Get to Know: Resources in the UK

• Princess Royal Trust for Carers http://www.carers.org/
• Counsel and Care http://www.counselandcare.org.uk/
• Queens Nurses Institute http://www.qni.org.uk/
• Crossroads Caring for Carers http://www.crossroads.org.uk/
• Association for Nurse Prescribing http://anp.org.uk/

Get to know: NFCA

The National Family Caregivers Association educates, supports, empowers and speaks up for the more than 50 million Americans who care for loved ones with a chronic illness or disability or the frailties of old age. NFCA reaches across the boundaries of diagnoses, relationships and life stages to help transform family caregivers' lives by removing barriers to health and well being.

Educational seminar in August

The Alzheimer’s Association is sponsoring a community educational seminar this August in Grand Rapids. Topics to be covered include: tips for getting a diagnosis; latest information on treatment and research developments; tips for when and how to stop the person with dementia from driving; balancing independence and safety; tips for keeping the person with dementia active; many ideas for successful activities, including a new focus on artistic expression.

Elderly population to triple by 2050

The world's 65-and-older population will triple by mid-century to 1 in 6 people, leaving the U.S. and other nations struggling to support the elderly. The number of senior citizens has already jumped 23 percent since 2000 to 516 million, according to census estimates released on Tuesday. That's more than double the growth rate for the general population. Associated Press

Swiss Govt May Ban Assisted Suicide Clinics

The Swiss government is considering a proposal that would ban the assisted suicide clinics run by the pro-euthanasia group Dignitas. The move would end the practice of so-called suicide tourism and move the European nation out of the category with Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg. The 1942 Swiss law allowing assisted suicide has led to a practice where residents of other nations, especially England and Germany, travel to the country to end their lives.

Wesley J. Smith responded, saying, "Apparently certain elements of the Swiss Government are sick and tired of the travesty of suicide tourism. I wish the Swiss would outlaw assisted suicide altogether, but stopping the organizations that prey on the weak, vulnerable, and despairing would be a good step in the right direction." LifeNews

Health care reform articles from the New England Journal of Medicine

• Health Care 2009: A Lifeline for Primary Care
• Health Care 2009: Easing the Shortage in Adult Primary Care — Is It All about Money?
• A New Era of For-Profit Hospice Care — The Medicare Benefit

Website Highlights Problems With Nationalized Health Care

Students for Life of America's executive director, Kristan Hawkins, initiated a website dedicated to educating the public about the current debate regarding national health care. She launched the website, www.HealthcareforGunner.com to expose the reasons why a nationalized health care plan would hurt her infant son, Gunner, who was diagnosed with cystic fibrosis this March.

Protecting Yourself and Your Family

Compelling new three-part series by Rita Marker about euthanasia and assisted suicide. Part 1, page 3; Part 2, page 3. Watch for Part 3. Human Life Alliance

Pro-death group blurs the issues

The Voluntary Euthanasia Society, which now calls itself Dignity in Dying, has claimed that it does not campaign for euthanasia or suicide. Sarah Wootton, the group's chief executive, also said that her group supports so-called assisted dying only for those who "are already dying." Guardian Research shows Ms. Wootton worked formerly at the pro-abortion Family Planning Association and was a founding trustee of Abortion Rights.

MS sufferer who pioneered specialist treatment commits suicide

An academic who pioneered a treatment for multiple sclerosis has committed suicide because she feared being sent to a care home as her condition worsened. Cari Loder, a former university lecturer who had lived with the neurological disease for the past 17 years, killed herself at her by inhaling helium gas that she had ordered over the internet. Police are investigating the circumstances of her death and believe she may have received help to commit suicide from an elderly neighbour, who has been arrested and bailed. Telegraph

'Come and arrest me'

