The common understanding of the term "terminal illness" is 'a disease or condition which can’t be cured and is likely to lead to someone’s death.' This can apply to advanced cancer, dementia (including Alzheimer's), motor neurone disease (MND/ALS), advanced heart disease and many other illnesses. However, the term is used in a more restrictive sense [...]
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 [...]
MDMD is pleased to see that an assisted dying bill in Victoria is making good progress, having passed a vote in the lower house by 47 to 37. The Bill still needs to pass a vote in the upper house. See this BBC report, for example. More details are provided in the Dignity in Dying [...]
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 Scottish Sun reports the case of Colin Campbell. Colin suffers from the Primary Progressive form of MS. He intends to go to Lifecircle in Basle to end his life on 15th June while he still can. He told MDMD "I qualify everything I say with 'intend' as my health could fail totally at any [...]
In an interesting BBC Website article, health correspondent Nick Triggle asks this important question. The article usefully differentiates between "life expectancy" and "healthy life expectancy". It points out that many people answer the question by saying "As long as I have my health". The question presupposes that we have a choice as to when to [...]