Right-to-die advocates in Italy have been trying to force a referendum on the contentious issue in the largely Catholic country where opposition is strong. It gathered 750,000 signatures in August, well above the minimum required.

In announcing its decision on Feb 15, the court said the proposed referendum would not guarantee the constitutionally guaranteed "minimum protection of human life in general, particularly with reference to weak and vulnerable persons."

Under current Italian law, anyone helping another person commit suicide can be jailed for between five and 12 years.

Read More

It might seem macabre to some but right-to-die campaigner Philip Nitschke says it's all in the name of science.

The founder of Exit International wants to be sure that a cheap and readily available substance that's fast emerging as a new choice for elected deaths actually delivers a peaceful ending.

Dr Nitschke says two Australians, both from Brisbane, used the substance to die in May. Read more

The doctors had stopped the nutrition and hydration Vincent Lambert receives, following an earlier judicial ruling in accordance with the wishes of his wife and other relatives.

The new order to resume life came just a few hours after doctors had started switching off Lambert's life support.

The court said authorities had "to take all measures" to keep Lambert (42) alive while a review by the UN Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities is completed.

Lambert's mother said the ruling is "a very big victory" for her struggle to keep her son on life support.

Lambert has been a quadraplegic in a vegetative state since a motorcycle accident 11 years ago.

The ruling marks a dramatic reversal in the case which has divided France where, although euthanasia is illegal, doctors are allowed to put terminally ill patients into deep sedation.

It has also divided Lambert's family who are in disagreement over how he should be cared for.

His wife, six of his eight siblings and his nephew have repeatedly called for his feeding tubes to be withdrawn.

His Catholic parents and two other siblings remain adamant life support should continue.

In an open letter published last weekend in which Lambert's parents asked Macron for help, they said:

"Mr President, Vincent Lambert will die without hydration in the week of 20 May if you do nothing and you are the last and only one able to intervene."

Macron declined to intervene, saying "the decision to stop treatment was taken after continual dialogue between his doctors and his wife, who is his legal representative."

Prior to the latest court ruling, Pope Francis spoke out in favour of keeping Lambert alive.

"Let us always safeguard life, God's gift, from its beginning until its natural end. Let us not give in to a throwaway culture," he said.

Source

• RFI
• Image: CBS News

He is surprised and appalled at the disingenuous tactics being employed by assisted suicide supporters, saying they are a smoke screen, a distraction based on an elitist view of what counts as legitimate political discourse. Read full press release

"Some people will express that view in a sentence, others in a few pages. Since when did a person's view depend on their level of education or ability to be articulate?" Kleinsman asked.

"To think otherwise is to imply that some New Zealander's views count more than others."

"I believe most New Zealanders, whatever their personal position on this issue, will see such claims for what they are - as an assault on our principles of inclusion and fairness."

"The idea that some people's views count more than others is a very small step away from the very dangerous view that some lives matter more than others - something that disabled people encounter all the time."

Both Matt Vickers and Act MP David Seymour have in recent days described the unprecedented number of submissions to the Health Select Committee and the overwhelming 78% opposition to a law change as nothing more than the result of formulaic submissions collected in bulk by mostly religious institutions or as religious bullying from the pulpit by pastors.

Can a Catholic chair the inquiry?

Those who favour assisted suicide are also questioning the suitability of MP Simon O'Connor to chair the inquiry, because he "spent almost a decade studying for the priesthood with the Society of Mary before deciding he couldn't be a politico and a cleric."

They are asking how someone publicly opposed to euthanasia can chair an inquiry into it.

However Vickers says O'Connor has a job to do and the expectation is that he'll be "capable of wearing two hats".

Religion not the only basis for opposition to assisted suicide

Kleinsman also challenged the assumption that that the only possible basis for opposition to assisted suicide is a religious one.

"Just read the many evidence-based submissions by professional groups and others" he said.

"It is actually impossible to know the precise numbers of submitters whose views on assisted suicide may be influenced by their faith."

"One analysis of the submissions shows that approximately 17% of opponents and 4% of supporters of a law change drew on religious concepts," said Kleinsman.

Source

• Supplied
• stuff.co.nz
• Image: prolife.org.nz

He was speaking to 80 people in Nelson's Fairfield House at a meeting organised by Nelson Options, the local chapter of voluntary euthanasia group Exit International.

Curran is European coordinator of Exit International, and has represented the right to die movement in many countries.

Curran's wife Marie Fleming died in 2013 after a failed court bid to permit an assisted death.

He said she was "a very strong Catholic."

Continue reading

He made the correct decision, ruling that it was for Parliament, not the courts, to change the law relating to assisted suicide.

He explained his decision in a thorough, carefully reasoned 55-page judgment. That he produced this document in a matter of days, hoping to deliver his decision before Seales died (which he did), was no small achievement.