A man is risking a jail sentence of 14 years after revealing how he helped his terminally ill partner travel to a Swiss suicide clinic. He admits breaking the law and has challenged the authorities, saying: ‘They can arrest me if they want but the law has to be changed. I would have helped Raymond die, no matter what the consequences. He wanted to die with dignity, not waste away.’ Mr Cutkelvin chose to die in a suicide clinic in Switzerland, run by Dignitas in February 2007. Daily Mail

Suicide clinic challenged over patients who could have lived 'for decades'

Senior doctors are expressing concern over the number of Britons suffering from non fatal illnesses such as rheumatoid arthritis and kidney disease who have used the Swiss suicide service, Dignitas. Their fears were raised after the Guardian obtained a list drawn up by Dignitas which reveals the medical conditions which have driven 114 Britons to end their lives at the clinic. The document shows that while many had terminal illnesses such as cancer and motor neurone disease, others had non-fatal conditions which doctors say some people can live with for decades. Guardian, Christian Institute

Naive choices

A physician who has studied physician-assisted suicide and euthanasia since 1988, especially in the Netherlands, says, "Once assisted suicide is accepted, abuses are possible. Those who believe legal assisted suicide will assure their 'choice' are naive." Times Online

Cancer patients' agony of options

Not that long ago, cancer patients expected their doctors to tell them what to do. Maybe there was only one treatment for a disease anyway. Then patients began to see themselves as consumers. They demanded that their paternalistic doctors start giving them more say about what would happen to their bodies and their lives. They started shopping around and discovered how different doctors and hospitals are. Now many are left feeling responsible for decisions of monumental consequence. Patients may gain a heightened sense of control when they choose their treatments. But that sometimes comes at the price of mental anguish that doctors and hospitals are barely beginning to address. JWR

Get to Know: Caring.com

Caring.com provides "the practical information, easy-to-use tools, and personal support you need during this challenging time. Our seasoned executive team, editors, and technical staff have decades of experience producing award-winning health and family publications. But perhaps more important is that nearly all of us have first-hand experience as caregivers. We know well the day-in, day-out concerns of care giving, and we're dedicated to offering you advice from trusted experts in geriatric medicine, legal matters, finances, housing, and family issues, as well as community support from caregivers like you."

Get to Know: AgingParents.com

AgingParents.com is where you can get legal and healthcare information in one location from an experienced nurse-lawyer psychologist team.

Get to Know: GeriatricCareManagement.com

Has someone suggested that you hire a geriatric care manager to help you care for an older adult? Browse this site to learn more about the services a geriatric care manager can provide and how to go about hiring and preparing to work with a good one. GeriatricCareManagement.com is a place for those who have questions about this topic.

Get to Know: Move Seniors

MoveSeniors is a national resource for certified professionals qualified to assist 55+ clients and their families with late life home transition and relocation. MoveSeniors hosts only certified and insured specialists to help with downsizing, organizing, packing, moving, real estate, resettlement, age-in-place home design and more! Search our database for the nation's only secure registry of senior move managers, home modification specialists and senior relocation services! See also Right Sized Living.

Bookmark These: Some help for the sandwich generation

They're the sandwich generation — usually in their 50s and helping to manage life and finances for aging parents as well as children. If there's time, "sandwiches" may try to manage themselves, too. JWR

Get to Know: ALERT

The aim of ALERT is to warn people of the dangers of any type of euthanasia legislation and pro-death initiatives. These include the promotion of Living Wills and Advance Directives, which create a climate for the acceptance of euthanasia. ALERT was founded in December 1991 to provide well-documented information on these and related issues, and to defend the lives and rights of the medically vulnerable, recognising that all human beings are of equal value. ALERT - "Defending Vulnerable People's Right to Live."

Get to Know: The Center for a Just Society

The mission of the Center for a Just Society is to advance and defend Judeo-Christian principles of human dignity and social justice in law, policy and the public square. "We seek to improve the quality of life of our nation's citizens through research, education and advocacy aimed at assisting lawmakers, the media and voters in building and sustaining a just society."

