Dying Auckland GP John Pollock says he will be "long gone" by the time the fiery debate on euthanasia has reached a resolution. Pollock, 61, ignited the issue last month when he went public calling for a review of the law which prohibits euthanasia for dying and suffering Kiwis. Pollock, who is suffering from metastatic melanoma, is now shying away from the spotlight, not wanting to spend his final days in a glare of publicity. But, he says, he has done what he set out to do - start an open and vigorous debate on a subject which has been more-or-less taboo up until now. "My part in all this is over," says Pollock. "I set out to ignite debate, and the fire has now been lit - in fact it's blazing. I'm not going to be the centrepiece for the fight. It's going to take donkey's years and I'll be long gone." The key, he says, is to get the medical profession on board.
The CPS has decided that charges will not be brought against Dr Elisabeth Wilson and two individuals following the death of Caroline Loder at her home in Surrey on 8 June 2009. A spokesperson said: "We have thoroughly reviewed a file of evidence in relation to a woman and 2 men suspected of committing an offence of aiding, abetting, counselling or procuring the suicide of another contrary to s2 of the Suicide Act 1961. We have decided that there is not sufficient evidence to prosecute one of the men. The assistance he gave to the deceased was not of a kind that could be said to have assisted the act of suicide. "We have further decided that although there is sufficient evidence to prosecute one of the men and the woman, after considering the public interest factors tending in favour and against prosecution, as outlined in the Policy for Prosecutors in respect of cases of encouraging or assisting suicide, it is not in the public interest to bring a prosecution against either of them."
Justice Minister Eveline Widmer-Schlumpf says she wants the government to rethink its proposal to tighten legislation on assisted suicide. Widmer-Schlumpf, in a SonntagsZeitung newspaper interview, said assisted suicide should not only be limited to the terminally ill who are close to death.
Elderly people should be allowed to end their lives with the help of a doctor even if they are not terminally ill, according to a new campaign group that claims to have widespread support. The Society for Old Age Rational Suicide, led by a former GP known as “Dr Death”, says that pensioners should have the human right to declare “enough is enough” and die with dignity.
Fergus Walsh | 20:30 UK time, Monday, 19 July 2010 The case of Tony Nicklinson will re-open the debate on assisted dying and so-called "mercy killing". He has locked-in syndrome, following a stroke. Unable to talk, he communicates by blinking or nodding his head. He also has a specially adapted computer with a push-button control. Mr Nicklinson wants his wife to be allowed to inject him with a lethal drugs dose without the fear of her being prosecuted for murder or manslaughter. As the law stands, that seems a vain hope because actively taking a life, even with consent, has always been treated as a crime, leading to a jury trial.
A GREAT-grandmother has condemned her treatment at the hands of Surrey Police as ‘grotesque and incompetent’. Dr Libby Wilson, an 83-year-old family planning pioneer, has been on bail for ‘aiding, abetting, counselling or procuring a suicide’ since September last year in relation to the death of Cari Loder, a 48-year-old Godalming woman who had Multiple Sclerosis.
A man with "locked-in syndrome" has begun legal action, asking the director of public prosecutions to clarify the law on so-called mercy killing. Tony Nicklinson, 56, wants his wife to be allowed to help him die without the risk of being prosecuted for murder. Mr Nicklinson, of Chippenham, Wiltshire, communicates by blinking or nodding his head at letters on a board. His lawyers say he is "fed up with life" and does not wish to spend the next 20 years in this condition. According to his legal team, his only lawful means of ending his life is by starvation - refusing food and liquids. His wife Jane says she is prepared to inject him with a lethal dose of drugs, but this would leave her liable to be charged with murder.
To investigate attitudes towards physician-assisted death in minors among all physicians involved in the treatment of children dying in Flanders, Belgium over an 18-month period, and how these are related to actual medical end-of-life practices.
In the legal performance of the euthanasia procedure, unbearable suffering, one of the requirements of due care, is difficult to assess. Evaluation of the current knowledge of unbearable suffering is needed in the ongoing debate about the conditions on which EAS can be approved. Using an integrative literature review, we evaluated publications with definitions of suffering in general or in end-of-life situations and with descriptions of suffering in the context of a request for EAS.
Terminally ill patients who want to commit suicide should be able to receive medical help to die, a government adviser on care for the elderly has said. Martin Green, a dementia expert for the Department of Health, said patients who were too frail to take their own lives were being denied “choice” and “autonomy” because assisted suicide is illegal in the UK. In an interview with The Daily Telegraph, he urged ministers to review the law and suggested that a referendum or a free vote in Parliament should be called to settle policy on the issue. “If you’re going to give people ‘choice’, it should extend to whether or not they want to die,” he said.
Russel Ogden has seen enough people end their own lives to convince him that a planned and fully accountable suicide is a right all Canadians should have. This week in the Supreme Court of British Columbia, Mr. Ogden and the Farewell Foundation For The Right To Die will be fighting both the provincial and federal governments to make “self-chosen death” a legal option.
