In June 2016, Bill C-14 provided some Canadians (patients) with the legal option to request medical assistance in dying and other Canadians (physicians and nurse practitioners) with the legal authority to provide that assistance. Financial costs of medical assistance in dying are relatively low but the social cost may be much higher. Read more >>
Continue Reading → Cost of medical assistance in dying
In early July, Betsy Davis emailed her closest friends and relatives to invite them to a two-day party. The 41-year-old artist with ALS, or Lou Gehrig’s disease, held the gathering to say goodbye before becoming one of the first Californians to take a lethal dose of drugs under the state’s new doctor-assisted suicide law for the terminally ill. Read more >>
A physician expresses his concern for the issue of protecting those who are depressed in the offering of euthanasia in Canada. Read more >>
Continue Reading → “I’ll remain this sort of vegetable”
Washington’s ‘Death with Dignity’ law allows doctors to help people commit suicide once they’ve determined that the patient has only six months to live. But what if they’re wrong?Read more >>
Continue Reading → Terminal Uncertainty
Claims that euthanasia availability is about empowering people to freely make choices must be confronted with the reality that demarcation lines determining who is able to receive the service are state-sanctioned declarations about whose life has worth. Read more >>
Continue Reading → Whose life is worth living? Assisted suicide draws a line