Assisted Suicide Endangers All

Dying with dignity does not require suicide. The question, "Do you want to suffer and die or die with dignity?" presents a false choice and assumes that there are only two alternatives at the end of life—pain or death. Hospice care, for example, employs a multi-disciplinary approach to ensure that terminally-ill patients endure their final time on earth with dignity—free from pain and nourished physically, emotionally, mentally, and spiritually. Hospice care does not seek to stop the dying process. The important distinction between palliative care and physician-assisted suicide is that the first respects the inviolability of human life in spite of the difficulties presented by illness while the second rejects the sanctity of life in favor of an expedient escape from pain and fear. Center for a Just Society

New Award-Winning Documentary on Terri Schiavo will be Featured at the National Right to Life Convention

Few cases remain as controversial today as the court-ordered death of Terri Schiavo. This new award-winning documentary from Franklin Springs Family Media cuts to the heart of the story through poignant interviews with family members and participants on both sides of the issue. But "be warned," says the Dove Foundation who gave the film their highest rating, "some of the things you see will anger you." The National Right to Life Committee will host a special screening of the new documentary, The Terri Schiavo Story, at their national convention June 18-20 in Charlotte, NC. eMediaWire

Religious Cancer Patients Want More Aggressive End-Of-Life Care

Compared with persons with a low level of religious coping, individuals who had a high level of religious coping at the start of the study were 3 times more likely to receive mechanical ventilation and intensive life-prolonging care in the last week of life. They were also more likely to prefer “heroic measures”—wanting everything possible done to keep them alive. Finally, those with a high level of religious coping engaged in less advance-care planning than their counterparts who did not lean as heavily on religion. Oncology Nursing News

Get to Know: BFL's history

Ever wonder about the origins of Baptists for Life? Curious about where Baptists have historically stood on the issue of abortion or euthanasia? Read BFL Before 1984 . . . the year of our formation.

LIFT Caregiver Summit: October 24

The 2009 LIFT Caregiver Summit will be held Saturday, October 24, at Grandville Bible Church in Grandville, MI. It will feature Rev. Ray Paget speaking on grief recovery and mourning, along with helpful workshops, networking opportunities, and resources. The cost is $25/person ($40/couple) and includes lunch and materials. To learn more, email Sharlene.

Video of Sotomayor Discussing Assisted Suicide

A new video has surfaced showing Supreme Court candidate Sonia Sotomayor participating in a September 2000 panel discussion of end-of-life issues. As has been the case with abortion, the video doesn't allow one to easily discern where she stands on assisted suicide or euthanasia. LifeNews, Brody File

Why I am opposed to euthanasia after 14 years of caring for mum

Multiple myeloma is an aggressive form of cancer of the plasma cells, and sufferers have an average life expectancy of between two to four years. At 37, I've had to put my career as a travel presenter and poetry writer for TV and radio on hold so I can devote my time to her. I believe it's worth fighting for every moment of life - which is why I was so dismayed to hear in the past few days that there are 800 British people on a waiting list for Dignitas, an organisation in Switzerland that helps ill people end their lives. Daily Mail

Love makes suffering bearable

Colin Harte, director of the U.K. anti-euthanasia group ALERT, addressed the question of suffering head-on at the 2nd International Symposium on Euthanasia and Assisted Suicide. "Once suicide is considered a legitimate option . . . words of hope lose their power - because death itself is seen as a means of liberation, the means of satisfaction. Death is regarded as the source of hope." If assisted suicide is legal, it makes the caregiver's job nearly impossible. "I would [be] regarded as being cruel . . . to encourage [a hopeless, suffering person] to live. Once you have a law allowing the so-called 'compassionate choice' to die, if you want to emphasize another option which is going to involve suffering, you are suddenly becoming the person who is not compassionate, who is inflicting suffering. We live in a ... world today where those who give up the fight are called tenacious, and those who abandon their use of free will by killing themselves somehow achieve an independence. It's madness!" said Harte. "We should be able to say plainly: it's mad. It's absurd." LifeSiteNews

Sedatives may increase elderly suicide risk

A review of elderly suicides in the Swedish city of Gothenburg and two nearby counties showed that antidepressants, antipsychotics, sedatives and hypnotics appeared to make it more likely an older person would commit suicide. While research has linked use of these drugs to suicides among younger people, there had also been evidence the pills may reduce the risk in the elderly.