He was under immense pressure, not only in terms of time but because whatever decision he made was bound to provoke an intense reaction. Few judges have presided over a more emotional case.

But Collins has been given precious little credit. Some media portrayed his decision as cold and heartless, when in fact he was at pains to express sympathy for Seales' predicament.

TVNZ's coverage, in particular, was disgracefully loaded.

Of all media, state-owned broadcasters have a particular obligation to be balanced and objective. But TVNZ adopted a partisan and emotive tone, portraying Seales as having been cruelly denied her dying wish.

Her family, colleagues and friends could be excused their extreme disappointment. She was clearly loved and admired, and those closest to her had been through an emotional wringer.

Seales' husband, Matt Vickers, told reporters of his wife's deep hurt at being told of Collins' decision. "Her reaction utterly broke my heart," he said at a crowded press conference.

There was a reproachful note in his statement, as if Collins had failed a dying woman. In fact he had done exactly what judges are supposed to do - interpret the law without fear or favour.

But it's scarcely surprising that Vickers felt strongly. He had just lost a wife. He was grieving.

Journalists have no such excuses. We expect them to report issues fairly and dispassionately. Continue reading

• Karl du Fresne is a freelance journalist living in the Wairarapa region of New Zealand.

Lecretia Seales, 42, was first diagnosed with a brain tumour in March 2011 but with her health deteriorating, she petitioned the High Court in Wellington to uphold her right to die at a time of her choosing with the assistance of a doctor.

On Friday, Justice David Collins decided the lobby groups Care Alliance, Voluntary Euthanasia, and the Human Rights Commission would be allowed to have a say in her case.

Their intervention would give them the right to present additional evidence to the court under strict conditions. The case was due to start on May 25. Continue reading

Dr Rob Jonquiere has spoken at several gatherings in New Zealand over the past two weeks.

He was brought here by the Voluntary Euthanasia Society of New Zealand.

The Society is pushing for the Government to change the law to allow people with "unbearable suffering to end their lives with dignity, not in pain".

Jonquiere helped draft legislation that allowed Dutch people suffering a terminal illness to choose to die.

He says he is hopeful change would come to New Zealand, where euthanasia is still illegal.

Right to Life spokesman Ken Orr was "not happy at all" that Jonquiere was in New Zealand "promoting suicide".

"If the bill he is promoting is passed, it will destroy the trust our community has in the medical profession not to kill their patients."

The two men were to meet in Christchurch on Monday in private to debate the issue.

The Nathaniel Centre - Euthanasia in New Zealand

Source

• Stuff.co.nz
• The New Zealand Herald
• Image: Stuff.co.nz

"Unfortunately, even with over 80 per cent of New Zealanders wanting legalisation, politicians still sit on their hands, agonising and arguing about much less important issues." Read More

He was speaking to close to 140 people at a public meeting in New Plymouth last week.

Kleinsman said his opposition to euthanasia was based on social concerns that its introduction, when coupled with increasing rates of depression and elder abuse, could see the elderly pressured to take their own life to avoid feeling like a burden and a cost.

"We have to be cognisant that elder abuse in the western world is one of the fastest growing problems we have."

"It's going to put pressure on people who are sick, people who are disabled. It's going to put pressure on people to justify why they are still alive," he said.

A Taranaki branch of the Voluntary Euthanasia Society New Zealand has been founded since the End of Life Choice Bill was introduced into the ballot box in Parliament last year.

People from the North Taranaki Catholic Parishes and Anglican churches united to organise the public meeting, against the bill.

Speaking prior to the meeting, New Plymouth general practitioner Dr Ian Smiley said, "Although the idea for the meeting has come from within the churches we are very keen that the meeting, looking at the implications of legalising euthanasia, should not be seen as a religious issue, but one that the community as a whole need to openly discuss and consider."

Source

• Stuff.co.nz
• Stuff.co.nz
• Image: 3.bp.blogspot.com

Today, MPs are debating new guidelines proposed by the Director of Public Prosecutions on who should and should not be prosecuted for assisting a suicide. There is a palpable desire in influential circles for assisted suicide to become a legally recognised, legitimate thing, in order to move on from the current situation where desperately ill people must travel to Switzerland in order to receive a fatal injection. Commentators argue that a humane society should never force a very sick or disabled person who wants out to carry on living.

There is an element of truth in this. But there is a big problem with elevating what is in fact an age-old practice - helping extremely sick people to end their lives - into a "right" which we should all enjoy. Which is that it would treat individual and tragic acts of death-assistance as some sort of social good; it would turn the discreet and humane "final push", which has been taking place in hospitals and homes for centuries, into a socially decreed, positive act. It would, in effect, give a green light to defeatism, to suicidal thoughts, and that is not something society should ever do. Continue reading

Sources

• Brendan O'Neill in The Telegraph
• Image: MacDoctor