By Wesley J. Smith As reported by Politico Europe, the original story was wrong (leading to a revision from me). Noa Pothoven was not lethally injected. She was allowed –and perhaps helped, if she received palliative care — to starve/dehydrate herself to death. She decided to kill herself after being refused electro-shock therapy, (according to …
Continue reading "Dutch Teen Not Euthanized, Died by (Abetted) Self-Starvation"
“The Supreme Court has set a dangerous precedent” By SPUC—the Society for the Protection of Unborn Children The Supreme Court has ruled that doctors can withdraw food and fluid from brain-damaged patients without going to court – if the patient’s family is in agreement. The Care not Killing (CNK) Alliance, of which SPUC is a …
Continue reading "British Supreme Court: Families can decide to starve brain damaged patients to death"Effectively kills SB 494 for this session By Gayle Atteberry, Executive Director, Oregon Right to Life I’m so thankful that I can finally bring you positive news about Senate Bill 494. SB 494 is the bill we have been fighting all session that would allow the starvation and dehydration of people with mental illnesses including …
Continue reading "No action in Oregon House on bill to allow starvation deaths of vulnerable people"By Wesley J. Smith If there is any aspect of the culture of death not supported and promoted by the New York Times, I haven’t seen it. Now, Paula Span, the Gray (Ashen?) Lady’s “The New Old Age” columnist pushes suicide by starvation, known in euthanasia parlance as “voluntary stop eating and drinking.” It is …
Continue reading "New York Times Pushes Suicide by Starvation"By Wesley J. Smith We are creating a culture of death where, in essence, suicidal people can coerce the medical system into providing euthanasia. Here’s what I mean. If a despairing person does not qualify to be killed under a legalized euthanasia/assisted suicide law, they simply harm themselves to become eligible for killing. Then, a …
Continue reading "Euthanasia “Treatment” for Suicide by Starvation"By Dave Andrusko My first encounter (once removed) with NPR’s Diane Rehm was in (yikes!) 1981. I sat outside the studio of the local NPR affiliate, WAMU, while my wife debated two pro-abortionists and (of course) Rehm. Since there were only three aligned against Lisa, it wasn’t a fair fight. So a story in the …
Continue reading "Abortion and self-starvation advocate Diane Rehm to retire from NPR in 2016"By Dave Andrusko Four years ago, we held our breath as Justice Baker of the British Court of Protection considered whether to extend the logic of starving and dehydrating patients in a so-called “persistent vegetative state” to someone diagnosed as being in a “minimally conscious state.” Thankfully, he said no. Just two months ago, a …
Continue reading "In landmark decision, British justice authorizes starving and dehydrating patient in a “minimally conscious state”"By Dr. Peter Saunders Editor’s note. We are posting elsewhere today a story about brain-injured patients who, despite predictions to the contrary, awaken. Typically, their families had been counseled to “allow” them to die–withdraw food and fluids. The following story is from a while back and addresses another category of the medically vulnerable: those with …
Continue reading "People with severe dementia should be starved and dehydrated to death to save money says BMJ editorial"By Wesley J. Smith The principle that all patients must always receive humane care is under pronounced assault in bioethics, Indeed, some bioethicists now argue that nursing homes should be required to starve Alzheimer’s patients to death–even if they willingly eat, and presumably even if the patient begs for food–if so instructed in an advance …
Continue reading "“Starve Alzheimer’s Patients” Pushed Again"By Wesley J. Smith Sometimes I get emotional whiplash. On one hand, we see very prominent bioethicists say that we should starve Alzheimer’s patients to death if they asked to be killed in an advance directive. Compassion and Choices teaches oldsters how to commit suicide by self-starvation. People like Peter Singer claim we should …
Continue reading "Alzheimer’s: To Love and Care or Kill?"By Wesley J. Smith The “death with dignity” and bioethics crowds grow increasingly extreme. Now, they are pushing starvation. First, it was removing feeding tubes from the cognitively disabled, slow killing excused as removing medical treatment. Do it to a dog and go to jail. Do it to Terri Schiavo and it’s merely “medical …
Continue reading "Pushing Starvation as “Death with Dignity”"By Dave Andrusko If you didn’t follow the terribly tragedy that was the unnecessary death of Terri Schiavo, it might shock you how much misinformation, snarky commentary, and relevant facts that did not make their way into Clyde Haberman’s 1,057-word-long Sunday story, “From Private Ordeal to National Fight: The Case of Terri Schiavo.” If you …
Continue reading "Nine years after her death, the “aftermath” of Terri Schiavo continues to be distorted by the New York Times"