Media Incompetence

No, a German court did not legalize assisted suicide, as the BBC reported! It allows patients to refuse unwanted medical treatment, a different matter factually, ethically, and in the ultimate cause of the patient’s death. Secondhand Smoke

Experts Revise Guidelines for Determining Brain Death

Determining brain death is a complex process that requires dozens of tests to make sure doctors come to the correct conclusion. With that goal in mind, the American Academy of Neurology has issued new guidelines -- an update of guidelines first written 15 years ago -- that call on doctors to conduct a lengthy examination, including following a step-by-step checklist of some 25 tests and criteria that must be met before a person can be considered brain dead. The goal of the guidelines is to remove some of the guess work and variability among doctors in their procedure for declaring brain death, which previous research has found to be a problem. US News

Traumatic Brain Injury: No Longer a Death Sentence?

Two innovative treatments, one involving hormone therapy and the other a popular video game, are offering hope to those suffering from what would have, at one time, been a life-ending or life-altering traumatic brain injury. 24-7

Related:

Brain-injured face stigma

Living dead: Coma patients out of sight, out of mind

Assisted suicide entrepreneur's license suspended

A Portland psychiatrist who plans to open a private facility where people could end their lives under Oregon’s assisted-suicide law was suspended from medical practice Thursday amid a second investigation for improperly prescribing drugs. The Oregon Medical Board voted 8-0 to suspend Stuart G. Weisberg. In 2006, the board gave Weisberg a five-year reprimand for improperly prescribing psychoactive drugs to seven patients who were recovering drug addicts or suffering chronic pain. Last year, the board lifted the reprimand but put Weisberg under the watch of another doctor. OregonLive

Research on Mistreatment of People with Dementia by their Caregivers

In a study by the University of California, Irvine, Program in Geriatrics published in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society, nearly half of the people with dementia who participated had been mistreated. Specifically, 42% (54) experienced psychological abuse, 10% (13) physical abuse and 14% (18) caregiver neglect. Center of Excellence

The following factors or characteristics of the caregivers and the participants with dementia were risk factors for one or more types of mistreatment.

1. Caregiver: higher anxiety, more depressive symptoms, fewer social contacts, greater perceived burden, as well as two other measures of poor emotional well-being from a widely used survey.
2. Person with dementia: more psychological aggression (for example, swearing at the caregiver) and any physical assault (for example pushing or shoving the caregiver) behaviors.

Dignitas founder is millionaire

A newspaper investigation has raised new questions about Dignitas and whether Ludwig Minelli, its founder and director, makes profit from his “mercy killings.” Mr Minelli, who said he would take no salary from Dignitas when opening the clinic 12 years ago, has insisted that his wealth comes from an inheritance, left by his mother. But the cost of a simple suicide at Dignitas has risen from £1,800 in 2005 to £4,500, fuelling suspicions that the clinic may not be sticking to Swiss laws that are supposed to prevent people “selfishly” profiting from assisted suicide. The cost of the clinic’s full service, including funerals, medical costs and official fees, is as high as £7,000. Andreas Brunner, a Swiss prosecutor, has accused Mr Minelli, and Dignitas, of hiding behind Swiss privacy laws to refuse publication of their accounts for the last five years. Telegraph

Roadside Controversy Looms With 'Right to Die' Billboards

Final Exit Network is putting up billboards to let you know that you have the “right to die.” The controversial non-profit announced plans to put up billboards along highways in California, New Jersey and Florida, promoting what president Jerry Dincin calls “the last civil right of the 21st Century” -- the right for a person to determine his or her own death in certain medical situations. The billboards, which will feature the slogan “My Life, My Death, My Choice,” are reportedly funded in part by volunteer donations to FEN. Newsfeed

Law affects end-of-life care

A new law goes into effect July 1 giving Idaho health care workers the right to refuse to provide end-of-life care they find morally objectionable. Some fear the legislation places the conscience of a caregiver ahead of a dying person's rights. CDA Press

Death with Dignity house planned in Portland

Portland, Oregon, psychiatrist Dr. Stuart Weisberg plans to open a house in the Sellwood neighborhood where the terminally ill can kill themselves under Oregon’s Death with Dignity Law. Weisberg said he felt compelled to act after watching a TV interview with Dr. Jack Kevorkian. StatesmanJournal

Looking for a source

Beatitudes for Special People are all over the web, but there are at least three different authors attributed: Marjorie Chappell, Lionel Blue, and Robert Perske. Anyone have a definitive source? It starts out like this:

"Blessed are you who take time to listen to defective [or difficult] speech, for you help us to know that if we persevere, we can be understood."

