A euthanasia advocate, who was convicted in June after assisting in the death of Alzheimer's sufferer Graeme Wylie, has taken her life. Caren Jenning, 75, who was convicted of being an accessory to manslaughter after helping Mr Wylie take a lethal dose of veterinary drug Nembutal, had been suffering breast cancer.
In a blow to the euthanasia movement, a jury has found one woman guilty of the manslaughter and another an accessory to the manslaughter of Alzheimer's sufferer and former Qantas pilot Graeme Wylie. Mr Wylie's partner Shirley Justins, 59, and his long-term friend Caren Jenning, 75, were accused of plotting to kill him. Justins was found guilty of manslaughter and Jenning of being an accessory to manslaughter. Mr Wylie, 71, died in March 2006 from an overdose of the veterinary drug Nembutal, which Jenning had bought and illegally imported from Mexico, and which Justins had given to him in their Cammeray home.
Test Santé vient de publier les résultats d'une enquête sur les actes de fin de vie et l'euthanasie. Elle est le prolongement de l’enquête récente sur les soins palliatifs. Pour cela, Test Santé a donné la parole aux personnes concernées : proches, médecins et infirmiers. Il en ressort que les soins palliatifs, aussi efficaces soient-ils, n'empêchent pas certains de souhaiter mourir. L’enquête souligne le fait que la demande vient le plus souvent exclusivement du patient lui-même (47% des cas contre 38% de la famille), et c’est encore plus vrai pour les patients en soins palliatifs (61%). Par ailleurs, Test Achats constate que l’euthanasie joue un rôle dans le débat sur la qualité de la fin de vie et que celle-ci est meilleure lorsque l’euthanasie est appliquée «à un moment plus naturel de la mort » (ou même avant dans certains cas) plutôt qu’après un acharnement thérapeutique.
The chairman of a Dutch suicide support group has been given a prison sentence and his organisation fined in a test ruling that highlights that doctors alone can assist suicide in the Netherlands. Gerard Schellekens, of the Foundation for a Voluntary Life (SVL), helped an 80 year old woman, who was bedridden with advanced Parkinson’s disease commit suicide after the GP at her nursing home refused euthanasia.
But there is evidence that some clinicians may already be using continuous deep sedation (CDS), as a form of "slow euthanasia". Research suggests use of CDS in Britain is particularly high - accounting for about one in six of all deaths.
Proponents of assisted suicide believe support for legalisation is growing among lawmakers and the public around the world. In the past year three names have been added to the list of places which permit it. The BBC's Vincent Dowd investigates whether assisted suicide is set to become even more common.
Switzerland's laws that prohibit killing continue to apply in full. Direct, active euthanasia (deliberate killing in order to end the suffering of another person) is therefore also forbidden. By contrast, both indirect, active euthanasia (the use of means having side-effects that may shorten life) and passive euthanasia (rejecting or discontinuing life-prolonging measures) – while not governed by any specific statutory provisions – are not treated as criminal offences provided certain conditions are fulfilled. No legislative action is needed with regard to these three forms of euthanasia. Legal restrictions and a ban on organised assisted suicide are nonetheless open to debate. They are intended to protect human life better, and to prevent organised assisted suicide becoming a profit-driven business.
A mother has been found not guilty of the attempted murder of her severely ill daughter who had ME. Bridget Kathleen Gilderdale, 55, of Stonegate, East Sussex, was cleared of attempting to murder Lynn Gilderdale by jurors at Lewes Crown Court. Gilderdale had previously admitted aiding and abetting the suicide of her 31-year-old daughter and was given a 12-month conditional discharge.
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,".
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.
TV presenter Ray Gosling has been arrested on suspicion of murder by Nottinghamshire Police after he admitted killing his lover. The 70-year-old's confession that he had smothered the unnamed man who was dying of Aids was broadcast on the BBC's Inside Out programme on Monday. The Nottingham filmmaker said he had made a pact with his lover to act if his suffering increased. Police are questioning the presenter over his claims.
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.
Detectives have been given another 12 hours to question a BBC presenter who said he killed his terminally ill lover. Ray Gosling, 70, was arrested on Tuesday morning after he told a BBC documentary he had smothered the man, who he said was dying of Aids. Mr Gosling's solicitor said his client had still not named the individual to police.
Broadcaster Ray Gosling, who said in a BBC television programme that he had killed his terminally ill lover, has been released on police bail. Mr Gosling, 70, was arrested on Wednesday morning on suspicion of murder after his comments were aired on the BBC's Inside Out programme. In Monday's documentary he said he had smothered the man, who he said was dying of Aids. His solicitor said his client had not named the individual to police.
Today I am publishing the Crown Prosecution Service’s policy on encouraging or assisting suicide. When it passed the Suicide Act 1961, Parliament specifically required discretion to be exercised in every case and my consent is needed before any prosecution for assisted suicide can be brought. In the case brought by Debbie Purdy last year, the House of Lords understood that. It did not question whether there should be a discretion to prosecute or not. But, accepting that discretion, it required me, as DPP, to “clarify what [my] position is as to the factors that [I] regard as relevant for and against prosecution”.
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.
An author who has argued for assisted suicide has been appointed adviser to the Holyrood committee scrutinising MSP Margo MacDonald's bill calling for sick people to be given the right to die. Pro-life campaigners are angered by the appointment of Alison Britton, the co-author of The Case For Assisted Suicide, to her position as the committee's only adviser and sought assurances that she will be impartial. If passed by the parliament, MacDonald's highly emotive bill could see terminally ill or permanently physically incapable people deciding to end their lives legally. Gordon Macdonald of the pressure group Care Not Killing has written to Ross Finnie, the Lib Dem MSP who chairs the End of Life Assistance (Scotland) Bill Committee, to express his concerns. "Alison Britton co-authored with Prof Sheila McLean, a book entitled The Case For Physician Assisted Suicide and a report titled Sometimes a Small Victory," Macdonald said.