If the World Medical Association can take a neutral stance on abortion and thus acknowledge it to be a matter of conscience for the doctor, why can it not take the same view with voluntary euthanasia?
Consumer-focused website, with (among others) Advance Directives for all states of the US.
Frances Coombe – President of the South Australian Voluntary Euthanasia Society – reacts to the passing of The Criminal Code Amendment (Suicide Related Material Offences) Bill 2005.
The next Meeting of Friends at the End will be held in the Conference Suite of the Mitchell Library, Kent Road, Glasgow at 2:00 pm on Saturday 29 October 2005.
Huntington Williams, 74, was charged with second degree manslaughter after he cleaned a revolver that a friend, who was dying of prostate cancer, used to kill himself. It was also suggested that Williams told the man how to aim the weapon. He was given a special form of probation—accelerated rehabilitation—and will be allowed to have the charge erased from his record if he completes the conditions of probation. He was accused of aiding in the death, not causing it.
The Good Euthanasia Guide: Where, What, and Who in Choices in Dying provides a well-organized compendium of the laws on assisted suicide and euthanasia internationally, a directory of right-to-die organizations and more. Order from the ERGO store website .
In April 2005 Harris Poll showed that more than two-thirds of U.S. adults think that the law should allow medical euthanasia for dying patients in severe distress who ask to have their lives ended. Two-thirds of the public would like their states to allow physician-assisted suicide as it is currently allowed in Oregon. Furthermore, most people feel that if they were unconscious and unlikely to recover they should not be kept alive on a life-support system. The majorities in favor of euthanasia and physician-assisted suicide have increased over the last few years.
Programs to work with people who are considering hastening their own death are available to Americans. Compassion and Choices, through their Client Support Services, gives information about hastening death to terminally ill patients. The Final Exit Network provides trained Exit Guides to qualified patients with terminal and hopeless illnesses who wish to hasten their deaths, using non-medical methods such as helium inhalation. Both programs are based on the Caring Friends Program which was initiated in 1998 by the Hemlock Society.
Compassion and Choices (formerly Compassion in Dying and End-of-Life Choices) are attempting to have a law like the Oregon Death with Dignity Law passed in two more states: Vermont and California. Vermont considered the bill last year and conducted a study on the Oregon law which concluded that the law was helpful in improving end-of-life care and that it had not been abused. This year no vote was taken but there was a promise of a vote and a study for next year’s session.
The Supreme Court has agreed to hear the challenge to the Oregon law from the Bush administration in the Fall session with a decision expected in Spring 2006. The challenge came originally from Attorney General Ashcroft in 2001; three separate courts ruled against him. Gonzales vs Oregon is based on the narrow issue that the prescribing of federally controlled substances to deliberately cause death is not a legitimate use for these drugs. The issue directly affects the current right of the states to control medical practice.
Data from the Oregon Health Department from 2004 indicate that another 35 people used the law bringing the total to 207 in 7 years, out of 210,000 deaths in the same period; 1/8 of 1% of all Oregonians actually died under the Death with Dignity Act.
Recently one man who apparently ingested 9g of Seconal woke up after three days. Though incidents like that have been reported in the Netherlands, no incident of unsuccessful use of the medication had previously been reported from Oregon.
The Swiss Academy of Medical Sciences has produced a report on the Care of patients in the terminal phase of life. This latest version stresses the rights of all patients, who are competent, to determine whether or not various treatments may be administered. This is the case even if third parties think the patient’s wishes are against their best interests and apply whether the patient is a child, an adolescent or is legally incapacitated.
