On 9th September VES UK published ‘The Quality of Mercy’, a comprehensive review of existing research on assisted dying and physical illness in the UK. ‘The Quality of Mercy’ demonstrates that the UK law has forced assisted dying underground, with the result that vulnerable people are not protected.
This study provides a retrospective analysis of all assisted suicide case files kept by Exist Deutsche Schweiz between 1990 and 2000.
This study was published in Volume 327, Number 7408 of the British Medical Journal (26 July 2003) which explored the question, “What is a good death?”
This study was published in Volume 327, Number 7408 of the British Medical Journal (26 July 2003) which explored the question, “What is a good death?”
In August the Dutch Ministers of Health and Justice rejected a call from the attorney general, Joan de Wijkerslooth, for “terminal sedation” to be covered by the same legal controls as (voluntary) euthanasia.
Mr de Wijkerslooth, who is head of the public prosecution service, argued that because terminal sedation can have the same effect as euthanasia it should be subject to same external controls.
On 2nd October, Christine Malèvre began her controversial appeal against her sentence for the murder of six terminally ill cancer patients.
On 26th September Vincent Humbert died after his mother Marie Humbert injected a lethal dose of barbiturates into his intravenous drip. Four days later, his doctor claimed responsibility for his death. The publicity that has ensued from the case of Vincent Humbert has revitalised national debate on the subject of mercy-killing and prompted the French National Assembly to set up a Commission to investigate issues relating to the ‘end of life’.
One year of enforcement of the law, by Jacqueline Herremans
In another news article you can read about plans to include Article 1-51 in the new constitutional treaty for the European Union.
On the 3rd September the European Parliament voted to omit from an annual report on fundamental rights an article which raised the issue of assisted dying in Europe. The report on fundamental rights in the European Union in 2002 was prepared on the ‘own-initiative’ of the Committee on Citizen’s Freedoms and Rights, Justice and Home Affairs. Whilst the report is mostly concerned with other human rights issues and abuses, its draft form had contained one article which:
On the 5th September, the Council of Europe’s Committee on Social, Health and Family Affairs voted by a narrow margin to adopt the Report on Euthanasia prepared by Dick Marty.
In the last year, Dignitas in Switzerland has attracted great media coverage, in the UK and in Europe at large, for assisting the suicides of people who are not Swiss citizens.
