News articles
The following selections are news articles relating to topics such as assisted suicide and euthanasia, as well caregiver support and good end of life care. The initial paragraph serves as an overview/editorial commentary. The letters to the editors are great selections of community comments. News and letters are both ordered by date, most recent to oldest.
Selling Assisted Suicide, State by State
The following article, written by Elenor Schoen, is an excellent summary of recent attempts to promote assisted suicide in Idaho and Montana and of local opposition to such attempts. The article quotes several regional experts rebutting misinformation presented in the Idaho press and physicians by Compassion and Choices legal director Katheryn Tucker. Quotable quote: "Dr. Robert Ancker, an Idaho physician, board certified in hospice and palliative medicine, stated Idaho law "does not make legal, and in no way condones, euthanasia, mercy killing or assisted suicide or permit an affirmative or deliberate act or omission to end life, other than to allow the natural process of dying." He concluded that this is "a dangerous game that Ms. Tucker is playing with Idaho citizens. Worst of all, it takes away from meaningful conversations regarding death, dying, advanced directives, and comfort, palliative and hospice care."
August 6th, 2010
A humane health-care system is what's needed -not euthanasia
This is a wonderful article from our neighbors to the north re the need for humane health care rather than assisted suicide or euthanasia. Quotable quote which applies to Canada, but also to Washington, Oregon, Montana, Idaho, and elsewhere: "What people with terminal illness need is love, care, and support, not government mercenaries waiting for the signal to take lethal action.
July 21st, 2010
"Death with Dignity:" A recipe for elder abuse and homicide
This excellent law review article details the lethal effects of assisted suicide as a recipe for elder abuse. In addition to being exceedingly well-documented, the article is a masterpiece of clear thinking and cogent language-perhaps one of the best available in revealing the truth about 'aid in dying,' aka, legalized assisted suicide. The quotable quotes are many, and we suggest you read this article in its entirety. For example: "Death with Dignity Acts in Oregon and Washington State are not about patient "choice" and "control." These laws instead enable people to pressure others to an early death or to even cause that death on an involuntary basis. What was previously "homicide" is now "death with dignity." Elderly persons with money, i.e., the middle class and above, appear to be especially at risk. Don't let "death with dignity" come to your state."
July 21st, 2010
Oregon Medical Board suspends doctor who wants to open a Portland facility where the terminally ill can die under the assisted-suicide law
The interrelationship between the slippery slope, financial opportunism, and assisted suicide has never been more clear. (See previous articles re the Dutch experiment, Swiss organization Dignitas and founder Minnelli, and Weisberg's plans for suicide house in Oregon.) A pro-aid-in-dying/assisted suicide psychiatrist's plans to open a 'house' where people can commit suicide under Oregon's so-called Death with Dignity Act have been delayed: his license to practice medicine has been suspended due to improperly prescribed drugs, ironically, not of lethal variety. Ghoulish 'death for profit' schemes such as this one are legal in Washington and Oregon, as long as the doc involved is only improperly prescribing lethal drug overdoses to sick people for financial gain vs. illegally prescribing marijuana to drug addicts.
July 15th, 2010
Death with Dignity law creates new businessFollowing the Swiss 'make a million' business model of suicide promotion clinics, Oregon's Dr Stuart Weisberg plans to charge a mere five grand to help vulnerable ill people commit suicide under Oregon's so-called Death with Dignity Act. (The base price apparently not including such incidentals as flowers, videotapes, catering and music.) Suicide advocacy services such as Weisberg's planned Dignity House and those offered in patients homes by organizations such as Compassion and Choices are both legal under Washington and Oregon's so-called Death with Dignity Acts. Weisberg shows how these deadly 'services' can easily become a vehicle for financial opportunism and elder abuse.