Please post a comment if you know anything or have a lead. Thanks!

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'Dr. Death' Admits Thomas Youk His Second Murder

Jack Kevorkian told Larry King on CNN’s Larry King Live on Friday that he directly killed Janet Adkins in June 1990, contradicting his previous story that she performed her own “mercy killing” using his lethal injection machine. Although Kevorkian was charged with murder in the death of Janet Adkins, a judge threw out the charges on the basis that Adkins caused her own death using Kevorkian’s machine. Kevorkian’s new admission, however, pulls the legs out from under that decision. LifeSiteNews

Vivre dans la Dignité - Living with Dignity

The Government of Quebec appears to have established the Dying with Dignity committee to examine options related to turning a blind eye to acts of euthanasia and assisted suicide in Quebec. The Euthanasia Prevention Coalition is celebrating the launch of Vivre dans la Dignité a group who are completely focused on activating a grassroots movement who oppose the legalization of euthanasia in Quebec.

Vivre dans la Dignité - Living with Dignity

The Government of Quebec appears to have established the Dying with Dignity committee to examine options related to turning a blind eye to acts of euthanasia and assisted suicide in Quebec. The Euthanasia Prevention Coalition is celebrating the launch of Vivre dans la Dignité a group who are completely focused on activating a grassroots movement who oppose the legalization of euthanasia in Quebec.

Good news, worrisome news from Hawaii

The good news: The held-over Physician Assisted Suicide (PAS) bills from last year were not heard in the 2010 legislative session. The worrisome news: We have been told that a new PAS bill will be introduced in the 2011 session. "Compassion and Choices," the large (and misleadingly named) mainland PAS advocacy organization, has identified Hawaii as a primary target in its effort to legalize Physician Assisted Suicide in the coming year.

Hawaii Physicians for Compassionate Care is an association of physicians, medical professionals, and concerned citizens dedicated to preserving the traditional physician-patient relationship, to promoting compassionate care for severely ill individuals without sanctioning or assisting suicide or euthanasia, and to maintaining the highest standards of pain management and palliative care. HPCC was formed to help protect the "new victims" who would suffer under legalized PAS.

Opponents deal a blow to Scottish assisted suicide bill

Margo MacDonald's bid to introduce assisted suicide in Scotland has been dealt a blow, with the vast majority of people giving evidence to Holyrood on the issue declaring that they oppose her bill. Analysis of the reaction generated by Ms MacDonald's End of Life Assistance Bill has revealed that 87 per cent of those who took time to produce written evidence were against it. Scotsman

Nitschke announces North American tour dates

This fall Australia's Dr. Death will be in various North American cities to promote suicide by selling his books, devices and information online to anyone and everyone. There is no surprise that he is not having a workshop in Washington State this time. His last workshop in Bellingham Washington resulted in a criminal complaint based on the fact that he was providing information as to how an attendee could kill her spouse. Euthanasia Prevention Coalition

I helped patients die, says doctor cleared of murder

A GP cleared of murdering three patients has admitted hastening their deaths and those of dozens of others in his care, including his own son. Dr Howard Martin, 75, said he gave fatal doses of painkillers to terminally ill patients out of "Christian compassion" and acted in their best interests. His admission comes after he was struck off the medical register for giving 18 vulnerable elderly people excessively high doses of morphine. He told the Daily Telegraph that in two cases he administered the lethal injections without consent. Guardian

Related:
'My husband did not deserve to die like that'
UK Doctor Who Euthanized Patients Should Be Imprisoned

Living wills' lack of specifics limits their usefulness

Living wills fail to capture patients' end-of-life care wishes because they do not ask about the real-life scenarios patients are likely to face as they get close to death, according to a new study. "This study points out that if you talk to people in more detail, there's more nuance to their decisions than just results from a simple question about what they want in a living will document," said Charles F. von Gunten, MD, PhD, editor-in-chief of the Journal of Palliative Medicine and provost of the Institute for Palliative Medicine at San Diego Hospice. The study is online and comes on the heels of previous research showing that living wills and other advance directives often do not explicitly cover the full spectrum of clinical realities patients face as they die. Am Med News

Editor: It is for this reason that Baptists for Life recommends naming a Durable Power of Attorney for Health Care. See our Protective Medical Decisions Declaration.

Decision to Pull Plug on Gary Coleman Contradicted Living Will

Former Diff'rent Strokes star Gary Coleman's ex-wife decided to "pull the plug" on her husband after a head injury, contradicting his desires as expressed in a living will signed several years earlier, according to reports. LifeSiteNews

Sharp growth in Dutch euthanasia deaths

The 2009 Netherlands euthanasia statistics were reported today in the Dutch media. The number of euthanasia deaths in the Netherlands has significantly increased on a yearly basis for several years. The most recent report stated that there were 2636 reported euthanasia deaths, a 13% increase over the 2008 statistics and a 45% increase since 2003. EPC

Whether to die, or when to die?

