The Swiss euthanasia organization DIGNITAS has recently been obliged to virtually close its doors due to enormous pressure of work. It has received extensive world publicity this year about its euthanasia services, resulting in it being swamped with applications. It has been reduced to sending automatic, formal replies to inquirers. DIGNITAS is based in Forch, close to Zurich.
President’s Report by Michael Irwin, MD, President of the World Federation of Right To Die Societies.
Report from the 2003 meeting of the RTD-E by Ron Plummer, President of the Europe Division.
Summary
Motion in Swiss parliament submitted by Anne-Catherine Menétrey-Savary
Death represents the only certitude we have in life. Our hour will inevitably come and each person must ask himself how he wishes to die. Doctors, like everyone else, are vulnerable beings and they are subjective and emotive, and have personal ethics based on religious beliefs and philosophies. We identify with each other and are faced with our own death and the questions: when will it occur and how?
We know very well that there is no age for dying and that death can knock on our door at any moment and under the most unexpected circumstances.
In issue no. 24 of the Swiss doctors’ bulletin for the month of June, the Swiss Academy of Medical Sciences presented its first publication on the subject of “Treatment and care of the elderly and dependent” to be consulted by the medical profession. We found several of the points raised in this eleven page document particularly worthy of note.
Chapter 2, regarding the “decision-making process”, acknowledges the initial directives and recommends appointing a trusted person as a therapeutic representative.
World Federation Annual Global Report (2003): The annual global report of the president of the World Federation of Right to Die Societies. The report is about the developments worldwide in the field of the right to die in 2003.
A third of nurses believe they should be lawfully allowed to help patients to commit suicide, a survey has found.
summary This page brings you news from around the globe, of interest to the right-to-die movement.
First announcement of the 21st International Conference on Death and Bereavement, to be held March 23-25, 2004 in Eilat, Israel.
France’s health minister Bernard Kouchner has said he performed mercy killings in Vietnam and Lebanon during a controversial career as a doctor and aid worker, but said ending someone’s life was a “delicate matter”.
