…cietal message is “so what?” or “who cares?” FINAL EXIT NETWORK In late February, the news broke that a multi-state investigation had resulted in the arrests of four members of the Final Exit Network. These “freelancers” and “worker bees” of the assisted suicide movement claim to have aided the suicides of some 200 individuals – many of them nonterminally ill. Two cases under investigation involve a Georgia man distressed over his appearance after…
…t’s a whole different issue to me.” Let me translate – Springer has just shrugged off any concern about any group that encourages and facilitates the suicides of “elderly folks” because it’s “different” than what she deals with. Last September, this blog declared that “Suicide Prevention Week” didn’t apply to old, ill and disabled people. We reached this conclusion by interpreting the persistent silence of suicide prevention organizations to the m…
…ost three weeks ago, when columnist Virginia Ironside was interviewed on a BBC show. Beginning with an assertion that the termination of a pregnancy to avoid the birth of a disabled child was a “selfless” act, she went on to talk about her willingness to smother any suffering infant or child. Clair Lewis, a disability activist in the UK, participated as a call-in on the show and she wrote about it at the blog Heresy Corner: It is fascism masquerad…
…mittee on Approaching Death. More importantly, as noted in the recent U.S. News and World Report article, Is the ‘Death Panel’ Debate Dead?, our concerns about advance care planning discussions are that “A lot of the messaging focuses on telling people they would be better off dead than disabled, and that therefore they should decline treatment.” Unfortunately, major early efforts in forming advance care planning policies in the U.S. excluded the…
…mittee on Approaching Death. More importantly, as noted in the recent U.S. News and World Report article, Is the ‘Death Panel’ Debate Dead?, our concerns about advance care planning discussions are that “A lot of the messaging focuses on telling people they would be better off dead than disabled, and that therefore they should decline treatment.” Unfortunately, major early efforts in forming advance care planning policies in the U.S. excluded the…
