Showing posts with label assisted suicide. Show all posts
Showing posts with label assisted suicide. Show all posts

Thursday, December 13, 2018

Dore Memo to New Zealand Justice Committee: Reject End of Life Choice Bill

Click here to view a pdf version, including supporting documentation. Click the following link to view Choice Illusion New Zealand.

By Margaret Dore, Esq., MBA

I.  INTRODUCTION

I am president of Choice is an Illusion, a nonprofit corporation opposed to assisted suicide and euthanasia.[1] I am also an attorney in Washington State USA where these practices are legal.[2] Our law is based on a similar law in Oregon.[3]

My background includes providing legal analysis and/or testimony against assisted suicide and euthanasia, in 22 US states, South Africa and Australia. I have participated in public debates as well as public interest litigation.

The “End of Life Choice Bill” seeks to legalize assisted dying, which means assisted suicide and euthanasia.[4] If enacted, the bill will apply to people with years or decades to live, and provide cover for murder. I urge you to recommend to Parliament to reject this bill.

Sunday, December 9, 2018

Patient-Directed Suicide Has Morphed into Family-Determined Suicide

Thomas Eppes, M.D.
To view original article, click here.

Recently the effort to legalize physician-assisted suicide has ramped up in Virginia. For 2,500 years, medicine has claimed the role of healer, but this dangerous public policy would change that by requiring a doctor’s participation in a patient’s demise .

Patients should never be conflicted about which role their physician plays.

Friday, November 23, 2018

New Zealand: From Scammers to Euthanasia Advocates, These Are Dark Days in Old Ladydom

To view original article, click here

Rosemary McLeod
OPINION: These are perilous times for tottering toward old ladydom. The women's mags cut your life support at 50 unless you're Helen Mirren, sooner if you're not, in which case you might as well sign up for the Philip Nitschke death machine, with optional funeral casket.

Monday, November 12, 2018

Man Sentenced to 10 Years in Prison for Counseling Suicide to Obtain Life Insurance

Justice Peter Davis
To view original article, click here

“However, one can imagine many circumstances arising where people in positions of trust and responsibility could succumb to the temptation to counsel suicide for personal gain.

By Hope Australia


These confronting words were spoken last week by Justice Davis in the Supreme Court of Queensland, as he sentenced Graham Robert Morant to 10 years imprisonment for counselling his wife to commit suicide.

Sunday, November 11, 2018

Virginia: Legislative Panel Punts on Assisted Suicide-Euthanasia Proposal

Del. Scott Garrett, MD
To view the original article, click here.
A group of lawmakers shot down proposals to allow medical-aid-in-dying, also known as physician-assisted suicide [and euthanasia], in Virginia on Wednesday in a review of a series of legislative recommendations on health care.
Del. Kaye Kory, D-Fairfax, requested that the Joint Commission on Health Care study the medical-aid-in-dying debate, in which a patient with less than six months to live obtains lethal drugs through a physician to end his or her life.

Monday, November 5, 2018

Australia: Husband Who Aided Wife's Suicide to Obtain Her Life Insurance Sentenced to Prison

Graham Morant, AAP Dan Peled
By Melanie Vujkovic

Graham Robert Morant was last month found guilty on two charges — counselling suicide and aiding suicide — for persuading his wife Jennifer Morant, 56, to kill herself in her car in 2014 and helping her buy the necessary equipment from a hardware store.

The court heard Morant was the sole beneficiary of Ms Morant's three life insurance policies, which Justice Peter Davis concluded was the motivation for his actions.

Tuesday, October 2, 2018

Australian Man Convicted of Assisting Suicide

An Australian man has been convicted of aiding his wife's suicide, after a court heard he had coveted payouts from her life insurance.
Jennifer Morant, 56, had suffered from chronic pain but was not terminally ill when she died in 2014, a court heard.
A jury found that Graham Morant, 69, counselled and aided his wife to take her life. He had denied both charges.

Monday, September 17, 2018

Australia: Man pleads not guilty to assisting his wife's suicide, as prosecutors claim he did so to access her life insurance

By Melanie Vujkovic, click here to view original article

A 69-year-old man who has pleaded not guilty to assisting his wife to kill herself in 2014 had "1.4 million reasons" to intentionally help her end her life because she had three life insurance policies, a court has heard.

Graham Robert Morant is on trial in the Supreme Court in Brisbane on two counts, including one of counselling and one of aiding Jennifer Morant, 56, to kill herself.

Thursday, September 13, 2018

Roger Foley Challenges Canada's Euthanasia Law

https://nationalpost.com/news/canada/denied-assisted-life-by-hospital-ontario-man-is-offered-death-instead-lawsuit

An Ontario hospital that wants to discharge a suicidal man [Roger Foley] with a crippling brain disease threatened to start charging him $1,800 a day, and suggested his other options included medically assisted death [non-voluntary euthanasia], according to a new lawsuit.

It also claims Canada’s new assisted dying laws are unconstitutional and should be struck down because they do not require doctors “to even try to help relieve intolerable suffering” before offering to kill a terminally ill patient.

Saturday, August 25, 2018

Mexico Addresses Euthanasia

To read the entire article, click here

The Supreme Court has endorsed the right of Mexico City residents to use marijuana for medicinal purposes as established by the city’s constitution.

Eight of 11 judges ruled yesterday that the Constitutional Assembly of Mexico City, a body formed to create a new constitution for the capital, had not encroached on federal jurisdiction by including an article enshrining the right to use medicinal marijuana....

The Supreme Court also endorsed a range of other articles in the city’s constitution against which challenges had been filed, including the right to die with dignity, the right of access to water, the right to sexuality, the right for the local government to enter into agreements with international entities and the right for migrants not to be criminalized while in the capital regardless of their legal status.

