Death with Dignity Latest News

Latest "Death with Dignity" News

May 26, 2011 HBO airs the documentary How To Die In Oregon. The film follows the decisions and experiences of people preparing for and using Oregon’s Death with Dignity Act. Nearly 700 people attended a hometown screening of How to Die in Oregon in Portland, Oregon and over 800 film festival enthusiasts turned out to see the screening in Montana. This sort of extraordinary turnout is starting to be the norm for Director Peter Richardson's groundbreaking film about Oregon's Death with Dignity Act and Washington's I-1000 campaign. Almost everywhere it goes, the documentary is showing to packed audiences and winning accolades. Most recently, it was honored with the Karen Schmeer Award for Excellence in Documentary Editing at the Independent Film Festival of Boston and among the top ten films according to an audience vote at North America's largest documentary film festival, Hot Docs. May 27, 2011: I finally got to see it. What an incredibly powerful documentary! Cody Curtis reminded me of Jeri—she was brave, vibrant, and articulate. This film is a gift to all of us: These people shared their death to inform us. Thank you all.

You can read on this page the latest "Death with Dignity" news from around the world:

April 10, 2011: Is Vermont next? The Vermont legislature is considering a Death with Dignity bill (Bill S.103, 2011) in its 2011 session. A Zogby Poll from February this year found 64% of Vermonters support the legislation and 85% agree (68% of those strongly agree) with the statement, "I should be able to make my own choices about what happens to me at the end of my life without the government, doctors, or the church telling me what to do." In April this year Vermont state Representative George Till, a physician and member of the House Committee on Health Care, released the 2011 Vermont Physician Legislative Survey results. This independent survey was conducted with the help of a grant from the University of Vermont College of Medicine. The questions covered the main health care topics under consideration by the Vermont Legislature in its 2011 session: Death with Dignity, a single payer heath care system, consumption taxes and how best to entice more primary care physicians to under-served communities. The results show that 70.2% of all Vermont physicians support or have a neutral stance on Vermont's Death with Dignity Act; nearly 90% believe the proposed law is safe and protects patients and physicians; and among primary care physicians, 61.5% favor passage of the proposed Death with Dignity legislation.

May 17, 2011: Zurich overwhelmingly rejects ban on assisted-suicide tourism. On Sunday, Zurich's voters rejected the ban on assisted dying and proposals to outlaw the practice for non-residents as well. Out of more than 278,000 ballots cast, the initiative to ban assisted suicide was rejected by 85% of voters and the initiative to outlaw it for foreigners was turned down by 78%, according to Zurich authorities. Assisted dying has been legal in Switzerland since 1941.The Swiss Evangelical People's Party, which supported the ban, expressed disappointment with the outcome but said it was pleased the ballot initiative provoked debate. "We now need to make sure that assisted suicide isn't just extended without limit and also that suicide tourism with foreigners is critically monitored," the group's statement said.

June 3, 2011: Dr. Jack Kevorkian Dies at 83. According to his New York Times obituary, "His critics were as impassioned as his supporters, but all generally agreed that his stubborn and often intemperate advocacy of assisted suicide helped spur the growth of hospice care in the United States and made many doctors more sympathetic to those in severe pain and more willing to prescribe medication to relieve it." Dr. Kevorkian, weakened as he lay in a Michigan hospital, could not take advantage of the option that he had offered others and that he had wished for himself. Assisted dying is not a legal option in Michigan.

June 16, 2011: U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) condemns assisted dying. The USCCB approved a policy statement on physician-assisted suicide at its Spring General Assembly in Seattle on June 16. The statement, To Live Each Day with Dignity, passed with a vote of 191-1. It marks the first time the full body of bishops has issued a statement devoted to this issue. The Bishops believe that our life is "a gift from the Creator" and that the idea that "assisting a suicide shows compassion and eliminates suffering is misguided. It eliminates the person, and results in suffering for those left behind—grieving families and friends, and other vulnerable people who may be influenced by this event to see death as an escape.” Fact check: Empirical data from Oregon shows that survivors of those who used the Death with Dignity Act had better grieving outcomes than comparable groups. For example, a major 2009 study reports: “The family members of those who died using the Act were more likely to believe their loved one’s choices were honored and less likely to have regrets about how the loved one died. They felt more prepared and accepting of the death than comparison family members.... We found that 14 months after death that family of those who died using the Act had a low prevalence of depression and grief, and few negative perceptions about the death.” More fact checking (June 17): The full text of the USCCB paper was issued today along with a series of fact sheets. The position papers are riddled with factual errors. For example, their assertion that the Netherlands conducts involuntary euthanasia has long been disproven. They repeatedly make use of slippery slope arguments that have failed the test of reality. I invite you to read the position papers and then read my book. I disprove every one of their assertions (see Chapters 5, 6, and 7). I find it sad that the USCCB has based its entire case on sloppy research. The case has nothing new to offer, and the reasoning has no consideration for the rational, thoughtful decisions of terminally ill adults seeking solace in their final stages of suffering.