A man who is almost completely paralysed is taking legal action in a bid to end his life. His solicitors have told the BBC that they believe his case could have major implications for the way prosecutors in England, Wales and Northern Ireland deal with assisted suicides.
The B.C. Civil Liberties Association says it wants to challenge Canada's assisted-suicide laws alone. The BCCLA represents four plaintiffs seeking to change Canada's assisted-suicide laws, including a dying woman who won the right to have her trial expedited because her health is failing. Gloria Taylor suffers from amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, also known as Lou Gehrig's disease. On Wednesday, a B.C. Supreme Court judge ruled Taylor's trial should be heard in November because of the woman's rapidly deteriorating condition. A similar lawsuit is simultaneously being brought forward by the Farewell Foundation. The group's co-founder Russell Ogden is lobbying to join the BCCLA's lawsuit if its own challenge is struck down. Ogden argues testimony from his application should be part of the civil liberties association's case because it's unfair to assess the quality of either challenge.
Marcia Angell was an editor of the most prestigious medical journal in the world for two decades. She currently gives monthly lectures on ethics to faculty at Harvard Medical School. And she served on a panel that gave advice on medical issues to the White House. But Dr. Angell’s credentials were challenged, Wednesday, in the Supreme Court of British Columbia when a lawyer for the federal Department of Justice tried to prevent her affidavit from being entered in a case concerning physician-assisted suicide.
The words of a man who died in agonizing pain and those of his wife, who wept helplessly at his bedside for days while his life slowly ebbed, were read into the court record during the emotional opening of a right-to-die case. With a dozen lawyers in attendance, a packed public gallery inside and a crowd of placard-waving protestors opposed to change on the Supreme Court of British Columbia steps outside, lawyer Joseph Arvay started dramatically by reading the affidavits of Peter Fenker, and his wife, Grace.
On the face of it, the decision by a High Court judge in the case of M is no surprise - few would have expected a ruling to allow a patient with any level of consciousness and feeling to die. But a closer inspection of the 76-page judgement shows that Mr Justice Baker did not find his decision a straightforward one.
The husband of a woman who died in one of Britain's best-known hospitals is taking its management and the health secretary Andrew Lansley to court, alleging an illegal use of "do not resuscitate" orders. David Tracey claims doctors at Addenbrooke's hospital, Cambridge, twice put such orders in his wife's medical notes, cancelling the first after she objected to it only to put in a second three days later without her consent or any discussion with her. Tracey alleges the hospital's actions deprived his 63-year-old wife Janet of the right to life and subjected her to degrading treatment, while he was denied respect for his personal and family life. He is also seeking to force the coalition government to draw up a policy for England on the use of Do Not Attempt Cardio-pulmonary Resuscitation (DNACPR) instructions, and claims the present system of local policies is open to abuse.
ROMA - I punti salienti della legge sul testamento biologico approvata oggi alla Camera, che per il varo definitivo dovrà tornare al Senato, sono almeno due: le dichiarazioni anticipate di trattamento non sono vincolanti per i medici ed escludono la possibilità di sospendere nutrizione e idratazione, salvo in casi terminali. Inoltre, sono applicabili solo se il paziente ha un'accertata assenza di attività cerebrale.
A US nurse has been convicted of aiding the suicides of an English man and a Canadian woman after seeking out depressed people online and urging the two to kill themselves. William Melchert-Dinkel, 48, was prosecuted over the hanging death of Mark Drybrough and the death of Nadia Kajouji, who leapt into a river. Prosecutors say he posed as a female nurse, advising them on suicide.
Debbie Purdy, who wants her husband to accompany her to Switzerland for an assisted suicide without fear of prosecution, took her case to the United Kingdom’s highest court, the House of Lords, for a final appeal this week. Ms Purdy, who has progressive multiple sclerosis, scored an important victory on the first day of the two day hearing, when the director of public prosecutions, Keir Starmer, conceded that article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights, the right to respect for private life, applies to cases like hers.
Comprehensive guidance for doctors on care at the end of life, including difficult decisions on when to provide, withhold, or withdraw life prolonging treatment, will go out for consultation from the UK’s General Medical Council in March. The draft guidance was approved by the council at its February meeting, subject to minor amendments. The consultation will be launched in the week beginning 23 March and will end in July. The new advice takes account of the Mental Capacity Act 2005; government strategies on end of life care in England and Scotland; GMC guidance in 2007 on consent; recent research; and a Court of Appeal judgment on a legal challenge to the GMC’s 2002 guidance Withholding and Withdrawing Life-Prolonging Treatments (Burke).
The physician-assisted suicide law that goes into effect today in Washington State allows hospitals and doctors to refuse to participate, creating a difficult decision for those who deal with end-of-life care.
The aim of this study was to determine the opinions of private medical practitioners in Bloemfontein, South Africa, regarding euthanasia of terminally ill patients. A smaller percentage (35.5%) would never consider euthanasia for themselves compared to for their patients (46.8%). The decision should be made by the patient (50%), the patient’s doctor with two colleagues (46.8%), close family (45.2%) or a special committee of specialists in ethics and medicine (37.1%). The majority (46.9%) indicated that euthanasia should be performed by an independent doctor trained in euthanasia, followed by the patient’s doctor (30.7%). Notification should mainly be given to a special committee (49.9%). Only 9.8% felt that no notification was necessary. There was strong opposition to prescribing of medication to let the patient die. Withdrawal of essential medical treatment to speed up death was the most acceptable method.