July 15th, 2010
Oregon Doctor Opens Death Clinic: Critics of Oregon's Death With Dignity Law Say Suicide Sale is Commercial and 'Ghoulish.'More info on Steward Weisberg's suicide fire sale, aka Dignity House, and his $5,000 therapy dog, psychiatric services... The only good news about this crass financial end-of-life opportunism is that it 'outs' Oregon and Washington's so-called Death with Dignity laws as vehicles for the exploitation of sick people and their families, to the death.
July 15th, 2010
Dignitas founder is millionaire: Ludwig Minelli, the Swiss founder of Dignitas, has become a millionaire in the ten years since he set up his controversial suicide clinic.This article, about Dignitas in Switzerland, and other news items relating to the Oregon physician seeking to set up a suicide house, are frighteningly creepy real-life depictions of what happens when someone else's premature death is legalized and incentivized. "Following the money trail" in the global campaign to legalize assisted suicide is instructive. Here the Telegraph provides information about the controversial founder of a Swiss assisted suicide clinic. It seems he may have profited shamelessly from promoting and actualizing suicides of vulnerable people. No doubt he has their best interests (or at least his own pocketbook) at heart, as perhaps, do other organizations which recieve sizable bequests after the premature death of the suicides they assist.
July 15th, 2010
Legal assisted suicide creates 'slippery slope' to doctors killing without consent, expert claimsThis article details the iresult of legalized assisted suicide-a slippery slope inevidabley leading to the killing of patients without their knowledge or consent, perhaps even against their will. In the Netherlands, where assisted suicide has been widely practiced for decades and legalized since 2002, more than 500 vulnerable patients are killed each year, without thier knowledge or consent, simply because someone else thinks they deserve to die. The Dutch experiment debunks Compassion and Choices' notion that the dangers of medicalized killing, aka 'aid in dying,' can be contained by tidy laws or limited to those who 'volunteer' to commit assisted suicide.
July 15th, 2010
Six MDs: No to euthanasiaThe following letters in Canada's National Post are an excellent assortment of cogent, impassioned arguments against the legalization of assisted suicide and the dangers associated with the practice. These letters, all of which are well worth reading, reflect an articulate, reasoned response to MP Francine Lalonde's bill to legalize assisted suicide in Canada.
April 23rd, 2010
This is the second-hour of debate for Bill C-384, the bill that would legalize euthanasia and assisted suicide in Canada. The vote on the bill will occur today (Wednesday, April 21)April 21st, 2010
Assisted Suicide in MontanaThe following article, written by Eileen Geller, President of True Compassion Advocates, contains both general summary information with regard to the 12/31/09 Montana Supreme Court decision Baxter vs. Montana, and also an analysis of the decision. The full text of the Baxter vs. Montana decision can also be found here.
January 1st, 2010
Montana 3rd State to Allow Doctor-Assisted SuicideThis AP article summarizes the Montana Supreme Court's Baxter assisted suicide decision of December 31st, 2009.
December 31st, 2009
No Constitutional Right to Assisted Suicide in Montana-but Not Against Current LawThe following excellent article by Wesley Smith summarizes Montana's Supreme Court Decision on assisted suicide.
December 31st, 2009
Estate Tax and Assisted SuicideThis fascinating analysis describes significant "death" tax incentives for middle class and wealthy individuals to die prematurely via assisted suicide in 2010 in order to save money for their heirs and/or preserve a family business.
January 1st, 2010
Hero of 2009 in UK works against assisted suicideThis article features Baroness Jane Campbell of the UK one of 12 "heroes of 2009" for her work opposing assisted suicide.
Police raid Australia pro-euthanasia group
While Philip Nitschke was in Washington and California presenting suicide promotion workshops, police raided his Exit International offices in Australia, investigating his and Exit's involvement in an assisted suicide.
