By Nancy Valko An April 13 USA Today op-ed titled “Make an End-of-life plan or Lose your Money and Choices in your Dying Days” by Hattie Bryant begins with the statement “End-of-life care can bankrupt your family and rob you of choices. End the denial about dying. Make a plan in case you end up …
Continue reading "You Don’t Want to be a Burden, Do You?"By Michael Cook Editor’s note. This is excerpted from a post that appeared at Bioedge. After 30 years and 3000 attempts to propose amendments, an end-of-life bill was passed by the Italian Parliament this week which allows patients to end their lives by refusing to eat and drink. It also allows patients to express binding …
Continue reading "Italy passes controversial end-of-life bill"By Anne Fox, President Massachusetts Citizens for Life The Massachusetts Medical Society voted Saturday to drop its opposition to physicians giving lethal drugs to their patients. The resolution defines “medical aid in dying” as “the act of providing care — palliative, hospice, compassionate — to patients at the end of life.” Sounds okay but it …
Continue reading "Massachusetts Medical Society drops opposition to doctor-prescribed suicide"By Wesley J. Smith A disabled fourteen year-old girl named Jerika Bolen is being celebrated in the news. Why? Because she wants to stop medical treatment to die. From the USA Today story: Yet more than 1,000 people showed up for the party, with police and firefighters providing a motorcade. She received cards and gifts …
Continue reading "Fame if Want to Die: Obscurity if Want to Live"Another one-sided report on euthanasia, this time in the Australian state of Victoria By Paul Russell The Legal and Social Issues Committee of the Victorian Parliament handed down its long-awaited Report into End-of-Life Choices today. It makes some valuable comments and recommendations in respect to improvement in palliative care. It acknowledges that access to palliative …
Continue reading "A sugar coated poison pill for Victoria"By Wesley J. Smith David Christopher Dunn, whom Houston Methodist Hospital tried to deny wanted life-sustaining treatment, has died. Dunn authorized a constitutional attack on Texas’s odious futile care law. For the sake of future Chris Dunns, I hope that case is not mooted by his death and continues. Futile care permits hospitals to create …
Continue reading "“Futile Care” Victim Dies in Texas"By Dave Andrusko Nineteen days before she committed suicide on November 1, 2014, Brittany Maynard recorded a video demanding that California legislators endorse assisted suicide–an enormous public relations coup for Compassion & Choices. It was not the only video Mrs. Maynard recorded, however. In response to a prior video, Maggie Karner, who, like Brittany, suffered …
Continue reading "A Genuine Profile in Courage: Maggie Karner, RIP"By Carol Tobias, President, National Right to Life Editor’s note. This note of appreciation to Maggie Karner was written last April by NRL President Carol Tobias. Mrs. Karner died last Friday. We have also included the Open Letter Dr. Karner wrote to Brittany Maynard, who, tragically, had become famous for becoming the public face of …
Continue reading "Living with Cancer, Living with Grace"By Dave Andrusko Editor’s note. One of the single most fascinating men you will ever encounter passed away yesterday at his home in Manhattan. Dr. Oliver Sacks was 82. We wrote about him last February on the occasion of an extraordinary essay he’d penned for the New York Times. In my opinion, my few comments …
Continue reading "Dr. Oliver Sacks: choosing to live his last few months “in the richest, deepest, most productive way I can”"Editor’s note. This essay appeared at truedignityvt.org. Ezekiel Emanuel has spent his life building an impressive resume and now, at age 56, he wants the world to know that by 75 he plans to stop working so hard. In fact, he says that if he is still alive at 75, his master plan is …
Continue reading "Ezekiel Emanuel’s Latest Rant"By Dave Andrusko When you come across anything about “death and dying,” you really have to read with exceptional care. The conclusions researchers/reporters draw often are much more their own personal preferences than they are what the data are saying. Here’s an example: “Most people want to live past 75, but they haven’t given …
Continue reading "Americans do not agree with Ezekiel Emanuel who wants to die at 75"By Wesley J. Smith I think the drive to get us all talking about dying may be getting a little out of hand. A new 500 page report funded to the tune of $1.5 million by an anonymous donor–would love to know who that was–has recommended that end-of-life medical care be discussed with teenagers. …
Continue reading "Should Teenagers Plan End-of-Life Care?"