Consider the following hypothetical cases:

• Smith, a 40 year old man, has a permanent condition which causes constant, unremitting pain, but which does not affect his life expectancy. In the absence of intervention, he can be expected to live another 35 years. Smith does not want to live out those remaining years, so his doctor provides him with a lethal drug, which Smith self-administers.
• Jones, a 40 year old man, presents to the Emergency Department with an advanced form of meningococcal meningitis. The condition has progressed too far for life-saving treatment: he will certainly die within 24 hours. Around a minute before death is imminent, he will enter a state of excruciating pain. Jones does not want to live through this last minute. He requests a lethal drug which his doctor provides and he will administer when the pain begins.

Is there an important difference between these cases? Practical Ethics

Are we being conned into accepting Obamacare?

In all the ads you'll be seeing from now on heralding the wondrous rewards of Obamacare, any reference to the dread word, "rationing," will be impossible to find. JWR

Medical professionals will try to spot elderly fraud victims

State regulators, social service workers and several medical organizations are teaming up to help health care providers identify and protect older patients who are vulnerable to financial abuse and scams. The effort was announced Tuesday on World Elder Abuse Awareness Day. It comes as a new survey by the trust shows that one in five Americans over age 65 — more than 7.3 million people — reported being victimized in a financial swindle at some point in their life.

Elder financial abuse can assume many forms, including telemarketing or mail fraud, contracting and repair scams, or bad advice from financial services professionals such as insurance salesmen and accountants. It can also include identity theft, abuse of guardianship or even Medicare fraud.

The "Elder Investment Fraud and Financial Exploitation" project will train medical professionals across the country to identify patients with mild cognitive impairments who are most susceptible to financial scams. The goal is to have caregivers inform state regulators about patients who pose the greatest risk for abuse. JWR

Kevorkian: 'I have no regrets'

Assisted suicide crusader Jack Kevorkian tells CNN in a new interview that he has no regrets about killing more than 100 people in assisted suicides. He also told medical correspondent and physician Sanjay Gupta that he regrets his birth. LifeNews

Imposed Death

Imposed Death exposes common misunderstandings associated with Living Wills and end-of-life decisions. This publication documents society's progress down the "slippery slope" of assisted suicide and euthanasia to dehumanize the elderly, disabled, and medically vulnerable. This 12-page resource guide is "everything you ever wanted to know about euthanasia, but didn't know who to ask."

Family alleges failure of care at SF Catholic hospital

A family from Boston says their loved one died at St. Mary's Medical Center in San Francisco after staff broke their own code of ethics and refused to provide basic care. ABC-7

Bringing Doctors to the Dying Patient’s Bedside

In a new initiative to humanize doctor-patient relations, pairs medical students with patients who are dying alone. As described in the New York Times, the two-year-old project is part of a center for humanism that seeks to promote "dignity and respect for the individual, commitment to the relief of suffering and the delivery of care that is kind, just and humble."

Belgian nurses are involved with euthanasia without consent

A study published in the May 17 Journal of the Canadian Medical Association says nearly half of the euthanasia deaths in Belgium that directly involve nurses are done without the consent of the patient. Nurses participated in 248 euthanasia deaths in 2007 with 120 of those euthanasia deaths being done without the explicit request or consent of the patient. Further to that, nurses participated in 12% of the total euthanasia deaths that were done with the consent of the patient and 45% of the total euthanasia deaths that were done without the request or consent of the patient. Euthanasia Prevention Coalition

The Basics on Advance Directives: Thy Will Be Done

Helpful FAQs on living wills and advance directives from Lutherans for Life.

Baptists for Life also offers a Protective Medical Decisions Declaration that helps you name a durable power of attorney and spell out your wishes in a manner consistent with the sanctity of human life and the sovereignty of God.

Russian Call For 'Postnatal Abortion' Sparks Furor Among Parents Of Disabled

In late December, Snezhana Mitina received a tearful phone call from her friend Svetlana. Sobbing, Svetlana explained she had just read a newspaper article calling for babies with mental disabilities to be killed at birth. The author, Aleksandr Nikonov, used the word "debil" -- a deeply offensive term in Russian -- to characterize such children. He argued that parents should have the right to euthanize newborns diagnosed with mental retardation and other developmental disabilities. The article, which ran under the headline "Finish Them Off, So They Don't Suffer," went on to describe what Nikonov termed "postnatal abortion" as an act of mercy. Radio Free Europe, The Caleb Report

Dignitas: Kill them all!