AAP, November 12th, 2009
Euthanasia Sets SailYou have to see this to believe it. Literally. This archived email interview with Philip Nitschke, who is holding a suicide promotion workshop in Bellingham Washington on November 7th, 2009, reveals the full extent of Nitschke's suicide promotion agenda, including statements about his plans for a "euthanasia boat" to sail in international waters, why he thinks suicide pills should be available in the supermarket, and why "the knowledge, training, or recourse necessary" to commit suicide should be available "to anyone who wants it, including the depressed, the elderly bereaved, and the troubled teen." Nitschke's radical pro-suicide agenda is the natural outgrowth and logical consequence of legalized assisted suicide statutes such as those in Washington State and Oregon.
National Review, uploaded November 5th, 2009. Archived from June 5th, 2001
Full house for suicide workshop in Vancouver
Sadly, given the state of the economy and insufficient support during illness, aging, and caregiving, Philip Nitschke's workshop in Canada was full of distressed people trying to find out more about how to effectively kill themselves. Meanwhile, Nitschke, a medical doctor who has no background in the diagnosis or treatment of depression, mental illness, or complicated grief, continues to promote suicide paraphernalia and methods to the "well elderly."
CBC News, November 4th, 2009.
'Death by Disarray: Washington cooks in assisted suicide stew.'
In this expose, Elenor K. Schoen uncovers the unsavory (and frightening) reality of assisted suicide as it is practiced in Washington State. See quotes by TCA President Eileen Geller re "29 vulnerable ill people have requested lethal, life-ending drugs, and thousands of other Washingtonians have received the message that they, too, are expendable." With regards to the effect of assisted suicide on health care professionals whose patients have tragically been assisted to commit suicide by Compassion and Choices 'suicide support volunteers,' Geller notes that Hospice workers "are suffering from a complicated grief, experiencing severe emotional and spiritual distress, caused by the trauma of being forced to participate in the legalized medical suicide of vulnerable, ill, and possibly depressed, patients."
The National Catholic Register, October 18-24, 2009
This is a chilling story from the England involving the misuse of hospice comfort protocols to cause the death of a man who wasn't even terminally ill. This highlights the dangers of incorrect medical diagnoses and of using pain medications to end life vs to provide appropriate care and comfort.
Daily Mail, October 13th, 2009
UN Press Conference on World Suicide Prevention Day
Fascinating juxtaposition of this article by the United Nations re Suicide Prevention Day, September 10th, and the media coverage of Washington's assisted suicide deaths the day before. The bizarre timing of C&C's eerie celebration of Washington's assisted suicide deaths just before World Suicide Prevention Day, needs no further comment. The following article speaks clearly about the global tragedy of suicide and the need for improved diagnosis and treatment of depression and other suicide risk factors. Would that this received the same level of press interest as Washington State's tragic assisted suicide numbers.
The United Nations Press Release, September 10th, 2009
11 end lives under WA assisted suicide law
This article reports on the first six months of Washington's assisted suicide law and on Compassion & Choices' (the organization formerly known as the Hemlock Society) press conference stating assisted suicide in Washington is "rare, safe, and legal." TCA strongly disagrees, noting instead that in Washington State, assisted suicide is "tragic, lethal, and unnecessary." Note TCA's President and hospice RN Eileen Geller's comments: "When society starts to tell people that are ill, elderly, and disabled that their lives aren't worthy of being lived, they get the message." See TCA press release and blog for a broader array of facts and insight.
The Associated Press, September 9th, 2009
28 have asked to end lives under 'Death With Dignity Act'
This article refers to the first six months of legalized assisted suicide in Washington. Note TCA President Eileen Geller's comments: "It's not just the few who have used this, but all the other Washingtonians who are receiving the message that they should die prematurely and unnaturally," Geller said. "I've received calls from people who are worried and wondering, 'Maybe I shouldn't receive treatment. Maybe I should give up.'"
Seattle PI, by Claudia Rowe, September 9th, 2009
28 have sought life-ending prescriptions
Yet another article relating to six months of legalized assisted suicide in Washington. See Eileen Geller's comments re "We ought not be celebrating numbers of people who have died from a lethal drug overdose.""We don't believe assisted suicide is the answer to anything," she said. Check out Elenor Schoen's letter to the editor re the bias in tone and content she sees in this article.
