Today is World Elder Abuse Awareness Day. According to the National Council On Aging:
Approximately one in 10 Americans aged 60+ have experienced some form of elder abuse. Some estimates range as high as five million elders who are abused each year. One study estimated that only one in 24 cases of abuse are reported to authorities.
… In almost 60% of elder abuse and neglect incidents, the perpetrator is a family member. Two thirds of perpetrators are adult children or spouses.
By Diane Coleman (pictured right)
Liz Carr’s documentary, “Better Off Dead?”, continues making a difference, serving as a wake up call about the dangers assisted suicide laws pose for people with disabilities. A Boston Globe columnist noted this week:
The most chilling detail in “Better Off Dead?” a new BBC documentary by the English actress and comedian Liz Carr, is an automated telephone message. …
Thank you for calling. The Ontario Medical Assistance in Dying Care Coordination Service is designed to provide information about end of life options in Ontario and referrals for Medical Assistance in Dying. If you would like to speak with an adviser to access the service or get more information, please press 1.
By Jeff Jacoby, Globe Columnist
Updated June 12, 2024, 3:00 a.m.
The most chilling detail in “Better Off Dead?” a new BBC documentary by the English actress and comedian Liz Carr (pictured here), is an automated telephone message: "For assistance in dying, please press 1."
Carr, who has been disabled since childhood and uses a wheelchair, made the film as Parliament debates whether to make it legal for doctors to help end the lives of people who are terminally ill and who say they wish to die. Similar legislation is being pushed in Massachusetts, where a bill permitting doctors to prescribe suicide drugs to patients with less than six months to live is now before the Senate Ways and Means Committee.
The film lasts just 58 minutes but it powerfully refutes the claim that authorizing medical professionals to facilitate the deaths of people with a fatal illness or disability is either enlightened or safe.
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| Mr. Schadenberg at European Parliament |
The bill reduces the waiting period for patients seeking an aid-in-dying prescription (assisted suicide and euthanasia), from 15 to 7 days, increases the number of practitioners who can participate in the law, and allows providers to waive the waiting period if the patient is not likely to survive more than 48 hours and meets all other qualifications.
In 2019 Oregon expanded their assisted suicide law by giving doctors the ability to waive the 15 day waiting period when a person was deemed near to death. In 2023 Oregon removed the residency requirement extending assisted suicide nationally to anyone.
In 2021 California expanded their assisted suicide law by reducing the waiting period from 15 days to 48 hours. It forced doctors who oppose assisted suicide to be complicit in the process (later struck down by the court), and it forced all medical institutions to post their policy on assisted suicide.
The legislation has never advanced past the committee state in either the Senate or Assembly.
To the Editor:
We wish to respond to Dr. Barry Perlman’s letter to the editor: “A vote for Medical Aid in Dying is not a vote for suicide” (May 28, 2024) He presents his case well. However, we take issue with his reasoning.
Euphemisms abound about this subject: physician-assisted suicide, death with dignity and physician-assisted dying. No matter how the concept is dressed up, it is suicide by the patient and murder by the doctor. Whoever else has been directly or indirectly involved in the demise of the patient are accessories.
The Netherlands was the first country in the world to legalize euthanasia back in 2001. More than 20 years later, the practice is almost universally accepted in Dutch society to end the lives of those who are physically suffering. But its use remains more restricted for psychiatric cases who say they, too, meet the legal requirement of unbearable suffering. Today, some would like to see the law evolve to include the possibility to end one's life even without a medical need to do so. Our correspondents Fernande van Tets and Alix Le Bourdon report.
President Emmanuel Macron on Monday faced criticism from French medical workers and the Catholic Church over a draft bill his government plans to present to parliament in May that would allow assisted dying [aka assisted suicide, physician-assisted suicide and euthanasia] for certain terminally-ill patients.
The centrist leader announced the plan to submit the bill in newspaper interviews published on Sunday, insisting there would be “strict conditions” on allowing people to self-administer a lethal substance, or call on a relative or medical worker if they are incapable.
Please find Dr. Komrad's explanatory note to colleagues below.
Physician-assisted suicide (PAS)—commonly but misleadingly called “medical aid in dying”1—is now legal in 11 jurisdictions in the US. PAS remains an area of great controversy among physicians, medical ethicists, and various patient advocacy groups, as evidenced by numerous opinion pieces in Psychiatric Times.2,3 While we recognize that individuals of good conscience may differ on the ethics of PAS, we have consistently maintained—as the American Medical Association has opined—that4:
Physician-assisted suicide is fundamentally incompatible with the physician’s role as healer, would be difficult or impossible to control, and would pose serious societal risks.
Second Thoughts Massachusetts led a peaceful counter demonstration at a gathering of assisted suicide proponents held at the Massachusetts State House on Wednesday, June 5th.
Seated: John Kelly, Randi Shea, Brian Shea. Standing: Chip Guiney, Glacier Gray, Ashlinn Parnell
In addition to those featured in the photo above, others who participated included Ian McIntosh and Jessica Rodgers of the Patients Rights Action Fund, Harry Weissman, Director of Advocacy for Disability Policy Consortium, as well as Gabriell Paye, Jon Ball, John Robinson and Dr. Rich Florentine.
The State House News Service (SHNS) provided unusually balanced coverage of the disability led demonstration against the assisted suicide bill currently before the Massachusetts legislature.
