Category: Assisted Suicide

By Michael Cook  The Swiss Medical Association has clarified its attitude toward assisted suicide – and it is very restrictive in the face of growing pressures for liberalization. Assisted suicide has been legal for decades in Switzerland, but since the 1990s, Switzerland has become a haven for foreigners seeking to die. The guidelines issued last …

By Alex Schadenberg, Executive Director, Euthanasia Prevention Coalition An article by Kuoru Udo published by Swissinfo.ch on July 26 explains that Switzerland’s new assisted suicide guidelines may lead to fewer suicide tourists.  Udo introduces the issue with the story of Alex Pandolfo who lives in the UK with early onset dementia. Sixty-eight-year-old Pandolfo lives in …

By Alex Schadenberg, Executive Director, Euthanasia Prevention Coalition Phil Friend posted the following comment on the Not Dead Yet UK Twitter page. The Mansfield case (UK) concerns Graham Mansfield who killed his wife, Dyanne,  in a suicide pact, but then failed to kill himself. The UK assisted suicide lobby claims that this case is a …

By Right to Life UK The General Synod of the Church of England has voted overwhelmingly against assisted suicide legislation being introduced by the UK Government. “Sanctity of life is central to our understanding as Christians”, said the retired GP who called for the vote. The General Synod, the legislative body of the Church of …

By Wesley J. Smith A seriously disabled man was allowed by an Italian court to commit assisted suicide. From the New York Times story: For more than a year, media reports kept Italians up to date on the travails of a 44-year-old man known only as “Mario” as he sought to end his life through physician-assisted suicide. Paralyzed 12 …

By Wesley J. Smith Bioethicists are looking for ways to eliminate people diagnosed with dementia when they become incapacitated. Belgium and the Netherlands permit advance orders to be euthanized. Another proposal gaining traction in bioethics would force caregivers to starve patients to death. And here’s a new idea: Writing in the Hastings Center Report — the world’s most prominent bioethics journal …

By Wesley J. Smith Back in the ’90s, the assisted-suicide movement tried to convince the Supreme Court to impose a Roe v. Wade–style decision for their cause that would circumvent the democratic process by imposing doctor-hastened death as a constitutional right. (Full disclosure: I wrote and filed an amicus brief in the Supreme Court against that effort as …

By Wesley J. Smith A seriously disabled man was allowed by an Italian court to commit assisted suicide. From the New York Times story: For more than a year, media reports kept Italians up to date on the travails of a 44-year-old man known only as “Mario” as he sought to end his life through …

By Michael Cook  Colombia’s Constitutional Court handed down a 6-3 decision to decriminalise assisted suicide. Although there are still significant legal obstacles, euthanasia has been legal in Colombia since 1997. But the legalisation of assisted suicide, in which the patient himself administers a lethal medication, lagged behind. The case was fought by a right-to-die group, …

By Alex Schadenberg, Executive Director, Euthanasia Prevention Coalition The Swiss Medical Association has published new guidelines concerning assisted suicide for healthy people. According to the Swiss Academy for Arts and Sciences the new guidelines state assisted suicide for healthy persons is not medically and ethically justifiable according to the guidelines. Assisted suicide is justifiable in …

By Jennifer Popik, J.D.  Oregon’s Death with Dignity Act, a first-of its kind law, has been in effect since 1997.  Essentially, the law permits physicians to prescribe lethal medications to patients who meet a set of loosely-defined requirements including being terminally ill, competent at the time of the request, and a few others. These so-called safeguards …