Canada’s palliative care programmes are suffering while assisted suicide programmes are “growing like a cancer”. Fewer than 50 percent of patients wanting palliative care can access it. These findings contradict the Government’s stated plans to its improve its palliative care provision. Evidence is mounting that assisted suicide is actively damaging the already inadequate palliative care Read more
Oregon has dropped its residency requirement for assisted suicide, meaning doctors will be allowed to prescribe lethal drugs to people who do not reside in the State. In response to a federal lawsuit, the State agreed to stop enforcing the residency requirement on March 28. In addition, the Oregon Health Authority agreed to write a Read more
Videophone evaluations are no way to assess someone for assisted suicide, critics have said, also warning that cost-based analyses which claim legal assisted suicide saves money show “callous indifference.” Some Scottish lawmakers are again advocating the legalization of assisted suicide and have now suggested that online consultations with doctors could help fulfil purported safeguard requirements. Read more
Catholic priest Fr David Palmer’s social media posts have seen the University of Nottingham decline to recognise him as a chaplain. “Our concern was not in relation to Fr. David’s views themselves, but the manner in which these views have been expressed in the context of our diverse community of people of many faiths,” the Read more
Euthanasia is a defeat for human dignity argue the Spanish Catholic bishops. The bishops’ conference said a change in the law would affirm a self-centred view of life that proposes death as a solution to one’s problems! They also maintain the proposed law would be “bad news, since human life is not a commodity at Read more
The British Columbia hospice that is trying to preserve its historical opposition to euthanasia is being taken to the Court of Appeal. Because of its views, the Delta Hospice Society (a member-run organisation) is likely to lose $1.5 million in funding from the Fraser Health Authority, a public health care authority in British Columbia. It Read more
The Netherlands’ assisted suicide proposal to allow assisted suicide for healthy individuals over the age of 75 has drawn widespread criticism. A similar proposal in 2016 also faced opposition. It offers death rather than social support to people who are lonely and depressed, critics say. Among the critics is Dr. Gordon Macdonald, head of the Read more
Hospice New Zealand has applied for an urgent court hearing on whether it will be able to provide a euthanasia-free service should the proposed legislation be approved in a referendum scheduled to take place at the same time as the general election. The application – lodged by Hospice on April 9 – asks the High Read more
A Vatican archbishop says he would “hold the hand” of someone dying from assisted suicide, even though he considers it wrong. Archbishop Vincenzo Paglia says he would offer this comfort because “no one is abandoned” by the Church. Paglia, who heads the Vatican’s Pontifical Academy for Life, explained his views during the presentation of an Read more
The question for the possible euthanasia referendum should avoid euphemisms and ask directly whether Kiwis support assisted suicide, National MP Maggie Barry says. Barry, one of the fiercest critics of David Seymour’s End of Life Choice Bill, said the proposed question released on Wednesday was “misleading and too narrow”. Barry said the question was over-reliant Read more