“The current legal status of assisted dying is inadequate and incoherent...” The Commission on Assisted Dying was set up in September 2010 to consider whether the current legal and policy approach to assisted dying in England and Wales is fit for purpose. In addition to evaluating the strengths and weaknesses of the legal status quo, the Commission also set out to explore the question of what a framework for assisted dying might look like, if such a system were to be implemented in the UK, and what approach to assisted dying might be most acceptable to health and social care professionals and to the general public.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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 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.
A new campaign by disability rights activists to limit the right to die launches at Westminster on Thursday. The campaign - called Not Dead Yet UK Resistance - will be asking MPs to sign a charter in support of its aims. It says that disabled and terminally ill people should enjoy the same legal protection as everyone else. Those in favour of assisted suicide argue that opposing assisted suicide will condemn terminally-ill people to suffer needlessly. The Not Dead Yet UK's charter includes a commitment to oppose any changes to existing laws which state that assisting a patient to commit suicide is illegal.
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,".
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.
Subsequent to an intensive three-year period of reflection, the CMQ is revealing its perspective and conclusions today regarding end-of-life care and euthanasia. The CMQ embraces the point of view of the patient who is confronting imminent and inevitable death. In such a situation, the patient looks to their physician and generally requests that they be able to die without undue suffering and with dignity. Neither surveys, nor attorneys, nor politicians can properly advise the physician and the patient facing this situation. In the majority of cases, the patient and their doctor find the appropriate analgesia that respects the ethical obligation of physicians not to preserve life at any cost, but rather, when the death of a patient appears to be inevitable, to act so that it occurs with dignity and to ensure that the patient obtains the appropriate support and relief.