On Tuesday, November 14, PBS aired the Frontline segment “The Suicide Plan” – which focused on the “assisted suicide underground.” It’s hard for me to judge how this show would have struck the average viewer. I know I need to force myself to review the show for a deeper reaction than I can offer right […]
Art Caplan has an opinion piece that came out yesterday – and it’s linked from just about every conceivable place on NBC and MSNBC. It’s an endorsement of the proposed legalization of assisted suicide on the ballot in Massachusetts. While disappointing, it’s not that big a surprise; Caplan has been sliding toward this unqualified endorsement […]
One sign of the skewed nature of media coverage and the times we live in is how little time and attention are given to the very real life-and-death situations facing people in the UK in the face of draconian shredding of the social safety net for disabled people. Some of that shredding is already done […]
SunThisweek has a new story about the Final Exit Network (FEN) and the suicide of Doreen Dunn by reporter Laura Adelmann. This article focuses largely on comments and reactions from friends, neighbors and local Minnesotans. Of most importance and interest for readers of this blog, the article also includes excellent comments from Gordie Haug, a […]
From the Baltimore Sun: HASTINGS, Minn. — A Minnesota grand jury has indicted a national right-to-die group and several members for their actions in the 2007 suicide of a suburban Minneapolis woman, prosecutors announced Monday. The 17-count indictment charges the medical director of Final Exit Network, Lawrence Egbert of Baltimore, and three other officials with […]
Right now, this latest story involving the Final Exit Network (FEN) is getting only local coverage, but it could become a national story, depending on the outcome. From the story, by reporter Laura Adelmann: Apple Valley woman may have killed herself using information from Final Exit Network In a March 26 letter to a defense […]
The American Medical News has an article out today about the Georgia Supreme Court decision that ruled the state’s assisted suicide law unconstitutional. (We referred to the legislation as “half-assed.”) The decision has the immediate effect of negating the charges against members of the Final Exit Network (FEN). The account is pretty straightforward and is […]
I’ll be the first to admit that there are some bioethicists that can and do write with intellectual honesty and engage in rigorous analysis. However, those qualities are not required in order to gain respect in the field of bioethics. I offer Jacob Appel and Peter Singer as Exhibits A and B. (Those appear to […]
Disability Activists Urge Georgia Legislators to “Get it Right” on Assisted Suicide Today, Georgia disability activists, including members of Not Dead Yet, reacted to the Supreme Court ruling that overturned a 1994 law on assisted suicide on First Amendment grounds, calling on the Georgia legislature to tackle the issue as soon as possible and “get […]
This is not exactly unexpected. From the Atlanta Journal-Constitution: The Georgia Supreme Court on Monday unanimously struck down the state’s assisted-suicide law, finding it violates the free speech clauses of the Georgia and U.S. Constitutions. The court’s ruling means that four members of the Final Exit Network do not have to stand trial on felony […]
