It appears that the Canadian Hospice Palliative Care Association has decided to move from a position of opposing euthanasia and assisted suicide to a position of temporary neurality. This creates great concern for both opponents of euthanasia and advocates for people with disabilities in relation to the end-of-life care for the most vulnerable members of society. In 2005, the British Medical Association [...]
After spending more than eight years behind bars for his last “mercy killing,” Jack Kevorkian will be freed from a Michigan prison in June, a prison spokesman announced. Kevorkian, the infamous ‘Dr. Death’ and poster boy for the euthanasia movement, killed over 130 people through assisted suicides in the 1990s, until he was sent to jail in 1999 for violating Michigan’s ban [...]
It seems that negative attitudes toward people with disabilities have recently grown from the theoretical ideas of Peter Singer of Princeton University, who believes that it is acceptable to kill disabled infants, into the actual practice of allowing infants with disabilities to be euthanized. In any other time in history, this was known as the crime of infanticide. It is now becoming [...]
Alex Schadenberg, executive director of the Euthanasia Prevention Coalition, attended the World Federation of Right to Die Societies biennial conference in Toronto and learned a lot about its strategies to bring about euthanasia and physician-assisted suicide. This article is a shortened version of the full report that is available directly from the Euthanasia Prevention Coalition. The World Federation of Right to Die [...]
Andre Bergeron was sentenced to three years’ probation and no jail time for an attempted euthanasia on his wife, which he failed to complete. In July 2005, Bergeron attempted to asphyxiate his wife, who suffered from Friedreich’s Ataxia (a degenerative disorder), with a plastic bag. He called 911 prior to her death, but she died three days later in hospital. According to [...]
Comatose patients could be used for experiments MELBOURNE – An Australian medical official has suggested using incapacitated patients - people in a so-called permanent vegetative states - for medical experiments. Dr. Steven Curry, of the University of Melbourne, says that, “Those who are in a PVS ... have no continuing interest in their own survival,” and thus could benefit others. U.S. Supreme [...]
On June 29, 2006, at an annual meeting, the British Medical Association (BMA) voted to clearly oppose euthanasia and physician-assisted suicide. The margin of the vote was 65 per cent to 35 per cent, a resounding victory. Last year’s annual meeting resulted in the BMA taking a neutral position on euthanasia and physician-assisted suicide. The 2005 BMA meeting orchestrated a vote on [...]
The ‘slippery slope’ argument proves valid One argument against euthanasia - one worth putting forward as it appears that Francine Lalonde’s private member’s bill is to be re-introduced in Parliament - is that it is wrong. Quite simply, that killing people for any reason other than immediate self-defenxe or in the course of a just war is immoral. There are, alas, a [...]
Terri Schiavo - A Life That Matters by Mary and Robert Schindler et al (Warner Books, $32.95 272 pages). She's a human being," I cried out. "Nobody seems to notice." For well over a decade, these two sentences described the plight of Mary Schindler and her family. Medical experts had declared their daughter, Terri Schindler-Schiavo, to be in a persistently vegetative state. [...]
Four speakers delved into the issue of whether euthanasia is an individual decision or collective choice during an April 7 debate at the science faculty of the Université du Québec à Montréal, to celebrate the UN-sponsored International Day of Health. Francine Lalonde, MP for the Bloc Québécois and author of euthanasia Bill C-407 - which died on the order table last November [...]
It will be legal to euthanize children in Holland within a few weeks. Doctors will now be able to collaborate openly with parents for the deaths of severely handicapped or suffering children, without risking charges of murder. The country has set up a committee to regulate the illicit killing of seriously ill infants by doctors. The Groningen Protocol, drafted by euthanist Dr. [...]
On March 3, Liberal Senator Sharon Carstairs, head of the Senate committee responsible for palliative care in Canada, gave the Cardinal Ambrozic lecture at St. Michael’s College at the University of Toronto. In her talk, entitled, “The State of Palliative Care in Canada: End of Life Care,” Carstairs said Canada is not in a favourable position to engage in a debate on [...]
Just after Hurricane Katrina devastated New Orleans, rumors circulated that at least one hospital had euthanized patients during the mayhem. LifeSiteNews.com reported in September 2005 that an unnamed doctor admitted to a U.K. newspaper such activities had taken place at Memorial Medical Centre. In October, another doctor at the hospital confirmed in a CNN interview that he suspected such activities and admitted [...]
Interim Staff The Euthanasia Prevention Coalition remains concerned that a bill to legalize euthanasia and/or assisted suicide is still capable of passing through the newly elected Parliament, even though the Conservative Party won a minority. The election of a Conservative minority may not have changed the configuration of support for euthanasia or assisted suicide enough to create a climate where a bill [...]
Interim Staff On Dec. 2, 2005 the Ontario Conference of Catholic Bishops and the Catholic Bioethics Institute hosted a meeting in Toronto for the purpose of bringing Catholic leaders from across Ontario together to focus on euthanasia and assisted suicide. Alex Schadenberg, of the Euthanasia Prevention Coalition, found the meeting to be an excellent opportunity to bring leaders from the Knights of [...]