right to life'' - Gill Gerhardi. BBC RADIO 4 TODAY programme 28 January 2006. |
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| Tick here to end your life - Mental Capacity Act code of practice. |
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'Sign away your life by ticking the box. The document, available from next year, will enable anyone over 18 to nominate a friend or relative to convey life-or-death wishes for them should they become incapacitated. A nominee or ''attorney'' would be able to order doctors to withhold life saving treatments including surgery, antibiotics cancer therapy and even food and water.' Daily Mail 30 January 2006. |
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| Dutch find depression & euthanasia related |
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''Dutch researchers have found that late stage cancer patients with depression were four times more likely to request euthanasia than those who were not depressed. The study, published in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, was the first to examine the possible connection between depression and death requests in cancer patients with an estimated life expectancy of three months or less.'' International Task Force UPDATE 31 January 2006 |
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| Dutch formalize death for infants and the mentally disabled |
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''While infanticide will remain illegal, the Dutch government has formalized plans to allow the practice by setting up a 'vetting' commission—consisting of three doctors, a lawyer, and an ethicist–— to review infanticide cases postmortem and to refer cases for possible prosecution if doctors have not followed guidelines outlined in the 'Groningen Protocol.'' [AP, 9/29/05]' International Task Force UPDATE 31 January 2006. |
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| Commemorating disabled victims of the Holocaust |
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'Declaring support: Bert Massie, chairman of the Disability Rights Commission, signs a statement supporting Holocaust Memorial Day last month. He is watched by Ken Livingstone, Mayor of London, and Baroness Sally Hamwee, chair of the London Assembly. The ceremony at London's City Hall commemorated the victims of the Holocaust, including more than 200,000 disabled people murdered under Nazi ''euthanasia'' programmes.' disabilitynow February 2006 |
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| The parents who kill and are spared jail |
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''In two recent high-profile court cases, parents who have killed their disabled children have been spared jail. What does this say about society's attitude towards disability and where will it end? asks Priya Kotecha. '' disabilitynow February 2006 |
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| Child 'mercy killing' warning by bishop |
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'THE Bishop of Manchester has hit out against euthanasia saying, changes in the law could pave the way for the ''mercy killing'' of unwanted children.' Manchester Evening News 2 February 2006. |
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| Disability Advocates: Shoddy Medicine |
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'Not Dead Yet, the national disability rights group, is calling for an investigation into the shoddy medicine that led to a court order for the removal of life-support from Haleigh Poutre just days after her admission to Massachusetts' Baystate Medical Center with a severe brain injury. She is now responsive and interactive four months after being declared ''virtually brain dead'' and in an ''irreversible coma.'' If the court order had not been appealed, Haleigh Poutre would now be dead.' Not Dead Yet 2 February 2006. |
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| Disability Activists Condemn Assisted Suicide as Distraction from important Issues |
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(Olympia, WA) 'The Washington chapter of Not Dead Yet, a national disability rights group, spoke out today against the introduction of a bill that would legalize assisted suicide in Washington State. ''Some will have you believe that. this bill is an effort to offer a pain management strategy of last resort, or a step to support individual choice. Those frameworks are red herrings'', says Joelle Brouner, disability activist, who notes that ''fear of being a burden'' and ''loss of autonomy'' are two of the most common reasons given by people seeking legally assisted suicide in Oregon.' Not Dead Yet 3 February 2006. |
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| ALERT sends best wishes to Darren and Debbie Wyatt |
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''ALERT sends best wishes to both Darren and Debbie Wyatt, and hopes things work out for them. The strain of fighting for their child's life must have been very great.'' ALERT Statement 3 February 2006 |
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| Lessons From UK "Mercy" Killing |
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''A UK woman named Maureen Messent has come forward to admit that she murdered her great aunt in the 1960s, stating she was right because the aunt, Eileen O'Sullivan, was near death from lung cancer. Messent's article demonstrates that in the end, consent easily becomes a mere technicality, easily tossed aside.'' Wesley Smith, Secondhand Smoke 6 February 2006. |
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| Society should no longer tolerate assisted suicide |
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''On Jan. 27, Marielle Houle was given three years' probation for assisting the 2004 suicide of her son, Charles Fariala... Had Fariala known people with MS living in accessible homes in the community, with assistance services to enable them to maintain a regular daily schedule of work or school and social activities, with plenty of accessible public transit, he might have felt different.'' Montreal Gazette (subscription) 6 February 2006. |
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| Bereaved to gain right to contest death certificates |
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''BEREAVED families are to be given the right to challenge a doctor’s decision on death certificates under radical plans to prevent another Harold Shipman-style case. Proposals to reform the archaic coroners’ system will mean that families will mean that families will be able to ask a coroner for a second opinion. They will also be given a swift and easy way to challenge coroners’ rulings, rather than costly legal action, and a proper complaints system, under a draft Bill to be published in April.'' But see Dame Janet Smith's comments. 10 February 2006 The Times 7 February 2006 |
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| VES - Change of name |
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''LONDON Britain's Voluntary Euthanasia Society changed its name recently to Dignity in Dying - a tactical maneuver, it seemed, as Parliament moved closer to debating a draft law in a few months on whether assisted suicide should be permitted. Euthanasia, of course, is a charged word, and it is hardly surprising that its supporters should seek to distance themselves from its worst associations with Nazi Germany.'' International Herald Tribune 9 February 2006 |
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| If those reforms go through, there could still be a Shipman out there - Dame Janet Smith |
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Joshua Rozenberg, Legal Editor of the Daily Telegraph reported on February 9th that the Government had not adopted the recommendation of a review team three years ago, that Coroners should be appointed and funded in the same way as judges instead of by local authorities, whose negligence they may have to investigate...Little wonder that Dame Janet Smith, who also called for tighter death certification procedures in her reports on the Harold Shipman murders, was not consulted by Miss Harman or Lord Falconer. ALERT Report 10th February 2006 |
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| Legalised Euthanasia and the Care of the Elderly discussion |
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'As the controversy starts over the code of practice to the Mental Capacity Act Dr Brian Iddon MP and ALERT have invited Wesley J Smith one of the leading opponents of Utilitarian medicine in the US and Professor Peter Millard, MD, FRCP a distinguished geriatrician to be guest speakers on Tuesday 14th March 2006 at The House of Commons.'' ALERT Press release 16 February 2006. |
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| Let old folk in care die |
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'Care homes should be able to ''opt out'' of trying to save the lives of dying elderly patients, according to a group of medical experts. Under current guidelines all NHS facilities must attempt to resuscitate people unless they have requested to be left to die. But some senior medical workers said intervention was unsuccessful in most cases in residential care homes, and community hospitals.' Daily Mail 24 February 2006 Comment The trouble is that ''Do Not Resuscitate'' can mean ''Neglect this patient''. |
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| Poor care cost my mother her life |
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''Barbara Yeo died in March last year, and time has not yet been able to diminish for Harriet the distressing, haunting images of her mother as she lay breathless and in pain in her |
Milestones 2006
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