August 2, 2011: The debate to legalize physician-assisted dying has resurfaced in Canada. This week in the Supreme Court of British Columbia, Mr. Ogden and the Farewell Foundation For The Right To Die will be fighting both the provincial and federal governments to make “self-chosen death” a legal option. An affidavit filed by Mr. Ogden states: “The criminal prohibition on assisted suicide in Canada causes immeasurable physical and psychological suffering to persons of sound mind who are capable of making informed decisions and who wish to end their own lives in order to avoid that suffering.... This suffering is certain and it is as extreme as any suffering humanity must endure." This case tests whether Parliament is entitled to cause such suffering to the people of Canada. The Farewell Foundation, which advocates supervised and regulated assisted-dying for terminally ill patients, expects the case to end up before the Canadian Supreme Court. In 1993, the court ruled 5-4 against assisted dying in the landmark Sue Rodriguez case. Mr. Ogden said a lot has changed since that Supreme Court ruling. Assisted dying is now legal in several European countries, and in the states of Washington and Oregon. In addition, polls consistently show that the Canadian public is in favor of the right-to-die. In 2007, an Ipsos poll found that 76% of Canadians are in support. A November, 2010 poll commissioned by CBC and Radio-Canada, showed that 83% of Quebecers back legalized euthanasia. A 2009 Ipsos poll of Quebec medical specialists, found that 75% said they were “certainly” or “probably” in favor of legalizing euthanasia, as long as it is strictly regulated.

August 3, 2011: Can Nembutal be legally imported into Australia?. Dr Philip Nitschke claims he has found a legal loophole, to import the drug Nembutal used in assisted dying. Australia's 7News revealed he plans to order Nembutal for six terminally-ill patients who are desperate to avoid suffering in their dying days. Nitschke discovered it can be imported legally, if a doctor applies to the Therapeutic Goods Administration with an acceptable medical reason. A new government notice claims it's illegal to import, unless reasonably prescribed. Nitschke's response: “I’ll prescribe it as a sedative, what they do is up to them." Based on opinion polls, over 80% of Australians are in favor of legalizing physician-assisted dying for the terminally ill. In the past, dying Australians had to travel to Mexico to purchase the Nembutal. The drug sells on the black market for over $10,000. Now, Dr Philip Nitschkie wants to save Australians the trauma of having to illegally smuggle Nembutal into the country.

August 4, 2011: New U.K. poll shows wide support for change in law. A new poll of 2000 adults in the U.K. shows three in four people believe "terminally ill patients should have access to medical help to die." The poll indicates that Oregon-like safeguards would work best in the U.K. Assisted dying remains a criminal offense in England and Wales, punishable by up to 14 years in prison, but individual decisions on prosecution are made on the circumstances of each case.

August 17, 2011: B.C. Supreme Court rules that Farewell Foundation case cannot proceed without naming the plaintiffs. The court also invited the foundation to join a parallel right-to-die case led by the B.C. Civil Liberties Association (BCCLA). The BCCLA case was recently fast-tracked due to the failing health of plaintiff Gloria Taylor, 63, suffering from late-stage ALS. The trial is set to begin Nov. 15. The BCCLA litigation director Grace Pastine said the "Death with Dignity" model it proposes is similar to the one used in Washington and Oregon. Russel Ogden, of the Farewell Foundation, said he was encouraged by the invitation to join the BCCLA case. If its application to intervene is approved by the court, the foundation would be able to advance many of the same arguments it would have presented in its challenge to the Criminal Code, Ogden said (see August 2 post).

August 5, 2011: A Massachusetts initiative petition to legalize physician-assisted dying was filed with the Commonwealth of Massachusetts Office of the Attorney General. It was assigned number 11-12.

September 2, 2011: Quebec ALS patient is resuming the crusade of Sue Rodriguez. The Nearly 20 years later, Ginette Leblanc, 47, is hoping she can convince Canada's Supreme Court to give her the right to assisted dying. Leblanc is represented by prominent Quebec lawyer, Rene Duval, who took on her case for free out of personal interest in the issue. Duval believes a lot has changed since Canada's highest court ruled 5-4 against Rodriguez. Says Duval: "One of the reasons for dismissing her application was that other comparable countries had no such laws." The lawyer stressed that out of the nine judges on the Rodriguez case, only Justice Beverley McLachlin is still on the bench, acting as Canada’s chief justice. And at the time, he said, McLachlin was in favour of allowing Rodriguez’s application. “It seems to me now, that the winning conditions are here,” Duval said. Duval filed his motion in a lower court, but only the Canadian Supreme Court can reverse the Rodriguez case. It is expected that the combined Quebec and B.C. cases will end up in front of the Canadian Supreme Court in 2012.