The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) has decided there is insufficient evidence to bring charges against any individual in relation to the death of Jane Hodge on 17 June 2009. Mrs Hodge, 91, died following an overdose of prescribed drugs at her home in Lewes, East Sussex. Her death was referred to the coroner as a suicide and subsequently Sussex Police launched an investigation into her death. A file of evidence was submitted to the CPS in August 2009 and the case considered under the Code for Crown Prosecutors. The Code requires a prosecutor to first decide if there is enough evidence to proceed with a charge. If there is, the prosecutor must then consider if it is in the public interest to do so.
Sir Edward and Lady Downes took their own lives at the Dignitas Clinic in Switzerland on 10 July 2009. Since there was information to suggest that one or both of their children, Mr Caractacus Downes and Ms Boudicca Downes, may have assisted their parents to commit suicide, a police investigation into their acts took place. After a careful review of all the evidence by senior prosecuting lawyers, it has been decided that there is no evidence to support a charge against Ms Downes and that, although there is enough evidence to charge Mr Downes with an offence under section 2(1) of the Suicide Act 1961, a prosecution is not required in the public interest. In relation to Ms Downes, there is no evidence that she undertook any act in England and Wales that could have assisted her parents in committing suicide. Accordingly, there is no evidence to support a prosecution under the Suicide Act 1961.
In Belgium, where euthanasia was legalized in 2002, we conducted a follow-up study in 2007 to two largescale nationwide surveys on medical end-of-life practices that had been conducted in 1998 and 2001. This follow-up study enabled us to investigate differences in the frequency and characteristics of these practices before and after the enactment of the law.
Ray Gosling, the veteran TV presenter who confessed on television to suffocating a gay lover in a mercy killing, said today he would refuse to answer police questions – "even under torture" – about whom he killed, when and where.
A TV presenter's on-air confession that he killed his ailing lover is to be investigated by Nottinghamshire Police. Ray Gosling, 70, told the BBC's Inside Out programme he had smothered the unnamed man who was dying of Aids. Pressure group Care Not Killing said it was "bizarre" the BBC had not told police of the admission when it was filmed in December. The BBC said it was under no obligation to report to police ahead of broadcast but would co-operate with the inquiry. During a documentary on death and dying the Nottingham filmmaker said he had made a pact with his lover to act if his suffering increased. In the BBC East Midlands programme, broadcast on Monday, he told how he smothered the man with a pillow while he was in hospital after doctors told him that there was nothing further that could be done for him.
Police are to investigate claims made by a BBC broadcaster that he killed a former partner who was terminally ill. Ray Gosling told the East Midlands' Inside Out programme, broadcast last night, that he had agreed to smother his lover, who was living with Aids, if his suffering became too intense. Gosling said that his partner had been in hospital in "terrible pain" when a doctor told him there was nothing more that could be done. He said that he asked the doctor to leave them alone and then, "I picked up the pillow and smothered him until he was dead". A spokeswoman for Nottinghamshire police said the force had not been aware of the issue until the broadcaster made his revelation on television last night. "We are now liaising with the BBC and will investigate the matter,".
The Director of Public Prosecutions, Keir Starmer QC, has today called for final contributions to his public consultation on his interim policy for prosecutors in respect of cases of assisted suicide. He said: "I have already received over 2000 responses from both individuals and organisations since I published my interim policy in September, which I am sure is an indication of the strong views many people hold on this issue. I urge those who may still want to contribute to send their views to my assisted suicide policy team. All the responses will be considered when drafting the final policy." The consultation is due to close at 5:00pm on Wednesday 16 December with the final policy due for publication in spring 2010. Until the final policy is published, the interim policy will be applied to all cases.
The MDU has grave concerns about how the new policy* on whether or not to prosecute the offence of assisted suicide, will be applied to doctors. “The MDU’s advice to its members remains that doctors approached by patients for advice about suicide should not engage in discussion which assists the patient to that end. Members who are faced with requests for help from patients, including for example the provision of medical reports, should contact us for advice.”
A leading doctors’ organisation has today warned that doctors face a greater risk of prosecution for assisting a patient’s suicide following the publication of the DPP’s final Policy for Prosecutors in Respect of Cases of Encouraging or Assisting Suicide. The Medical Protection Society (MPS) – which provides indemnity, legal and professional support to around half of all doctors in the UK – said that the new policy sends a clear signal that prosecutions are more likely to be brought against healthcare professionals in circumstances where they might have assisted a patient’s suicide. The organisation warned doctors to be extremely cautious when providing help or advice to patients who are considering assisted suicide.
On 25 February, the Director of Public Prosecutions, Keir Starmer QC, launched the Policy for Prosecutors in respect of cases of Encouraging or Assisting Suicide.