A recent article in the Washington Post describes moves in Oregon, USA to try to extend their Death with Dignity Act to include help for those suffering from degenerative diseases such as Motor Neurone Disease, Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s. Related discussions are taking place in other US states and in Canada. For example, a recent paper [...]
The latest stage of Omid’s legal case to be allowed an assisted death in the UK was heard in the High Court on 7/8th March 2018. The Daily Mail reported it here. Omid’s legal team argued for the right to cross-examine expert witnesses – in particular to question the written evidence given by Baroness Ilora [...]
The Daily Mail reported recently on a number of euthanasia cases in the Netherlands which are being investigated over concerns that the correct procedures may not have been followed, leading to euthanasia of people who possibly did not meet the strict criteria set out in the Dutch legislation. See Daily Mail articles "Dutch police investigate [...]
The Observer recently published a story about Wendy Mitchell, an Alzheimer's sufferer whose memoir, 'Somebody I Used to Know', has recently been published. The article gives in interesting insight into how Wendy copes with the devastating diagnosis of dementia at the age of 58. Wendy is described as an energetic single mother of two adult [...]
The Telegraph reports that the coroner investigating the death of Lady Lucan in September 2017 recorded a verdict of suicide. Lady Lucan is reported to have "self-diagnosed" as having Parkinson's disease, and to have previously discussed assisted suicide with a friend, should they develop a terminal illness or a degenerative disease. There was no suggestion [...]
The BBC report the case of 81 yr old Brenda Grant who was kept alive for 22 months by artificial feeding, against the instructions in her Advance Decision, (AD), because the AD had been mislaid in her medical notes. The case is horrifying. People write ADs in order to refuse treatment at the end of [...]
An excellent report 'The True Cost - How the UK Outsources Death to Dignitas' was recently published by Dignity in Dying, discussing the many difficulties associated with UK citizens choosing to end their lives in Switzerland. (Despite it's title, the report also considers other Swiss organisations prepared to offer medical assistance to die to foreign [...]
Excellent news from Australia. Further to our previous report, the upper house of the Australian state of Victoria has passed a Voluntary Assisted Dying bill. The bill passed by 22 to 18 after a 28 hour sitting. The progress is reported in this Guardian article. The debate in the upper house caused some amendments to [...]
The Daily Telegraph has been following another case relating to assisted suicide / murder. Pharmacist Bipin Desai was accused of giving his 85 year old father a lethal drink containing concentrated morphine stolen from the pharmacy where he worked. The high court judge threw out the charge of murder, allowing Mr Desai to go free [...]
In October 2016 the Office of National Statistics reported that in 2015 dementia and Alzheimer's were now the leading cause of death in England and Wales. We discussed this in a latest news article then. A year later they have now published data for 2016, which shows this trend increasing. Dementia and Alzheimer's accounted for [...]