In October 2018, the National Secular Society and the Secular Medical Forum held a joint conference on Healthcare and Secularism. The final two talks concerned assisted dying and the right to die. Both talks were excellent. Videos of the talks are available on YouTube and are embedded here with some description and comments. 1. Dr. [...]
The Office of National Statistics has recently published data on cause of death in 2017. For the third year running Dementia and Alzheimer’s is the leading cause of death, and the trend is increasing. We have been monitoring this significant trend since it was first reported in 2016. See our previous reports on the 2016 [...]
The BBC reported the inquest into the death of Beryl Taylor(70) who died in Rattlesden, Suffolk, in July 2016. The case is also reported in more detail in the East Anglian Daily Times. Mrs Taylor’s husband had been arrested on suspicion of assisted suicide, and later murder. He was subsequently released. The coroner made a [...]
MDMD's Campaigns and Communications Manager, Keiron McCabe, spoke exclusively with “Endgame” director Andi Reiss about Omid’s journey. Andi was present at Omid's medically assisted suicide in Switzerland. Photo: Omid and Andi, shortly before Omid's death at Lifecircle Switzerland. Photo credit: Andi Reiss How did you first become interested in the issues around Assisted Dying? My [...]
Omid T: A Legacy of Bravery, Compassion and Empowerment Photo: Omid and Dr Erika Preisig at Lifecircle, shortly before his medically assisted death. Photo Credit - Andi Reiss I'm glad you're here; thank you, thank you for everyone's support - Omid (1964 - 2018) On October 4th 2018, assisted dying campaigner, Omid T chose to [...]
The Economist is publishing a series of essays by those involved in the Assisted Dying debate. We are delighted that one of the invited authors is Dr. Michael Irwin, MDMD's founder and now a patron. Michael's piece describes the five occasions where he has been present at an assisted suicide in Switzerland. All the essays [...]
The BBC report on the ruling by the Supreme Court that legal permission will no longer be required to end care for patients in a long-term permanent vegetative state. The decision applies to patients who are being kept alive by artificial means such as tube feeding and hydration. It means that when family and doctors [...]
MDMD are delighted to learn that the Scottish parliament has removed any time limit from its definition of "terminally ill" in their Social Security (Scotland) Act 2018. The story was reported by the BBC and the Guardian. The Guardian article states "There were a number of significant last-minute amendments to the legislation, including the removal [...]
Breakfast TV News presenter Eamonn Holmes has been widely quoted in the media for openly saying that he would prefer a medically assisted death if he developed dementia. A Sun on Sunday article strongly supports him. A Daily Mail article also covered the story, its comments show strong support for Eamonn's view. Describing his fear [...]
There has been much reporting of the death of 104 year old Dr David Goodall, who ended his life at Lifecircle in Switzerland on 10th May 2018. The BBC include a video extract from his last press conference in an article on their website. Dr Goodall was a British ecologist and botanist who was not [...]