Health minister says disabled should have help killing themselves

Health minister's assisted suicide comments condemned by SPUC Pro-Life: In an interview in The Times newspaper, Britain's new health minister Anna Soubry called it "ridiculous" that disabled and chronically-ill people are not given help to kill themselves in Britain."

Related: Italy "too Catholic" to legalize killing the disabled

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Dutch doctors turn to ‘continuous deep sedation’ to keep official euthanasia figures low

Christian Medical Comment: The Lancet report showing that euthanasia rates have not increased in the Netherlands since legalisation in 2002 will no doubt be seized upon by enthusiasts for decriminalisation in the UK and elsewhere but the figures are not at all what they seem at first sight and the press release sent out by the journal is selective and misleading in its reporting of the facts.

If you read the press release sent by the Lancet (reproduced by Medical Xpress) it all seems cut and dried. . . . But if you read the abstract along with the full article and accompanying comment you get a very different picture altogether.

The key fact which should alert people to something odd going on is the reference to ‘continuous deep sedation’ in the Netherlands which appears in the article’s abstract but tellingly (and perhaps even disingenuously) not in the Lancet press release.

The abstract states, ‘Continuous deep sedation until death occurred more frequently in 2010 (12.3% [11.6—13.1; 789 of 6861]) than in 2005 (8.2% [7.8—8.6; 521 of 9965]).’ But what was the rate of ‘continuous deep sedation until death’ in 2001 and previously?

On examining the article we learn from table 1 that it was not measured in 1990 and 1995 and was 5.6% in 2001. In other words there has been a steady increase in this category of cases which in 2010 accounted for 16,700 deaths. Over the same period the number of deaths after ‘intensified alleviation of symptoms’ has also increased from 20.1% to 36.4% and now accounts for over 49,500 deaths annually.

Levels of Dutch euthanasia have changed little since 2002 legalization, study finds

Levels of Dutch euthanasia have changed little since 2002 legalization, study finds - The Washington Post: A summary published Wednesday on The Lancet magazine’s website said that “in 2010, of all deaths in the Netherlands, 2.8 percent were the result of euthanasia. This is higher than the 1.7 percent in 2005, but comparable with (levels seen) in 2001 and 1995.”

Analysis: Dutch doctors turn to ‘continuous deep sedation’ to keep official euthanasia figures low

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Elderly patients 'helped to die to free up beds', warns doctor

Elderly patients 'helped to die to free up beds', warns doctor - Telegraph: Professor Patrick Pullicino has claimed that doctors are using a care pathway designed to help make people's final days more comfortable as an equivalent to euthanasia. The Liverpool Care Pathway (LCP) is used in hospitals for patients who are terminally ill or are expected to die imminently. Under the pathway, doctors can withdraw treatment, food and water while patients are heavily sedated. Almost a third of patients - 130,000 - who die in hospital or under NHS care a year are on the LCP.

Christian Medical Comment: Is the NHS really killing 130,000 patients a year with the Liverpool Care Pathway?

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Is euthanasia for the living or the dying?

Deborah Coddington: Is euthanasia for the living or the dying? - Health - NZ Herald News: It's all very well signing up to voluntary euthanasia, but who's going to administer all these lethal injections? Who's going to get them to sip the glass of water so they can swallow their "peaceful pills" so they can "quietly slip away." That's the question nobody wants to address.

. . . [A]s I watched [my mother breathe her last], I saw that like birth, death is hard work. . . . Cheyne-Stokes breathing, what the dying do near the end, is what my mother did for two days and a night. But she wasn't in pain, she was just dying. And even though she was deeply unconscious, I have no doubt she knew we were there. When it was time, she just stopped breathing, much like when a baby is born and starts breathing. Mum peacefully took a couple of last breaths. This was death with dignity.

