Georgia: Response Letters to op-ed by Final Exit Network (FEN) president Wendell Stephenson

January 19, 2012Concrete Change, Eleanor Smith, final exit network, Georgia, Georgia Hospice and Palliative Care Organization, hospice, Our News & Commentary Blog, palliative careStephen Drake

…the same essay was published in December last year in the Metrowest Daily News and can still be read here. It’s the usual conflation of terminal illness with chronic illness, sensationalist language describing FEN members and supporters as victims of oppression, etc. This blog will probably be revisiting Stephenson’s piece in the near future. In the meantime, his op-ed drew some strong reactions that were published in the letters section of the A…

Connecticut: Assisted Suicide Advocates Attempt to Exploit Tragic Murder-Suicide

May 14, 2010assisted suicide, barbara coombs lee, bullshit, Compassion & Choices, Conflation and Con jobs, Connecticut, exploitation, homicide, kathryn tucker, Our News & Commentary Blog, reality checkStephen Drake

…Sept. 11, 2001, death of their son, Edward Vanacore, 29, who worked at the World Trade Center. More recently, Thomas Vanacore was being treated for a late-stage cancer, and his wife had Alzheimer’s disease. Police received a 911 call about 3:30 p.m. Monday when a visiting nurse known to the couple reported the shooting. The nurse had received permission to run an errand, and returned to find the scene. Her name was not released, and she declined t…

DREDF and ASAN Oppose “End Run” Assisted Suicide Bill in California Assembly

September 2, 2015"death with dignity", assisted suicide, Autistic Self-Advocacy Network, dredf, Marilyn Golden, Our News & Commentary Blogassisted suicide, Autistic Self-Advocacy Network, Dredf, Marilyn GoldenDiane Coleman

…the Disability Rights Education & Defense Fund, told the San Jose Mercury News, “This is a heavy-handed attempt to force through a bill that could not get any traction at all in committee,” said Marilyn Golden, co-chair of the Californians Against Assisted Suicide Coalition. “It’s one thing to run roughshod over the normal committee and legislative process to jam through a district bill, but to do that on what is literally a life-and-death issue…

Australia – Great Essay: Looking at the Bigger Picture Regarding Euthanasia

January 25, 2013assisted suicide, Australia, Belgium, disability rights, discrimination, euthanasia, media coverage, Our News & Commentary Blog, suicideStephen Drake

…sing? People take their lives for all sorts of reasons – they might be bankrupt, old, ill, lonely, overworked, trapped in poverty, abused, addicted, confused about their sexuality, at the sharp edge of family breakdown, in shame or at the end of a long set of bad life experiences. If suicide is a gift for one group of people who feel their lives have become unbearable, then why not for everyone who feels like this? Imagine the reaction if someone…

More on Vatican Statement on Tube Feeding – Reactions and Overreactions

September 24, 2007bioethics, Our News & Commentary Blog, reality check, vegetative stateStephen Drake

…ately, this affects more than “just” Catholics – many hospitals around the world are run by Catholic organizations who will feel bound by the ruling, and will enforce the decisions stemming from it regardless of whether or not the patient themself is Catholic. The concern expressed here is a little premature. Catholic ethicists in the U.S. have been at the forefront of pushing the idea that tube-feeding is “extraordinary treatment” and that there…