Maine residents are being asked to sign a petition calling for a referendum on legalizing assisted suicide to be placed on the 2019 ballot. The practice was legalized in Oregon in 1997. Since then, there have been far more problematic issues and unanswered questions than...
Kristen Hanson | Community Relations Advocate, Patients Rights Action Fund As 2019 comes to an end, and we begin to make plans for the year ahead, I am reminded that time is precious. Nearly two years ago, I lost my husband, JJ, to terminal brain cancer. Although...
With his genial manner, check shirt and careful choice of words, Marc Van Hoey seems like any other general practitioner. As we sit in his cosy first-floor surgery in Antwerp, surrounded by books and mementos of his life in medicine, I ask this music-loving 57-year-old physician...
Assisted suicide advocates from western Massachusetts held a meeting in Worcester to promote the End of Life Options Act. I attended because, as a physician assistant, I am concerned about protecting my vulnerable patients. They had a hard time answering my questions. “Why six months when...
As Canada considers legalizing child euthanasia, one ethicist warns it would be a mistake to think the practice will never make its way into the United States. In every country that has legalized euthanasia upon request, save for one, doctors are now killing children. Wesley J....
Giving Tuesday kicks off the charitable season, when many focus on their holiday and end-of-year giving. This is a global day of giving back, where you’ll have the chance to join people around the world to celebrate generosity, sowing acts of kindness and make an impact...
Three doctors who certified a woman as autistic so that she could die by euthanasia are set to go on trial in Belgium. The sisters of Tine Nys told investigators that her suffering was caused instead by a broken heart after a failed relationship, and that...
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. What...
Diane Coleman is president and CEO of a group called Not Dead Yet that opposes physician-assisted suicide. “There’s no way to avoid the fact that some people will have their lives ended without their consent through mistakes, coercion and abuse.” After the Joint Commission on Health Care...
Laws against the killing of patients vindicate and uphold every person's right to life, especially that of the terminally ill or vulnerable. Medical practice complements these noble goals by preserving life and restoring health. The raison d'etre of palliative care is to improve quality of life and...