Get to know: The International Task Force on Euthanasia and Assisted Suicide

The International Task Force on Euthanasia and Assisted Suicide is an international leader in the ever-increasing debate over assisted suicide and euthanasia. The goal of the International Task Force is to make certain that a patient's right to receive care and compassion is not replaced by a doctor's right to prescribe poison or administer a lethal injection.

Get to know: The Euthanasia Prevention Coalition

The Euthanasia Prevention Coalition of Canada exists to build a well-informed broadly-based network of groups and individuals to create an effective social barrier to euthanasia and assisted suicide. Our goal is to help build a stronger unified coalition of those who oppose euthanasia and assisted suicide.

“Obsessional” Fear of Suffering Ushering in Euthanasia Culture

Bioethicist Wesley J. Smith warns that a culture that seeks to escape suffering and inconvenience at all costs will end by eliminating not only pain, but by ending the lives of those suffering or whose condition burden their families. Noting that we live in a time of medical advances where people don't have to die in agony, yet people push for euthanasia. Why? Because health has become the greatest good. "If we're going to defeat euthanasia and assisted suicide, we're going to have to recognize that for a lot of people, the principle of right and wrong don't matter anymore," said Smith. "What matters is making sure there isn't suffering. And that can lead to some very bad and dark places." LifeSiteNews

International Euthanasia Symposium Stresses Triumph of Love over Suffering

Alison Davis of No Less Human, who suffers from spina bifida, hydrocephalus, and multiple other disabilities, said, "When the pain is bad, what I need is not to be told I'm burdensome and it's my choice whether I want to live or die, and that perhaps I would be better off dead. What I need is to be surrounded by people who tell me, yes, my life does have value, and I'm not burdensome. . . . They can't take the pain away, but sometimes it's not the pain that hurts the most, it's the fear of being abandoned." Her assistant and the director of the anti-euthanasia group ALERT, Colin Harte, criticized the euthanasia movement for being rooted in a deep fear of both experiencing and witnessing suffering, and said the "secret of love" is often revealed by suffering. "By walking with those of suffering, the effect on us can be profound. It's wrong to see suffering . . . as the complete absence of joy or meaning." LifeSiteNews

Editor: Actually, love is only revealed by suffering, and so is faith.

Video can help seniors make end-of-life decisions

A new study suggests that elderly patients are able to make more informed decisions about their "end-of-life" care after viewing a video showing a patient with advanced dementia. The researchers believe that providing seniors with actual visual images of what life with dementia is like helps them to understand complex health information and to think about how they would want to be cared for in their final days. CTV News
Editor: Is there an implied prejudice against dementia patients revealed in the researchers apparent preference for comfort care?

The Weekend Cleanup: Gruesome Aftermath of Legalized Euthanasia in Belgium

The actual practice of euthanasia in Belgium disregards the "safeguards" attached to the law. "We have a huge problem with lawlessness," pro-life campaigner Lionel Roosemont said. He claimed that the law is commonly transgressed "without there being any consequences." The problem with us is that it's almost become a law [to disregard the safeguards]," said Roosemont. While the loose application of euthanasia restrictions is widely known among Belgians, the true depth of abuse is little understood. One such abuse he claimed occurs routinely is the administration of lethal drugs at one Belgian hospital to elderly, seriously ill patients - known as the "weekend cleanup" - as described by a nurse who worked there. Because the subject is still taboo in Belgium, indifference is widespread. "The subject is taboo in Belgium. Main reason: the law has been voted [upon]. So many people have become accomplices of killing, or helping, at least approving, so you don't talk about that - and the moment someone starts talking about that, most people start to protect themselves." LifeSiteNews