Qld support for Victorian dying with dignity bill

18 Jul 08: A campaign to encourage all Australian states to legalise euthanasia would be rolled out across the nation if a bill to be debated in the Victorian upper house later this month is successful.
More than 50 people met in Maroochydore CWA hall this week to hear Dying with Dignity Victoria president Neil Francis explain the strategy developed to get the bill to a vote.
Voluntary Euthanasia Society Queensland’s Sunshine Coast branch has already approached independent Member for Nicklin Peter Wellington for support to extend legislation he successfully introduced to this state’s parliament to protect doctors from prosecution for adverse effects of medication prescribed for pain relief. Read more...
Caption: Neil Francis with Dr Rodney Syme’s book - A Good Death

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Dead UK woman found with suicide book

18 Jul 08: A Harrow woman suffering from a skin disorder committed suicide after reading a book on assisted death, an inquest heard. Eileen Saunders, of Walton Road, was found with a plastic bag over her head by her son on June 16. Lying next to her body was a copy of the book, Final Exit: The practicalities of self deliverance and assisted suicide for the dying.  Read more...

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Scottish GP under fire

16 Jul 08: A Scottish GP Dr Iain Kerr accused by the General Medical Council of supplying an elderly patient with sleeping tablets so she could take her own life told his patients that he was in favour of assisted suicide and that he belonged to the Euthanasia Society. At a fitness-to-practise hearing in Manchester, excerpts of Dr Kerr’s police interview were read out by Suzanne Goddard, QC, for the GMC.

When interviewed by police, Dr Iain Kerr, who practises in Clarkston, Glasgow, admitted he had mentioned being a member of the society - even though he did not belong "because it gives patients the choice of discussing end-of-life matters". Read more here & here...

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Doctors back euthanasia change

16 Jul 08: Almost half of Victoria's doctors want euthanasia laws changed so terminally ill patients can end their own lives. Many also say elderly patients with no hope of recovery should be denied expensive life-preserving treatment. A Herald Sun poll of almost 1800 Victorian doctors found 45 per cent thought the medical profession should support euthanasia and lobby the Government to make it legal for patients to kill themselves. Read more...

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Italian court grants man's appeal to allow his daughter to die

10 Jul 08: An Italian court on Wednesday granted a man's request to disconnect the feeding tube of his daughter, who has been in a vegetative state for 16 years, lawyers said. Eluana Englaro was 20 years old when she went into a vegetative state following a car accident in 1992. Two years later doctors called her condition irreversible. She has been kept in a hospital and fed artificially in the northern city of Lecco. Her father sought for more than 10 years to have her feeding tube removed, insisting this was her wish. Read more...

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NZ man spared jail

10 Jul 08: Voluntary euthanasia campaigner Lesley Martin has applauded the sentence handed down to Ian Crutchley for attempting to murder his terminally ill mother, saying the judge treated him as a "decent Kiwi bloke". Justice Patrick Keane, in the High Court at Hamilton, sentenced Crutchley, 49, yesterday to six months' community detention and 150 hours' community work. "This sends a strong message that, while we are hamstrung by the system, we need to treat people as people," said Ms Martin, who was jailed for 15 months in 2004 for attempting to murder her own terminally ill mother.
"The judge was brave enough to respond to that." Read story...

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Woman admits on Irish radio show: I helped my dad die

8 Jul 08: Irish police are carrying out inquiries to decide whether to launch an investigation after a radio show caller admitted taking part in the assisted suicide of her father.
The woman, identified only as 'Jane', described it as the "final act of love" when she injected her father with an overdose of an anaesthetic drug as he lay in a hospital ward 10 years ago. Read story...

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Angela Merkel strongly opposed to assisted suicide

4 Jul 08: German Chancellor Angela Merkel has spoken out in the strongest terms against euthanasia as the heated debate over a former Hamburg government official's involvement in the assisted suicide of a pensioner gathers pace. Merkel, outlining her Christian Democrats' party line on the topic, said that she was against "every form of assisted suicide" regardless of the circumstances. Read story...