More than once we compared the waiting to sitting around dozing and waiting for a baby to be born. And why shouldn't it be? But now we want to sanitise death. Is this really for the person dying, or is it in truth for those still living? We want designer deaths, to go with designer births
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Palliative Sedation Not = To Terminal Sedation/Euthanasia

Wesley J. Smith: The pro-euthanasia crowd intentionally and wrongfully conflates palliative sedation – that is sedating a dying patient at the end of life who is experiencing intractable pain or symptoms – with both euthanasia – fast killing the patient – and terminal sedation – slow killing the patient by inducing coma and withdrawing food and water. A good piece in the Journal of Pain & Palliative Care Pharmacotherapy (201 2;26:30-39) shatters that lie. First, it notes that in palliative sedation, the point is to use the least amount of sedative to accomplish the needed palliation. From “Review of Palliative Sedation and Its Distinction From Euthanasia and Lethal Injection:”

Ideally, the level of palliative sedation is provided in a fashion that is titrated to a minimal level that permits the patient to tolerate unbearable symptoms, yet the patient can continue to periodically communicate…The three most common levels of providing PS include mild, intermediate, and deep. When mild sedation is used, the patient is awake and the level of consciousness is lowered to a somnolent state, withverbal or nonverbal communication still possible. With intermediate sedation, the patient is asleep or stuporous and can still be awakened to communicate briefly. The third level is deep sedation, which refers to the patient being near or in complete unconsciousness and does not communicate verbally or nonverbally. Besides regulating the degree of sedation, palliative sedation may also be provided intermittently or continuously…

The points to take away from the above are 1) palliative sedation is individualized to the patient’s needs, 2) the point isn’t to end the life of the patient, and 3) levels of sedation may vary in the same patient from time to time. In contrast, euthanasia kills the patientwith a lethal injection. And “terminal sedation” is merely the imposition of coma and withdrawing artificial nutrition and hydration, sometimes without actual medical need and/or to make it easier for care givers–as in the much abused Liverpool Care Pathway in the UK.

Who is the Final Exit Network?

Who are the Final Exit Network? | NRL News Today: FEN is a group who aids and counsels suicide, and who will journey with a person to assist in in completing a suicide as part of their Exit Guide Service.

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End-of-life care: Pain control carries risk of being called a killer

End-of-life care: Pain control carries risk of being called a killer - amednews.com: The growing use of hospice and palliative care is creating more opportunities for misunderstandings, experts said. New developments in end-of-life care — aggressive pain and symptom management (even to the point of unconsciousness), along with a greater willingness to withdraw advanced, life-sustaining treatments such as mechanical ventilation, dialysis, and artificial hydration and nutrition — still strike many people as wrong.

The distinction between aggressive pain control or the withdrawal of life-sustaining treatments and euthanasia is still lost on many patients and families. Doctors who care care for dying patients should take into account the public’s lagging understanding of end-of-life treatments, take time to explain their intricacies and make use of ethics consultation services.

Related:

“Prevalence of Formal Accusations of Murder and Euthanasia against Physicians,”Journal of Palliative Medicine, March (www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22401355/)

“Opinion 2.201 — Sedation to Unconsciousness in End-of-Life Care,” American Medical Association Code of Medical Ethics, adopted June 2008 (www.ama-assn.org/ama/pub/physician-resources/medical-ethics/code-medical-ethics/opinion2201.page)

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Push for the Right to Die Grows in the Netherlands

NY Times: Under the Netherlands’ 2002 Termination of Life on Request and Assisted Suicide Act, doctors may grant patients’ requests to die without fear of prosecution as long as they observe certain guidelines. The request must be made voluntarily by an informed patient who is undergoing suffering that is both lasting and unbearable. Doctors must also obtain the written affirmation of a second, independent physician that the case meets the requirements and report all such deaths to the authorities for review. . . . Mobile teams were needed because many general practitioners, either for moral reasons or perhaps because of uncertainty about the law, refused to help suffering patients to die after it had become too late to find another doctor.

Even in the Netherlands, some think Right to Die-NL may now be going too far. In addition to the mobile teams, the organization is among those pushing to give all people 70 years old and over the right to assisted death, even when they are not suffering from terminal illness. . . .

The Dutch patients’ organization N.P.V., a Christian group with 66,000 members, strongly criticizes the current application of the law, saying the practice of euthanasia has been extended to encompass patients with dementia and other conditions who may not by definition be competent to request help in dying.

Elise van Hoek-Burgerhart, a spokeswoman for the N.P.V., said in an e-mail that the idea of mobile euthanasia teams was “absurd,” and that there was no way the mobile-team doctors could get to know a patient in just a few days. Moreover, she added, research shows that 10 percent of requests for euthanasia from the elderly would disappear if palliative care were better. She also noted that the law requires review committees to sign off on every reported case of euthanasia, but that 469 cases from 2010 had still not been reviewed, meaning it was not clear how well doctors were adhering to the official guidelines.

