(The following continues coverage and discussion of an initiative regarding efforts to let dementia patients “refuse” assistance to eat. We discussed this in November 2017. You can check out that blog post here.) Journalist Mike Bassett has a new online article out in Today’s Geriatric Medicine. It involves the latest initiative from “End of Life […]
Lets hope the New Year is kinder and gentler than the old one. The year ended with a highly publicized murder/suicide in NH. Mark Lavoie, at a little past 6 am, shot his wife to death and then successfully killed himself immediately after. He did this just 4 minutes after posting his intent on Facebook. […]
The 24+ hours since I posted on the double euthanasia of two deaf men in Belgium has resulted in some developments, varied reactions, and some reflection on my own part. My apologies if this post seems a little scattered – a little like mental multi-colored pasta thrown against the wall – but sometimes that’s how […]
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 […]
The online version of The Pilot – “the official newspaper of the Archdiocese of Boston” – published an article focusing on ‘Second Thoughts‘ and featuring a long interview with the organization’s director, John Kelly. Disabilities group has ‘Second Thoughts’ on assisted suicide By Christopher S. Pineo BOSTON — A group of Massachusetts residents with […]
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 […]
Today’s Huffington Post features an article by Elizabeth Marquardt, who blogs regularly at Family Scholars, which is part of the Institute for American Values. Ms. Marquardt covers an issue familiar to readers of this blog – the growing and alarming phenomenon of elderly homicide/suicides – older men killing their wives and then killing themselves. This […]
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 […]
Last week, the National Post reported on a recent poll of Canadians in which 67% of the poll respondents indicated their support for legalized assisted suicide for people who are “terminally ill.” NDY President Diane Coleman fired off a letter to the Post and it was published on Tuesday, January 6. The link for the […]