Dignitas is again in the news, and it shouldn't be such a surprise to the media because Dignitas is doing exactly what it has always said it was doing: Helping anyone who wants to to kick the bucket. The latest flap involves Dignitas’ providing a suicide kit to a 39 year-old Spanish man with severe psychological problems.

Oops. Or maybe not. All the chatter about “transparency,” policies to “protect,” rigid controls to ensure that no “mistakes” are made is all smoke and mirrors on the way to the only goal the pro-death crowd have always wanted: Assisted suicide and euthanasia on demand and available for anyone, anywhere, at any time. Disability Matters

Rationing Health Care? You Bet Your Life!

If you thought all the talk about "death panels" was conservative hogwash, think again. An anti-market socialist, Berwick once decried the U.S. health system as "trapped in the darkness of private enterprise." With Berwick at the helm, Medicare and Medicaid programs are expected to cut billions of dollars in services. And why not? According to the socialist model that Berwick admires, it's much cheaper to let sick people die. FRC

The truth about FEN

The Final Exit Network claims that authorities are "persecuting" FEN members in Georgia and Arizona. That is a gross distortion. The authorities in Georgia and Arizona initiated investigations after complaints by concerned relatives that the apparent suicides of their loved ones were aided and encouraged by FEN members. That's not "persecution" — it's "doing your job." Euthanasia Prevention Coalition

CT Judge Dismisses Doctors' Request To Prescribe Lethal Medication To Terminally Ill

A Superior Court judge has rejected a request from two doctors who sought to prescribe lethal medication to terminally ill, mentally competent patients who asked for help to die peacefully. Judge Julia Aurigemma wrote that a state law against assisting suicide applied to physicians helping dying patients end their lives, and that the issues raised in the doctors' lawsuit should be addressed by the legislature, not the courts. The doctors filed a lawsuit last year seeking a court ruling to declare that the statute against helping someone commit suicide would not apply to physicians helping terminally ill patients end their lives. Doing so was not suicide, but "aid in dying," the lawsuit said — a distinction that their attorney Daniel Krisch explained in court: Suicide is a choice of whether to die or not. Aid in dying involves not whether a person will die, but when, and how much pain and suffering the patient must endure first. Hartford Courant

Keeping Your Cool: Multiple Sclerosis and Heat Intolerance

Heat intolerance can disrupt the quality of life for people living with MS. Not only are they more sensitive to heat, heat intolerance can also make their MS symptoms feel considerably worse. While exposure to heat will not do permanent damage to someone with MS, it does indeed make their MS symptoms worse — at least in the short term. Get tips to help you "adjust" your temperature when you need it most. Everyday Health

Medical End-of-Life Decisions in Children in Flanders, Belgium

Medical end-of-life decisions are frequent in minors in Flanders, Belgium. Whereas parents were involved in most end-of-life decisions, the patients themselves were involved much less frequently, even when the ending of their lives was intended. At the time of decision making, patients were often comatose or the physicians deemed them incompetent or too young to be involved. Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Med

Dying patients denied pain relief because of legal fears

Dying patients are being denied adequate medication to control symptoms and relive pain because [UK] nurses fear prosecution for assisting suicide, a Nursing Times survey has found. The respondents acknowledged restricting medication left patients in more pain than necessary and prolonged their lives against their wishes. One nurse commented: “I was worried about the authorities scrutinising the medication record with the intention of prosecuting me for over-medication, even though the dosage was ordered by a physician and necessary to relieve the patient’s pain and suffering.”

Stem cells raise hope for treatment for multiple sclerosis patients

Thousands of MS sufferers could benefit from a revolutionary treatment that injects them with stem cells taken from their own bone marrow. Telegraph

The US heavy metal band Fear Factory tackles the controversial theme of assisted suicide in its recent song “Final Exit,” which takes its title from Derek Humphry’s 1992 book. Here are some lyrics:

Your life no longer has any value
Let them tell you what your own life is worth
There is no compassion as life fades away
This self deliverance the choice you have made

BioEdge

British Disabled Group Launches Campaign Against Assisted Suicide, Euthanasia

The British disability rights group Not Dead Yet has launched a new campaign against assisted suicide and euthanasia in central London. The group is asking members of Parliament to resist pressure to legalise assisted suicide and euthanasia and protect the rights of the disabled. They're asking MPs to sign a seven-point charter asking them to recognize "that disabled and terminally ill people should have the same legal protection as everyone else." LifeNews

