BOSTON – A report in the prestigious New England Journal of Medicine reveals the incidence of euthanasia and doctor assisted suicide is rising in the Netherlands, even though both practices are illegal. However the report says Dutch doctors are not willing to assist in patients' suicides for morally unacceptable reasons. The report was designed to see if legalization of euthanasia and assisted [...]
The federal Liberals may be moving closer to assisted-suicide legislation following the party’s national convention in late October. Convention delegates endorsed a motion calling for the repeal of Section 241(b) of the Criminal Code which would allow doctors to help terminally ill patients end their lives. The initiative was sponsored by the Young Liberals of Canada. While Prime Minister Jean Chrétien and [...]
Detroit – After a string of legal victories, suicide doctor Jack Kevorkian may still face contempt of court charges. An October 15 ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court upheld a five-year-old court order preventing Kevorkian from assisting suicides. Michigan prosecutors plan to use the ruling to go ahead with plans to put Kevorkian behind bars. Kevorkian has repeatedly ignored injunctions and has [...]
Dr. Jack Kevorkian invited me to come along with him recently to visit some of his patients. His misunderstood me and mistook me for ‘Ted’ Kennedy. (This embarrassment happens frequently to me). Kevorkian was delighted to have a senator come along with him on his calls. Kevorkian realizes he’s a celebrity and likes to capitalize on it. He thought that in the [...]
By: Herman Goodden In the Letters of Vincent Van Gogh to his brother Theo, we find a deeply moving testament of the hope and courage which even one supportive relative or friend can provide to someone undergoing the agonies of depression. During one of his all too brief intervals of lucidity, Vincent was able to express his gratitude in a letter to [...]
A Norwegian doctor who helped a terminally ill patient commit suicide in June has been charged with first-degree murder. Dr. Christian Sandsdalen of Oslo administered a lethal injunction of morphine to a female patient June 13. He later demanded on national television that he be charged with murder as a test of Norway’s laws against assisted suicide. According to the Associated Press, [...]
A Toronto doctor charged with assisting in a patient’s death has had his case put over to September 13. Dr. Maurice Genereux is thought to be the first Canadian charged under the Criminal Code prohibition of physician-assisted suicide. He could face a maximum of 14 years in prison if convicted. It is alleged that Dr. Genereux, an AIDS specialist, prescribed the drug [...]
A survey of Boston-area cancer patients and physicians has indicated that depression rather than physical pain is the motivating factor leading patients to opt for assisted suicide. The survey was conducted by Dr. Ezekial Emanuel of the Dana- Farber Cancer Institute and was as published in the July issue of The Lancet, a British medical journal. It overturns the main argument of [...]
One of the lesser-reported items arising from the 11th Annual Conference of AIDS in Vancouver is the growing tendency of AIDS patients to commit suicide to end their suffering. According to papers resented at the July conference, many doctors treating AIDS patients appear increasingly willing to help them end their lives. Despite prohibitions against physician assisted suicide in most countries, doctors and [...]
Christianity isn’t the only religion struggling with the growing tolerance for euthanasia and assisted suicide. Professor Nahum Rakover, deputy attorney general of Israel, recently told a meeting of the American Zionist Movement that traditional Jewish law also forbids any form of assisted suicide of terminally ill patients. Rakover said under Jewish law, it is not necessary to take extraordinary measures to preserve [...]
An Australian court June 22 rejected a request by the country’s medical and church groups to prevent the world’s first law allowing assisted suicide from coming into force July1. Australia’s largest medical association headed the court challenge. The Medical Association filed a challenge in the Northern Territories Supreme Court June17. The association claims that the law, which would allow terminally ill patients [...]
In what is believed to be a Canadian first, a Toronto physician has been charged with helping a person to commit suicide. It is alleged that Dr. Maurice Genereux, an AIDS specialist, prescribed the drug seconal to one of his HIV positive patients to hasten the man’s death. The patient, Aaron McGinn, was originally believed to have died of Aids-related causes. Rumors [...]
REGINA- Saskatchewan farmer Robert Latimer, the man convicted of murdering his severely handicapped 12-year-old daughter in November, 1994, is certain to receive a new trial. The trial is likely to come after obstruction of justice charges were laid against the Crown prosecutor handling the Latimer case. Randy Kirkham, a crown attorney from North Battleford, Saskatchewan, was charged in late June after a [...]
Bastable a victim of cultural myths “I refuse to live by healthy people’s rules. I want choice.” Gloria Lawrenson Several months ago, Austin Bastable, the latest victim of American’s Dr. Death, Jack Kevorkian, wrote to Amnesty International and the Canadian Human Rights Commission, claiming to be a victim of “human rights abuses.” In reality, Bastable was more a victim of “cultural myths” [...]
Charge Expected to stand, says expert MIKE MASTROMATTEO Murder charges against a Dutch doctor who assisted the suicide of a 72-year-old cancer patient will do little to slow the drive toward euthanasia in that country, says the president of Canada’s Compassionate Healthcare Network Association (CHNA). Cheryl Eckstein told The Interim from her Surrey, B.C. base that charges against euthanasia-performing doctors in the [...]