The Seattle Times, by Maureen O'Hagan, September 9th, 2009
Health Plan and Assisted Suicide. Letters to the editor in response.
This great letter to the editor or the Seattle Times, written by Elenor Schoen in response to Maureen O' Hagen's article lauding Compassion and Choices eerie press conference celebrating Washington's first six months of assisted suicide deaths.
Unpublished Letter to the Editior (The Seattle Times), September 9th, 2009
The above link refers to an 'end of life choices' book called 'Your Life, Your Choices' being recommended by the VA to veterans across the country. This booklet was discontinued in 2007 due to concerns it sends a "hurry up and die" message to ill veterans, is "fundamentally flawed" according to Jim Towey, former director of the White House Office of Faith-Based Initiatives.
The Wall Street ournal, August 19th, 2009
Chris Wallace interviewed Jim Towey and VA Assistant Secretary Tammy Duckworth about the controversial booklet, which, according to critics-seems to push veterans in the direction of "pulling the plug." " For instance-on page 21 is a worksheet in which the veteran is asked to consider various situations and then check--whether in each case, life would be "difficult, but acceptable"--"worth living, but just barely"--or "not worth living.""
Fox News, August 23rd, 2009
A media firestorm followed Jim Towey's Wall Street Journal expos, causing comment from Senator Arlen Specter to call for the suspension of use of 'Your life, Your choices.' The Washington Post, the New York Times, and several media outlets including CNN and Fox news reported the developments. As of September 1st, the controversial booklet , whose primary author, Dr Robert Pearlman, is an advocate of both assisted suicide and health care rationing, seems to have been taken down from the VA web site.
Fox News, August 23rd, 2009
Assisted suicide: Whose life is it anyway?
The following article covers the recent events in the UK, well. It is worth reading as both a specific and a general primer on the subject of assisted suicide, prosecutions, ethics, and whether society should take a radical individuals rights perspective with regard to assisted suicide or a communal, protective one.
The Sunday Times, August 2nd, 2009
This article, printed originally in the Washington Post and reprinted in the Seattle Times, covers the valid fears surrounding health care reform and assisted suicide and euthanasia. Lurking beneath the simple proposal for health care reform is the reality that truncating the lives of elderly and ill Medicare recipients via assisted suicide and decreased care options saves money. Anyone who thinks this is not so, might need an (unreimbursed)visit to a psychiatrists office to have his or her head examined.
The Washington Post, August 1st, 2009
Don't fear death. Enjoy the setting sun
And now, for something completely different: a wonderful, inspirational news/opinion article that gets it all right. Check this out and feel better immediately. Baroness Finley on wisdom and aging with grace and without assisted suicide.
The Times, July 15th, 2009
Tory's Journey: He hopes to choose the way he dies
Quote of the week: "That's just how I'm kind of torn right now, like 'Yay I could live' and 'Damn I could live." The odd quote is the prelude to an even odder story. The following news articles and web clips from King 5 TV in Seattle feature an unfortunate man who wants to sign up and receive a lethal overdose under the so-called death with dignity law. Interestingly, Tory Plaisance isn't actually terminally ill after all (at least right now), and his situation showcases one of the law's major problems: the unreliability of terminal diagnoses. Tory used to qualify for the Act but doesn't any longer: so if he'd received and taken a lethal drug overdose already, he'd be way dead-without even qualifying as being terminally ill.
King 5 News Special Report, July 1st, 2009
Death with Dignity: What do we Advise our Clients
See another great article by Margaret Dore about the legion flaws in the so-called Death with Dignity Act. This article, published in the prestigious Washington State Bar News, reviews how the lethal law is not what the voters were promised and is full to the brim with dangers for ill people, their families, and society.