Gary Coleman's Wife Mentions Terri Schiavo in Comments About Pulling Plug

Gary Coleman's ex-wife said in a new interview that she pulled the plug on the actor last week because she didn't want him ending up like Terri Schiavo. Shannon Price said, "Be in my situation. I mean, look what happened with Terri Schiavo. I always think of her case, always, when it comes to this. Gary was gone, and he would have died sooner or later anyway from that. I don't want people to be so hard on me, thinking I had to pull the plug too early. He wouldn't have made it anyway. His heart would have just given out." Pro-life blogger Jill Stanek reminds us, however, that Terri was never on life support -- she merely had assistance eating and drinking. LifeNews

A treasured way to remember a loved one

Ruth TenBrink, LIFT Care Coordinator at Grandville Baptist Church, sent this along: "One of my patients a short time ago had been a widow for about a year. I noticed and commented on a quilt she had lying on her bed -- a very unique one, made of men's shirts, the squares complete with shirt-front parts including buttons & pockets (and the back of soft fleece). She said her children had made it for her, of her husband's shirts, after he had died. Comprised mostly of casual shirts -- including flannel -- she said it was a tangible reminder as well as a source of comfort to her daily as she used it for naps or when sleeping at night. What a great way to commemorate a loved one, memorializing their clothing into such a precious keepsake!"

Common Causes of Joint Pain

Joint pain can range from bothersome, to miserable, to debilitating. And as many as 85 percent of adults will experience pain in their joints at some point in their lives. The first step in treating joint pain is knowing the cause of the discomfort. Everyday Health

Assisted suicide: why now?

A hundred years ago when people did die in agony from such illnesses as a burst appendix, there was little talk of legalizing euthanasia. But now, when pain and other forms of suffering are readily alleviated and the hospice movement has created truly compassionate methods to care for the dying, suddenly we hear the battle cry “death with dignity” as “the ultimate civil liberty.”

In fighting assisted suicide since 1993, I have often pondered the “why now” question. I’ve found two answers: First, the perceived overriding purpose of society has shifted to the benefit of assisted suicide advocacy, and second, our public policies are driven and defined by a media increasingly addicted to slinging emotional narratives rather than reporting about rational discourse and engaging in principled analysis. Add in a popular culture enamored with social outlaws, and the potential exists for a perfect euthanasia storm.

The prevent-suffering-at-all-costs agenda is harnessed by assisted suicide advocates through publicizing heart-rending stories of seriously ill or disabled patients who want to die. Illustrating how potent this emotional narrative has become, even the ghoulish Jack Kevorkian is being remade into a big softy concerned solely with relieving suffering. Indeed, none other than Al Pacino sympathetically portrayed Kevorkian in the recent HBO movie, You Don’t Know Jack.

Ignored by the script writers and the media, the real Kevorkian was the mirror opposite of compassionate. In his 1993 book Prescription Medicide: The Goodness of Planned Death, Kevorkian made his ultimate purpose chillingly clear, calling assisted suicide “a first step, an early distasteful professional obligation” toward obtaining a license to engage in human experimentation.

Writing further: “What I find most satisfying is the prospect of making possible the performance of invaluable experiments or other beneficial acts under conditions that this first unpleasant step can help establish — in a word, obitiatry — as defined earlier.” (“Obitiatry” is the word Kevorkian coined to describe experimenting on people as part of the practice of human euthanasia.) That the media depict Kevorkian as caring rather than self serving tells us how far awry we have been pushed by the collective desperation to avoid suffering by whatever means necessary. Wesley Smith

LIFT Caregiver Conference - Oct. 23

More details now online, including prices for singles, married couples, full- and half-day. Take advantage of early-bird discounts! Register now!

Whether you're assisting your parents, a spouse, a special-needs child or adult . . . or serving as a health-care professional, a pastor, elder, deacon or deaconess . . . or if you're a LIFT volunteer . . . this jam-packed one-day conference is for you! Workshops, networking, consultation, and exhibits are designed to encourage people who care for disabled and chronically or terminally ill individuals.

No prosecution for man who assisted his wife’s suicide

Michael Bateman helped his wife, who suffered from chronic pain due to an undiagnosed condition, commit suicide using a plastic bag and helium gas. But yesterday the UK Crown Prosecution Service revealed that Mr Bateman would not be prosecuted because his actions were “wholly motivated by compassion.” A spokesman for Care Not Killing, a pro-life campaign group, said: “We have concerns that the compassion test laid down by the DPP could be used as a backdoor legalisation of euthanasia and we will be looking at every case very closely.” Christian Institute