The New York State Bar Association (NYSBA) adopted a resolution in 2023 that supports the provisions of the assisted suicide bill before the legislature. This position is based on a report by its Task Force on Medical Aid in Dying. The report is extensive but seems more of defense of assisted suicide rather than a balanced inquiry into the myriad issues raised by its legalization.
Dear Friends: ...
Sylvie Berube (BQ) MP sponsored Bill C-390, a bill that would extend Canada’s law by allowing euthanasia approvals by advanced request. The bill amends the federal euthanasia law by adding to sections of the law the words: “or an applicable provincial framework.” Last year, the Québec government passed Bill 11, which expanded the Québec law by (among other things) allowing euthanasia by advanced request. Bill C-390, if passed, would amend Canada’s euthanasia law by changing the federal law based on amendments to provincial laws. In other words, Québec could legislate federally.
Colleagues,
[Theo Boer, Professor of Health Care Ethics in the Netherlands] spoke last Friday. Many asked that I send the link to the lecture when available. Here it is: https://doctorssayno.net/webinars/
[Professor Boer] spoke about the decades of experience with euthanasia in that country and how it has affected and changed some fundamental cultural values there regarding life, death, and disability. He document[ed] how it grew vastly beyond the initial parameters.
This was a very worthwhile talk by Dr. Boer who was involved in the early days of the medical euthanasia's roll out in the Netherlands. He was initially supportive, but saw it get quite out of hand. So he became an opponent, and a Cassandra, warning other countries to not go down that path.
Liz Carr’s newest groundbreaking documentary on assisted suicide is a in-depth exploration of the emotions and societal pressures that lie at the heart of disability opposition to a public policy that threatens ours lives. The Guardian called it “blistering.” Her gripping and personal narrative, a must-see tour-de-force is available HERE for now. ...
In 2013, Liz Carr created a two part BBC documentary called “When Assisted Suicide Is Legal” about what she called her Euthanasia Road Trip in Europe, Oregon and Washington State. NDY covered Part 1 and Part 2 with excerpts and commentary in our blog, and the audio documentary is still live online:
Featured Speaker Professor Theo Boer, pictured below.
Please click HERE to join: Password: 089934, check your time zones listed below.
* * *
Dr. Komrad:
By Gabrielle Peters (article excerpt).
“On the question of religious hospitals, despite being a lesbian couple, Patricia and I would tolerate life-size crucifixes in the treatment room if it meant being safe from MAID.” ~ Catherine Frazee, (pictured here).*
Disabled people often talk about being made invisible. This feeling is particularly striking around issues that are specific to us like MAID, "Medical Assistance in Dying." The lobbyists and proponents for Canada’s MAID regime routinely mischaracterize or, more often, omit mention of disabled people or our reasons for opposition entirely.
https://www.concordmonitor.com/NH-Senate-kills-MAID-55151269
The bill, which was struck down in the senate with a vote of 17-7 and referred to an interim study, proposed granting individuals aged 18 and above, diagnosed with a terminal illness and a prognosis of six months or less, and having sound mental capacity, the option to end their lives without suffering from the disease. ...
By Alex Schadenberg
Life expectancy for Canadians has dropped for at least three straight years from 2019 to 2022.
The drop in life expectancy also occurred in the US during Covid, but life expectancy rebounded in the US in 2022, whereas in Canada life expectancy has remained a year lower.
Based on the sheer number of euthanasia deaths in Canada, and the fact that Canadians are not required to be terminally ill in order to be killed by euthanasia, deaths by euthanasia have strongly affected Canada’s death rate resulting in the average Canadian dying one year earlier than in 2019.
 |
I, JEANETTE HALL (pictured with her son), declare as follows:
1. I live in Oregon where assisted suicide is legal. Our law was enacted in 1997 via a ballot measure that I voted for.
2. In 2000, I was diagnosed with cancer and told that I had 6 months to a year to live. I knew that our law had passed, but I didn’t know exactly how to go about doing it. I tried to ask my doctor, Kenneth Stevens MD, but he didn’t really answer me. In hindsight, he was stalling me.
3. I did not want to suffer. I wanted to do our law and I wanted Dr. Stevens to help me. Instead, he encouraged me to not give up and ultimately I decided to fight the cancer. I have both chemotherapy and radiation. I am so happy to be alive!
May 3, 2024
Last November, Not Dead Yet (NDY) filed a Public Comment on HHS/OCR Proposed Section 504 Healthcare Regulations. This week, the Department of Health and Human Services announced the finalization of the new regulation prohibiting disability discrimination in healthcare under Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act.
While the primary focus of our public comment was the denial of life-sustaining healthcare treatment based on negative disability biases, we mentioned the issue of equality in suicide prevention as well, for example, here:
As HHS has indicated in its discussion of the proposed rule, biases about the impact disabilities have on “quality of life” are endemic among medical professionals. One manifestation of these discriminatory attitudes is the failure to treat suicidal depression in people with disabilities, including older individuals, although other people with suicide ideation are routinely offered suicide prevention services.
By Amanda Prestigiacomo, Jan 9, 2020 DailyWire.com
By Margaret Dore, Esq., MBA
Consideration of the pending climate change petition is outside of the jurisdiction of the PSC, set forth here: https://psc.mt.gov/
In the event that providing such jurisdiction would be advisable, it would be up to the Montana Legislature to enact appropriate legislation regarding same.
