Only three countries approve of assisted suicide and euthanasia as a whole: Belgium, the Netherlands, and Luxembourg. The first two even recognize requests from minors under strict circumstances, while Luxembourg excludes them from the legislation. Switzerland, Germany, Finland, and Austria allow assisted suicide under specific scenarios. Read more here…

Here are five things to know to help dispel some of the misunderstandings about hospice care.     1. Hospice isn’t about ‘giving up.’ Hospice can extend your life. Hospice is often associated with ideas of giving up or surrendering to death. Statistics show otherwise. Studies published in 2007 by the New England Journal of Medicine

  There has been a flurry of discourse in the media regarding ways to make medically assisted death more accessible for Canadians, including reports on the Quebec ruling to overturn the criterion that one’s death must be “reasonably foreseeable” and the Alzheimer Society of Canada position statement supporting advance requests for medical assistance in dying

  The state’s medical aid in dying law “legalizes murder,” and no doctor in New Jersey should be required to do anything to help carry it out, including the routine act of releasing a patient’s file, an attorney for a devoutly religious physician and a pharmacist argued in court Monday… The law violates the constitutional

  We fundamentally disagree with our two colleagues that public opinion is an ethically appropriate means of informing public policy decisions or even more crucially, determining professional norms of physicians. Polls have not just moral but also methodological problems. Response rates are often low, and typically it is those with the strongest feelings about the

  Even before he swears in his new cabinet, Justin Trudeau is being urged to ask his new justice minister to move swiftly to make Canada’s assisted-dying law less restrictive. The prime minister has said he’ll comply with a September court ruling that struck down as unconstitutional the requirement that only those near death can

  …On April 12, New Jersey’s Medical Aid in Dying for the Terminally Ill Act passed by a single vote. A more accurate title would be the “New Jersey Physician-Assisted Suicide Act.” It essentially gives doctors carte blanche to write a prescription for drugs to end their patients’ lives. Despite the act’s noble rallying cry of

  The ‘Doctors Say No’ Open Letter opposing euthanasia has recently received its 1,500th signature, appealing to MPs at this final hour, to vote down the euphemistically titled “End of Life Choice” bill. Organiser Dr Sinead Donnelly, a Wellington-based Palliative Medicine specialist, says she is humbled by the response. “We started with a very simple

  ‘On November 8, 1994, the citizens of Oregon voted in favor of a Death With Dignity Act… Even though assisted suicide has been legal in Oregon for 25 years, there are big gaps in our knowledge of how assisted suicide and euthanasia work. An article in BMJ Supportive & Palliative Care by two Belgian

  New York’s former top attorney remains opposed to efforts to allow terminally ill people to end their own life nearly a decade after he defended the state’s ban on the practice at the U.S. Supreme Court. Former New York Attorney General Dennis Vacco was one of four panelists who spoke on the issue to

  November is National Hospice & Palliative Care Month   Q: What is palliative care?  Kristine Cooper: Palliative care is an approach to patient care that is focused on comfort including physical, emotional and spiritual care. Patients may seek palliative care or palliation when they are suffering from a chronic illness, but it doesn’t necessarily

  Since at least 2000, presidents have designated November as National Family Caregivers Month to honor the more than 40 million caregivers across the country who support aging parents, ill spouses or other loved ones with disabilities who remain at home. “These everyday heroes, living quietly among us in families and communities across the country,

  November is National Hospice and Palliative Care Month… Working in the nursing field is both rewarding and challenging, and never was this truer than for those who work as hospice nurses. People who pursue this career often see it as a calling, a job they’re drawn to. They consider it a privilege to help

National Hospice and Palliative Care month is all November long. The goal is to raise awareness and support around the nation for programs that often go without notice… To most, Hospice means ‘giving up’ and ‘dying’. Hospice is a word that most shun away from and avoid like it’s a catchable cold. Despite common misconception,

  Growing dissatisfaction among families whose terminally ill loved ones face excruciating suffering has ignited debate over whether people should be allowed to control their deaths by asking doctors for lethal prescriptions. On the side opposing assisted suicide is the Patients Rights Action Fund, led by executive director Matt Valliere. The group believes legalizing medically

  A Montreal couple is calling for disciplinary measures against a psychologist they say counselled one of them to kill the terminally ill other. When Miranda Edwards was diagnosed with an aggressive form of cancer she said she was determined to fight it. “I want to live, I want every medical intervention possible,” she said.

  A registered nurse has been charged with murder after injecting a lethal drug into a friend who asked her to help him die following a breakup, the Orange County District Attorney’s Office said Monday. Kristie Jane Koepplin, 58, pleaded not guilty Monday, after being arrested in Maricopa County, Arizona, on Oct. 15, 2019, more

  The World Medical Association (WMA) recently held its 70th General Assembly meeting in Tbilisi, Georgia, and reaffirmed a commitment: “to the principles of medical ethics and that utmost respect has to be maintained for human life.  Therefore, the WMA is firmly opposed to euthanasia and physician-assisted suicide. “For the purpose of this declaration, euthanasia

  …Olivas has multiple myeloma,  a terminal type of blood cancer. And after going through chemotherapy—a process that might extend her life five years—she stopped when doctors said her liver and kidneys were being damaged… So about a year after starting treatment, she decided she wanted to seek medical aid in dying, which a lot of

  Barbara Lyons of the Patients’ Rights Action Fund Barbara joins Bob to talk about the National Council on Disability’s recent report on assisted suicide and its impact on individuals with disabilities. Click here to listen…