WSBA, July, 2009
'The day my mother chose to die, I was on my way to work'
True Compassion Advocates President, Eileen Geller, RN, BSN was interviewed this week on KOMO News article regarding Linda Fleming, first person to die via Washington's so-called death with dignity act. "This person being the first victim of assisted suicide then exploits the fears of other people, and they start to think this is their only choice," Geller said. See this week's blog for more.
KOMO News, July 9th, 2009
Assisted suicide: How will Washington live with it?
Bellingham: 'Don't ask don't tell' which doctors are committing assisted suicide: Columnist Joel Connelly relates details about assisted suicide practices in Whatcom County Washington, including a double standard for physicians: the Whatcom County Medical Society 'outs' physicians who favor quality end of life care instead of assisted suicide, while maintaining a veil of secrecy for those willing to prescribe lethal drug overdoses to vulnerable ill people. Meanwhile Peace Health, which runs St. Joseph's Hospital in Bellingham, plans to continue "living our mission, which is relieving pain and suffering" by furthering end of life care improvements and building an inpatient hospice center.
Seattle P.I. Online, June 25th, 2009
Guest editorial in Sequim Gazette opposes assisted suicide
Retired Marine Lt. Colonel Peter Flatley, a Catholic deacon, comments from the community where Linda Fleming, Washington State's first death from assisted suicide occurred and where Olympic Medical Center controversially rescinded it's 'opt out' policy with regard to assisted suicide, now putting vulnerable patients at risk by allowing nearly everything but the actual lethal overdose to occur in its facility
Sequim Gazette, June 24th, 2009
Executions: Doctor drew 'Line in the Sand.'
Amazing. This Seattle Times front page article features the courage of a Washington State doctor who refused to violate the Hippocratic oath by giving lethal drug overdoses to his patients. Bummer though. It's not about assisted suicide but rather about prison-assisted suicide, aka capital punishment . We wonder at the difference: why do some physicians receive press accolades for not killing their patients, while others are excoriated for opting out of Washington states so-called Death with Dignity act? Inconsistent? You decide.
Seattle Times,Tuesday, June 23rd, 2009
Not Dead Yet Group Demonstrates Against Final Exit
Courageous disability rights advocates demonstrated in Chicago against assisted suicide at Derek Humphrey's Final Exit conference. "Though often described as compassionate, legalized medical killing is really about a deadly double standard for people with severe disabilities, including both conditions that are labeled terminal and those that are not." Not Dead Yet blog includes a great section on Myths vs. Reality which effectively debunks Final Exit Network's half truths and untruths.
Not Dead Yet Web Site, June 9th, 2009
Letters to the Editor: Death with Dignity: What do we advise our clients?
Excellent letters to the editor in response to Margaret Dore's King County Bar Bulletin article of May, 2009. The letters by Dr Reichel and Teresa Schrempp note the many problems with legalized assisted suicide and euthanasia in Holland as well as Washington's so-called Death with Dignity Act.
King County Bar Bulletin, June, 2009
Sequim woman first to die under WA assisted suicide law
Linda Fleming, of Sequim, died Thursday night after taking drugs prescribed under the "Death with Dignity" law that took effect in March, said Compassion & Choices of Washington.
King5 News, May 22, 2009
Death with Dignity: What do we advise our clients?
A client wants to know about the new Death with Dignity Act. Do you take the politically correct path and agree that it's the best thing since sliced bread? Or do you do your job as a lawyer and tell him that the Act has problems and that he may want to take steps to protect himself?
Margaret Dore, King County Bar Bulletin, May, 2009
Assisted suicide is fine in a perfect world. We don't live (or die) in one
A doctor's job is to treat the sick and relieve pain. That cannot be squared with helping the terminally ill to end their lives
(Ilora Finlay is a Professor of Palliative Care at Cardiff University, and her experience as a palliative care physician is invaluable to this debate, as is her moral insight.)
