The BBC Ideas website has recently added a short video titled 'Should we be able to choose our own death?'. Although MDMD had no part in its making, it demonstrates one really good way of achieving our goal. It is a personal opinion piece by philosopher Nigel Warburton. He starts by asking us to imagine [...]
An interesting scientific study of attitudes in UK and USA towards end of life care and assisted dying in the face of worsening dementia, was published in April 2017 in the peer reviewed on-line journal Plos One: Clarke G, Fistein E, Holland A, Barclay M, Theimann P, Barclay S (2017) Preferences for care towards the [...]
A paper recently published in the Lancet (and available online), has been reported widely. The headline statement is that "the amount of time spent needing daily care at the end of life has doubled in England over the past two decades." See articles by the BBC and the Guardian for example. The study compares data [...]
The BBC and the Guardian report the particularly tragic story of 95 year old Denver Beddows who admitted battering his 88-year-old wife Olive with a pan and a hammer at their home in Warrington. Mrs Beddows survived the attempted murder. Mr Beddows received a two year suspended sentence. Apparently Mrs Beddows had pleaded with her [...]
An elderly man told care home staff his dementia patient wife "had suffered enough" after shooting her at point blank range, a court hears. Source: Man shot wife with dementia in care home 'to end suffering' - BBC News This story is a challenge to the DPP guidelines. From the details available it appears that [...]
The Daily Telegraph reports the case of a Devon couple in their '80s who successfully carried out a joint suicide. From the article it appears that this was a rational, well thought out, end of life choice. However, it is unfortunate that this couple needed to end their lives in this way. Perhaps, with more [...]