Category: Assisted Suicide

By Wesley J. Smith Wonder of wonders: Belgium is prosecuting three doctors for illegal euthanasia. After thirty-eight-year-old Tine Nys received a lethal injection, family members reported the doctors—one a psychiatrist—to authorities. They claim Nys’s lethal injection violated the guidelines that doctors are supposed to follow under Belgium’s euthanasia laws. Their allegations are disturbing. Nys had …

By Alex Schadenberg, Executive Director, Euthanasia Prevention Coalition A Massachusetts Superior Court has concluded that assisted suicide “is not authorized under Massachusetts law.” The decision was handed down last Friday. In its 24-page decision, the Massachusetts court explained why the Commonwealth prohibition on MAID [Medical Assistance in Dying] meets the rational basis for both due …

By Alex Schadenberg Euthanasia Prevention Coalition (EPC) USA has an event at the Albany State House on Tuesday January 14, 2020 from 10:30 am to 2:30 pm. There will be a press conference at 9 am. New York State is debating the legalization of assisted suicide. Dr Stanley Bukowski, from Amherst NY., wrote the following …

By Wesley J. Smith The mainstream media mostly went head over heels over Jack Kevorkian’s ghoulish assisted suicide campaign, rarely mentioning that his ultimate goal was to gain the right to conduct human vivisection on people being euthanized. The Australian Kevorkian — Philip Nitschke — hasn’t advocated that. But he has traveled the world teaching …

Due to ongoing confusion amongst the general public regarding Hospice Palliative Care (HPC) and Medical Assistance in Dying (MAiD), the Canadian Hospice Palliative Care Association (CHPCA) and the Canadian Society of Palliative Care Physicians (CSPCP) would like to clarify the relationship of hospice palliative care and MAiD. Healthcare articles and the general media continue to …

COLUMBUS, Ohio–Today, Ohio Right to Life sent a letter to pro-life members of the Ohio Legislature urging them to stay strong in their protection of life-affirming end-of-life provisions in the wake of the Ohio Nurses Association’s recent vote to support physician assisted suicide. This platform, often referred to as “Medical Aid in Dying,” was adopted …

By Wesley J. Smith Proponents of assisted suicide are celebrating the 25th anniversary of Measure 16, the Oregon referendum that, for the first time in the modern era, formally legalized doctor-prescribed death. To open the door to more suicide in a culture that is now roiled by an acute suicide crisis — about 45,000 Americans …

By Wesley J. Smith Talk about missing the forest for the trees! The Ohio Nurses Association [ONA], a union with 11,000 members, has endorsed legalizing assisted suicide. From the Cincinnati Enquirer story: ONA President Deborah Arms said the proposal recommends “educating the public about medical aid in dying, supporting legislation to protect the rights of …

The devil is in the detail By Michael Cook Twenty-five years ago, on November 8, 1994, the citizens of the state of Oregon voted in favour of a Death With Dignity Act. It took a couple of years for the initiative to be implemented, but the Act has been working smoothly ever since. Or so …

By Alex Schadenberg, Executive Director, Euthanasia Prevention Coalition Last February, the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court upheld the involuntary manslaughter conviction of Michelle Carter for assisting the suicide of Conrad Roy who was 18 at the time of his death. Carter, who was 17 at the time of Roy’s death, was sentenced to 15 months in …

By Alex Schadenberg, Executive Director, Euthanasia Prevention Coalition The 2018 California annual assisted suicide report is similar to other U.S. jurisdictions where the report implies that the assisted suicide deaths were voluntary and self-administered but the information in the report does not address that subject. According to the 2018 California assisted suicide report: 452 prescriptions …

By Wesley J. Smith The Washington Post published an irresponsible puff piece that effectively grants moral permission to elderly people to commit suicide by self-starvation — known in euthanasia parlance as VSED (“voluntary stop eating and drinking”) — and quasi-teaches them how to do it. Of course, the story doesn’t put it that way. Instead, …