Euthanasia on the rise in Netherlands and Belgium

News-Insurances: Ten years on from becaming the first countries to legalise euthanasia, the Netherlands and Belgium now provide assisted suicide to 4,000 people a year. While most are cancer sufferers, a new interpretation of the law is extending the treatment to those suffering from Alzheimer’s disease as well.

‘Mercy killing’ by lethal injection is allowed in the Netherlands for patients who are fully mentally alert but whose suffering has become “unbearable and unending” due to incurable disease. About a third of all the requests deemed to be “serious” are honoured by doctors, the ministry said. “The concept of ‘unbearable suffering’ has become much clearer” over the years, said Eric van Wijlick, policy maker at the Royal Dutch Society of Doctors.

Six roving medical teams — each with a doctor and a nurse — were recently set up to assist people to die at home when their own local doctors refused to give them lethal injections. Their intervention has already been requested 100 times since the teams were set up in March, De Jong said. But this has raised questions in the Dutch medical association.

Euthanasia has become the central point of conversation between a doctor and a patient who is suffering when it should be seen as a “last resort,” Wijlick said.

Belgium followed the Dutch example later in 2002 with a law legalising euthanasia after a long debate between Christian and secular parties. There were 1,133 mercy killings in Belgium in 2011, representing 1.0 percent of deaths in the country, its Commission for the Evaluation and Control of Euthanasia reported.

Euthanasia: a right to die

Euthanaisa: a right to die: Voice of Russia: President of Russia’s Patients Rights Protection League Alexander Saversky thinks that a commission of physicians and relatives must be set up in each individual case for an ultimate decision that must also be approved by an executive, for example, a governor.

"We will thereby assert that we have done everything possible for that person who experiences terrible suffering and that we cannot do more. Only then can euthanasia be considered as a last resort. If a patient can press the button himself, he should be given it. If not, several people should press the button simultaneously so that neither of them could blame each other. But there must be no doctors among those people."

Dmitry Aivazian, a lawyer with the Patients Rights Protection League echoes that there can be no uniform euthanasia rules and that each such case is unique and must be approached individually.

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Parisian pro-lifers unite in massive ‘flashmob’ against euthanasia

Parisian pro-lifers don clown garb and unite in massive ‘flashmob’ against euthanasia | LifeSiteNews.com: A pro-life event made the national news on French television Saturday evening when “Alliance Vita” organized a giant flashmob against euthanasia on the “Parvis des droits de l’homme” (“Human Rights Square”) at the Trocadéro in Paris. Seven hundred people, young and old, holding red hearts with the slogan “Caring, not killing,” filled the esplanade facing the Eiffel Tower and danced to the sounds of Paul McCartney’s Live and Let Die.

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Journal editor defends pro-infanticide piece

LifeSiteNews: The editor of an ethics journal that recently published an article advocating infanticide (what the authors call “post-birth abortion”), has responded to widespread criticism by pointing out that promoting the killing of newborns is nothing new: in fact, in the Netherlands infant euthanasia is already legal and practiced.

Editor Julian Savulescu also criticizes what he calls the “hate speech” directed at the authors of the article, arguing that the public’s response to the piece shows that “proper academic discussion and freedom are under threat from fanatics opposed to the very values of a liberal society.”

In the journal article Alberto Giubilin, a philosopher from the University of Milan, and Francesca Minerva, an ethicist from the University of Melbourne, made the case that “after-birth abortion” should be permissible in all the cases where abortion is, including cases where the newborn is perfectly healthy. They base their argument on the premise that the unborn baby and the newborn do not have the moral status of actual persons and are consequently “morally irrelevant.”

Editor: I agree with Savulescu that abusive language is not helpful, but for a idfferent reason. It betrays our cause. "Academic freedom" aside, we can come up with arguments opposing infanticide, can't we? We don't need to resort to name-calling.  In fact, the Bible says "hate speech" is as destructive as murder (see Matthew 5:19-22 and James 3:8-10).