With regard to the dignified death provision, the PGR argued that it effectively allowed for euthanasia and assisted suicide, which are prohibited under federal law and whose regulation is the exclusive domain of the federal government.

Saturday, August 18, 2018

Legal Assisted Suicide Encourages Other Suicide

I am an attorney and president of Choice is an Illusion, a 501(c)(4) non-profit. Formed in 2010, Choice is an Illusion fights against assisted suicide and euthanasia throughout the United States and in other countries.
David Grube’s Aug. 5 guest commentary in The Star said Oregon’s suicide rates “overall have gone down ... since its Death with Dignity Act [legalizing assisted suicide] went into effect in 1997.” I disagree with this claim.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s “Vital Signs” website, Oregon’s suicide rate went up 28.2 percent from 1999 to 2016. 
Legal assisted suicide encourages other suicide. Don’t be fooled.*

Saturday, August 11, 2018

Prosecutors argue why Michelle Carter's texting suicide conviction should not be overturned

Michelle Carter
To view full article, click here

Bristol County Prosecutors have filed their response to the appeal of Michelle Carter, arguing that the Plainville woman was rightfully convicted of involuntary manslaughter for pressuring her boyfriend Conrad Roy III into killing himself.

Roy died in 2014 after he turned on a gas-powered water pump in his truck and allowed the cabin to fill with carbon monoxide, following a lengthy battle with depression.

But police found text messages on Carter's phone that led them to believe it was no simple suicide.

Tuesday, June 5, 2018

Quick Facts About New York State Euthanasia Bills (Paulin, Savino)

By Margaret Dore, Esq., MBA
For a pdf version, click here.

1.  Euthanasia & Assisted Suicide

The bills, A. 2383-A & S. 3151-A, are titled “Medical Aid in Dying.” This is a traditional euphemism for active euthanasia and physician assisted suicide. The bills seek to legalize these practices.

2.  Definitions (Traditional)
“Assisted suicide” occurs when a person provides the means or information for another person to commit suicide, for example, by providing a rope or lethal drug. If the assisting person is a
physician, a more precise term is “physician-assisted suicide.”

“Euthanasia” is the direct administration of a lethal agent to cause another person’s death. Euthanasia is also known as mercy killing.

Friday, May 25, 2018

Judgment Entered Declaring Assisted Suicide/Euthanasia Law Unconstitutional & Prospectively Prohibiting Use

Alexandra Snyder, Esq.
Yesterday, Riverside County Judge Daniel A. Ottolia entered judgment declaring California's assisted suicide/euthanasia law void as unconstitutional. The judgment states:
The Court held the End of Life Option Act ("Act") was passed by a special session of the Legislature in violation of Article IV § 3(b) of the California Constitution because the Act is not encompassed by any "reasonable construction" of the Proclamation granting the special session the authority to legislate. The Court therefore held that the Act was void as unconstitutional.

Thursday, May 24, 2018

California Assisted Suicide Law Is Unconstitutional; Decision Upheld by Appeals Court

Alex Schadenberg
Executive Director - Euthanasia Prevention Coalition


Last week, Riverside Superior Court Judge, Daniel Ottolia, overturned California's assisted suicide law when he ruled that the legislature acted outside the scope of its authority [when enacting it]

California passed the state's assisted suicide law in a special health care funding session after the legislature failed to pass the assisted suicide bill in its normal session.

Judge Ottolia, held that "the End of Life Option Act [legalizing assisted suicide] does not fall within the scope of access to healthcare services," and that it "is not a matter of health care funding."

Sunday, May 20, 2018

New Zealand Euthanasia Bill Delayed by Mass Replies

Raymond Hoa, MP
An unprecedented surge in public submissions has seen a bill legalising voluntary [and non-voluntary] euthanasia in New Zealand pushed back until next year.

SBS News - An unprecedented outpouring of feedback about a bill legalising euthanasia in New Zealand has seen a potential law change delayed.

The parliamentary committee considering the controversial End of Life Change Bill - which would give people with "a terminal illness or a grievous and irremediable medical condition" the option of assisted dying - has received more than 35,000 submissions already.

Friday, May 18, 2018

Assisted Suicide Bill Defeated in Guernsey

Alex Schadenberg
Executive Director - Euthanasia Prevention Coalition

The Guernsey parliament, today, defeated a proposal to legalize assisted suicide in the British Island state by a vote of 24 to 14.

This is incredible news considering the resources that the assisted suicide lobby invested into passing assisted suicide in Guernsey, that they viewed as a possible "opening" to the legalization of assisted suicide in the UK.



A coalition of groups formed to defeat the bill included disability rights groups - Not Dead Yet UK, and the Guernsey Disability Alliance, also the British Medical Association, and the Care Not Killing Alliance in the UK. 

Thursday, May 17, 2018

Finland Slashes Citizens' 'Dying With Dignity' Initiative for Euthanasia

A citizens' initiative on "active death help" or euthanasia has been overwhelmingly rejected by the Finnish parliament.

The vote was 128 to 60.  For more information, click here.


Tuesday, May 15, 2018

Judge Rules California Assisted Suicide Law Unconstitutional

NAPA, Calif.,  Life Legal  — A California judge overturned the state’s assisted suicide law this morning, ruling that the legislature acted outside the scope of its authority when it enacted the End of Life Option Act.

The Act’s sponsors introduced the bill in a special session of the legislature convened by Governor Jerry Brown to address Medicaid funding shortfalls, services for the disabled, and in-home health support services.

Thursday, May 3, 2018

Margaret Dore Testifies


Margaret Dore, testifying against Bill A.2383-A, seeking to legalize assisted suicide and euthanasia in New York State. For more information, see Dore's bill analysis, at these links:  memo and appendix