The (U.K.) Times, April 1, 2009
The push for euthanasia could be the death of us all
Legalising euthanasia would deny the full potential of the human spirit
(It turns out that not only is the slippery slope real, but it?s getting more precipitous by the day. And despite talk of ?it?s my decision,? personal choice is the first casualty.)
Montreal Gazette, March 30, 2009
Legalising euthanasia would deny the full potential of the human spirit.
(Canadian bioethicist Margaret Somerville's thoughtful article on dying, disability, and meaning.)
Mercator.net, March 27, 2009
Terminally ill patients feel abandoned by doctors
A study from the University of Washington shows terminally ill patients and their families in the Seattle area often feel abandoned by their doctors.
(Into this unfortunate context, in Washington State, we have now the legalization of assisted suicide, where the same doctor by whom the patient feels abandoned can prescribe a lethal drug overdose.)
Los Angeles Times, March 9, 2009
We?ll live to regret suicide initiative
The state of Washington this week started down the slippery slope of incentivizing its citizens to kill themselves prematurely, with the implicit support of health insurance companies, and the connivance of some physicians, and even some hospitals.
The Spokesman-Review, March 8, 2009
Groups fear Washington state legislators will divert feds? health-care cash
Washington stands to receive $2.06 billion in federal stimulus money to support the state?s Medicaid program, but hospitals and other health-care groups fear the Legislature might divert much of the funds to fill other holes in the state operating budget.
(True Compassion Advocates worries that the new so-called death with dignity act and Washington?s health care crisis is a recipe for assisted suicide coercion.)
Puget Sound Business Journal, March 6, 2009
The Proportion of Oregon Assisted Suicides by Compassion & Choices Organization
Compassion & Choices, a pro-assisted suicide group, has reported that their organization has participated in more than three/quarters of the state's cases of doctor assisted suicide.
In Oregon, the group that lobbies for assisted suicide is also the group that operates the law.
Kenneth Stevens, M.D., March 4, 2009
Arrests open new front in assisted suicide fight
Last week four members of a suspected assisted suicide ring were arrested. They are accused of helping western New York native 58-year-old John Celmer commit suicide last year in Georgia.
Chicago Tribune, March 1, 2009
Widow Speaks Out About Assisted Suicide Arrests
John Celmer's widow found information from the Final Exit Network inside the home where her husband died. Authorities say they've found evidence that the group may be involved in as many as three hundred deaths in at least 7 different states.
WXIA, Channel 11, Feb. 28, 2009
Sunnyside Hospital opts out of new Death with Dignity law
Sunnyside Community Hospital will not participate in the state's new Death With Dignity Act that takes effect next week, a decision likely to be followed by other hospitals in Yakima County.
Yakima Herald, Feb. 25, 2009
'Right to die' can become a 'duty to die'
Vulnerable people can be bullied into assisted suicide, believes Wesley Smith.
Telegraph.co.uk, Feb. 21, 2009
Oregon's Assisted Suicide Law May Overlook Depressed Patients
Study finds 1 in 4 terminally ill not getting treatment that could influence decision.
US News & World Report, Oct. 8, 2008
Assisted suicide: Conspiracy and control
We must comment on two realities: first, the group controlling assisted suicide in Oregon is also the group controlling what the public is told; second, the claim that Oregon is a leader in improved end-of-life care because of assisted suicide is inaccurate.
Kenneth R. Stevens, William L. Toffler, The Oregonian, Sept. 24, 2008
Washington state's assisted-suicide measure: Don't go there
Still, even though Washington's initiative closely parallels Oregon's law, we won't be endorsing it.
The Oregonian Editorial Board, The Oregonian, Sept. 21, 2008
Oregon's Suicidal Approach to Health Care
Oregon seems to have found a surefire way to lower health care costs: Tell the patient you'll pay for drugs that will end her life, but not those that would extend her life.
Rita Marker, American Thinker, Sept. 14, 2008