A hospice in Canada is being forced to close after refusing to offer and perform medically assisted suicides. Lat week the Irene Thomas Hospice in Delta, British Columbia, lost $1.5 million in funding and its license to operate as a hospice. Fraser Health Authority, one of the six public health care authorities in the province, Read more
Quebec’s health minister, Danielle McCann, says consultation on extending the criteria for euthanasia is about to open. The new criteria will enable people to be euthanised if they can’t give informed consent or who will die of an illness in the more distant future. These include people suffering from Alzheimer’s disease and other degenerative conditions. Read more
Next year New Zealand will hold public referenda to decide whether to legalise assisted suicide and recreational marijuana. Separately, parliament is considering a bill that would decriminalise abortion. Simultaneously tackling all three could “foster an already growing culture war in New Zealand,” said Bryce Edwards, a political commentator and lecturer at Victoria University in Wellington. Read more
This government has had more knotty and divisive social issues to deal with than many others. Within months of its first sitting, it was voting on not one, but two medicinal cannabis bills and things only became more complicated from there. Euthanasia, abortion, and drug reform followed. Continue reading
Next year New Zealanders will vote in a referendum on whether euthanasia should be legalised after a long-fought bill passed 69 to 51 in parliament on Wednesday. If endorsed by the public in a referendum the new law will allow those who are terminally ill to request assisted dying. Earlier in the day Stuff published an opinion Read more
Religious leaders from a number of New Zealand’s faith traditions have written a joint letter to members of Parliament expressing their grave concerns about passing the End of Life Choice Bill. The bill, due for its third and final reading next Wednesday, 13 November, “gives people with a terminal illness the option of requesting assisted Read more
Numerous representatives of Christian, Jewish and Muslim faiths met at the Vatican this week to signs a joint Declaration denouncing euthanasia and physician-assisted suicide. After signing the Declaration, they presented it to Pope Francis. All three Abrahamic monotheistic religions share common goals and are in complete agreement in their approach to end-of-life situations. The twelve-point Read more
A Dutch euthanasia expert says he’s seen assisted dying in his country go from being seen as a last resort to a “project” to be managed. “I used to be a supporter of [euthanasia] legislation. But now, with twelve years of experience, I take a different view,” says Dr Theo A. Boer. From 2005 to Read more
Medical advancements do not help if they treat people as objects or when they are applied only to those people who are not considered a burden and “deserve” to be helped, Pope Francis said. In addition, euthanasia, which is legal in a number of places, “only seemingly promises to promote personal freedom; in reality it Read more
In October 2014, Ezekiel Emanuel published an essay in the Atlantic called “Why I Hope to Die at 75.” Because Emanuel is a medical doctor and chair of the University of Pennsylvania’s department of medical ethics and health policy, as well as a chief architect of Obamacare, the article stirred enormous controversy. Emanuel vowed to Read more