Without such legislation, addressing the pending climate change petition is ultra vires, meaning beyond the scope of the PSC's scope of authority.
The Commission has no authority to go forward.
Going forward is a waste of our taxpayer dollars.
"At this point, there is a reluctance from many around me to take up this discussion, and the future is unclear,” Blakespear said in a statement. “The topic, however, remains of great interest to me and to those who have supported this bill thus far.”
Senator Susan Eggman, who authored the original act in 2016, commented that pushing forward now would create a risk of pushback. She stated:
Stephen Mendelsohn (pictured here): "Meaning she supports further expansion, just not this much this fast if it will cause a backlash and help our side."
This letter is filed on behalf of Not Dead Yet, a national disability organization headquartered in New York with members in California. We oppose the SB 1196 amendments to the California End of Life Option Act for several reasons.
ELIGIBILITY: First and most importantly, the proposed amendments provide for a greatly expanded eligibility for receiving a lethal prescription, removing the current provision based on a “terminal” diagnosis expected to lead to a natural death within six months. The SB 1196 amendment makes millions more people eligible, people with chronic conditions and disabilities who are nowhere near the “end of life” except for their proposed eligibility for assisted suicide.
I am writing as a medical doctor with board certifications in internal medicine, hospice and palliative medicine, and addiction medicine. I work as a hospital physician, a hospice consultant, and provide primary care to an underserved population suffering from mental illness and addiction. Due to the Illinois Senate’s recent efforts to legalize “medical aid in dying” (aka, physician assisted suicide or euthanasia), I feel compelled to voice the opinion of many in the medical community regarding our opposition to empowering medical professionals to prescribe death.
The bill [SB 3499] is based on several flawed assumptions. Firstly, it overestimates the accuracy of a physician’s ability to predict a patient’s death within six months. Over the years, I have witnessed numerous patients who, despite meeting the six-month prognosis criteria for hospice care, have survived well beyond this period. Published studies confirm the high variability of physician prognostication.
By Alex Schadenberg,
Executive Director, Euthanasia Prevention Coalition
On March 22, 2024 a proposal for legalizing euthanasia and assisted suicide in Jersey was released in preparation for a debate on the issue on May 21, 2024.
The proposal claims to be limited to people in certain circumstances but upon further examination, the proposal is not limited to terminally ill people and the definitions within the proposal would open the door to a Canadian style euthanasia law.
When Not Dead Yet activists joined me in attending Jack “Dr. Death” Kevorkian’s trial in the late 1990s, Hemlock’s executive director Faye Girsh was there supporting him. Two thirds of his body count consisted of people with non-terminal disabilities. Girsh also advocated eligibility for people with cognitive disabilities and dementia, with or without consent. Leaders also advocated active euthanasia and “mercy killing.”
Dr. Sonu Gaind, [pictured right] head of the psychiatry department at Sunnybrook Hospital, said he is concerned about what the surge in medically assisted deaths & [what it] "says about our society.”
The number of Canadians ending their lives through medically assisted death has grown at a speed that outpaces every other nation in the world.
As Canada is poised to expand eligibility criteria under medical assistance in dying (MAID) legislation, data from all 11 countries where the controversial end-of-life treatment exists shows Canada is the fastest-growing adopter in history, an analysis by the Investigative Journalism Bureau and the Toronto Star has found.
Press Release 02/28/24 A recent report exposed Pfizer’s financial assistance to Dying with Dignity Canada (DWDC), raising questions about its stance on assisted suicide. DWDC has pushed to expand the eligibility for “medically assisted death” to children as young as 12 years old. Pfizer’s support for DWDC raises concerns that it is complicit in prematurely ending lives.
U.S. Senator Marco Rubio (R-FL) and colleagues sent a letter to Pfizer CEO Dr. Albert Bourla regarding Pfizer’s donations to DWDC, and the company’s stance on “medically assisted death.”
By Alex Schadenberg
Executive Director, Euthanasia Prevention Coalition
I am just returning from a speaking tour which included meetings with elected representatives in Scotland and the Isle of Man. Both jurisdictions are debating the legalization of euthanasia and assisted suicide. While in Scotland, a news story was published concerning Keir Starmer, the leader of the UK Labour party, who promised that if elected he would bring forth a bill to legalize assisted dying.
At the same time the French President, Emmanuel Macron, announced that an "assisted dying" bill would be introduced on May 27. As horrific as Canada's experience with euthanasia has been, the terrible euthanasia stories out of Canada is creating a hesitancy in other countries when they debate legalizing poisoning by doctors.
Author Unknown
I'm a Malinois. Overskilled among dogs, I excel in all disciplines and I'm always ready to work: I NEED to work. But nowadays I get asked to chill on the couch all day everyday.I am an Akita Inu. My ancestors were selected for dog fighting. Today I get asked to be tolerant and I get scolded for my reactivity when another approaches me.
I am a Beagle. When I chase my prey, I raise my voice so the hunters could follow. Today they put an electric collar on me to shut up, and you make me come back to you - no running - with a snap of your fingers.
West Virginia citizens will soon have a say on a constitutional change.
This change aims to ban "medically assisted suicide, euthanasia, or mercy killing." This is the first time a US state has considered a constitutional ban on this medical practice. It is often called assisted suicide or aid-in-dying. Amendment 1 is related to this ban. Citizens will vote on it on November 5, 2024.