Promoting “Pro Life” Interpretation of Advance Directives in Europe

Wesley J. Smith: The Council of Europe has passed a resolution promoting advanced directives in the EU. Some are claiming this as a victory against voluntary euthanasia. Perhaps. But, I like this part the most because it explicitly instructs that a dependent patient’s care is not to be determined by general community values–often anti elderly and disabled–and how, in cases of doubt, advance directives are to be interpreted:

7.8. surrogate decisions that rely on general value judgements present in society should not be admissible and, in case of doubt, the decision must always be pro-life and the prolongation of life. From “Protecting Human Rights and Dignity by Taking Into Account Previously Expressed Wishes of Patients:”

Research reveals shifting attitudes towards euthanasia

Research reveals shifting attitudes towards euthanasia - The Irish Times - Thu, Dec 01, 2011: Anthony Ozimic of the UK’s Society for Protection of the Unborn Child said euthanasia was underpinned by a pessimism about the value of life and the ability of society to respond adequately to the sick and the vulnerable. More on the conference

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Shades of Schiavo: euthanasia case of girl nagging at Mitt Romney

Shades of Schiavo: euthanasia case of girl nagging at Mitt Romney | Naked Politics: On the day Mitt Romney announced the support of social conservatives, the Republican blogosphere buzzed with reports about how a state agency under the former Massachusetts governor tried to pull the plug on a brain-damaged girl who ultimately came out of a coma. The report about Haleigh Poutre surfaced on The Shark Tank blog in a sign that some conservatives – and especially social-conservatives – aren’t comfortable with the Republican frontrunner.

Romney said little about the case at the time, according to news reports. “Gov. Mitt Romney,” The Boston Globe wrote in 2006, “wouldn't directly respond to a question about his stance on the right to die in general, saying in a statement: 'At the present time, my concern is with this young girl and her current status. In light of reported improvements in her medical condition, it should be clear to everyone that no action should be taken to end this girl's life.' "

In a written statement, Romney's campaign says he didn't just stand quietly by: "Gov. Romney criticized the state's handling of the case, ordered an investigation and put in place safeguards to prevent it from happening again. His actions speak for themselves."

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Dutch Jews and Muslims fight for circumcision right

BBC News - Dutch Jews and Muslims fight for circumcision right: Dutch docs want to discourage circumcision, saying men should have a right to decide. But they'll euthanize dementia patients without their consent: VKNL.

First euthanasia in Netherlands of severe Alzheimer’s patient performed

First euthanasia in Netherlands of severe Alzheimer’s patient performed | News | National Post: A woman with advanced Alzheimer’s disease has been euthanized in the Netherlands, a first in a country that requires patients to be fully mentally alert to request to die, activists said Wednesday.

The 64-year-old woman died in March after being sick “for a very long time,” said a spokesman for the Right to Die-NL group. She had insisted “for several years” that she wanted to be euthanized, added spokesman Walburg de Jong.

Comment by Wesley J. Smith: "Doctors have been euthanizing patients who never asked to be killed almost from the inception of the country’s euthanasia license, and nothing meaningful is done about it."

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Why It is Necessary to Fight Both Assisted Suicide and Euthanasia

In 2000, the New England Journal of Medicine featured an article titled Clinical Problems with the Performance of Euthanasia and Physician-Assisted Suicide in the Netherlands. This study analyzed data from 649 cases and found that complications occurred in 7% of the assisted suicide cases, and that problems with completion (such as a longer-than-expected time to death, failure to induce coma, or induction of coma followed by awakening of the patient) occured in 16% of assisted suicide cases. According to the results of the study, “The physician decided to administer a lethal medication in 21 of the cases of assisted suicide (18 percent), which thus became cases of euthanasia. The reasons for this decision included problems with completion (in 12 cases) and the inability of the patient to take all the medications (in 5).” This study shows how the legalization of assisted suicide will inevitably lead to euthanasia because a significant number of assisted suicides fail. In Holland those failed assisted suicides have been completed by lethal injection (ie. euthanasia). True Dignity Vermont

Norway’s Queen Maud in euthanasia speculations

Norway’s Queen Maud in euthanasia speculations / News / The Foreigner — Norwegian News in English.: Against a backdrop of Norway-Germany negotiations to unite against the Bolsheviks, come rumours Queen Maud was euthanized by her own physician.

Related: Was King George V of England also euthanized by the same doctor? BMJ

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