September 23, 2011: Australian doctor receives permission to import Nembutal. Dr Nitschke said he planned to import pentobarbital, also known as Nembutal, for use by a terminally ill woman in South Australia and a terminally ill man in NSW.

October 5, 2011: Is Death with Dignity already legal in Hawaii? The rediscovery of a little-known law passed in 1909, may reveal that Hawaii was the first state to have legalized physician-assisted dying. Compassion & Choices, the nation’s largest aid-in-dying organization and the Hawai’i Death With Dignity Society (HDWDS), a local organization with similar goals, will release the findings of an expert panel regarding the Hawaii law on aid in dying. Chaired by the Hawaii House majority leader Blake Oshiro, the meeting will be held at the Hawaii State Capitol. Attorney Kathryn Tucker, who served as lead counsel representing terminally-ill patients and physicians in several landmark U.S. Supreme Court cases, will make the case that there is no prohibition against assisted dying in Hawaii. The panel includes ten experts on Hawaiian law and politics, medicine, elder care, and end-of-life issues. Based on the 1909 law, it is expected that the panel will conclude that Hawaii physicians may already provide terminally ill patients with aid in dying, subject to professional best-practice standards.

October 10, 2011: Hawaii declared fourth state. For more information visit www.CompassionAndChoicesHI.org.

Nov 12, 2011: B.C and Quebec trials resume. Sue Rodriguez is getting her day in court again (see below).

January 4, 2012: "assisted suicide should be legal," says major report to British parliament. The Commission on Assisted Dying, chaired by the former lord chancellor Lord Falconer, concluded that a choice to end their own lives could be safely offered to some people with terminal illnesses, provided stringent safeguards were observed. The 400-page report follows a year of investigation by the commission, whose members also include the former Metropolitan police commissioner Lord Blair, a former president of the General Medical Council, a leading consultant in disability equality, an Anglican priest, and medical, mental health, palliative care and social care specialists.

January 12, 2012: QMark poll shows that 77% of Hawaii voters are in favor of aid in dying. According to that same poll, 92% believe that "how a terminally ill person chooses to end his/her life should be an individual decision and not a government decision." Finally, 83% believe that "the medical community and not the government should establish proper guidelines and safeguards in the writing of possible life-ending medication prescriptions."

January 21, 2012: euthanasia and the May French presidential election. According to Le Monde, the French presidential front runner Francois Hollande plans to introduce a bill (proposition 21) in support of aid in dying. An October 2010 poll conducted by Sud-Ouest revealed that 94% of the French public approves of the legalization of euthanasia in certain cases (for example, terminal illness).

March 22, 2012: Province of Quebec multi-partisan report says, "make assisted suicide legal." The nine legislator members on the multi-partisan commission submitted their report to the Quebec assembly after two years of research. Quebec's public hearings into dying with dignity spanned over multiple months: the commission heard from 400 witnesses and read through 300 submissions. The result is a 180-page report, with 24 recommendations--including a legal option for medical assistance for dying in cases where Quebecers are terminally ill and want to die. The report also recommends that the Quebec AG refrain from prosecuting doctors who medically assist people to end their life. (Note: Euthanasia and assisted dying are currently illegal in Canada under the Criminal Code.) The Quebec findings echo the Royal Society of Canada's strong endorsement of aid in dying in its November 15, 2011 expert-panel report. What's next? Soon the BC Court will issue its opinion in Gloria Taylor's challenge for the right to die. It is expected that the case will be kicked up to the Canadian Supreme Court for a replay of the Sue Rodriguez Case using the latest data from the Quebec and Royal Society commissions as well as the latest empirical findings from Oregon, Washington, and the Netherlands (more on this case below).

March 26, 2012: Vermont Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman unilaterally derails Death with Dignity bill. Judiciary Chairman Senator Dick Sears, D-Bennington, summarily and unilaterally shut down any further discussion or debate on Senate Bill S.103 which had the overwhelming support of the Vermont Governor, the House, and the voters. According to a Zogby poll, voters in Chairman Sears' district favored the bill by 74% to 16%. Senator Sears admitted that it was an issue of conscience for him: he allowed his personal beliefs to trump his constituents’ beliefs. Sears ignored the expert testimony in favor of the bill provided to his committee. He even rejected a personal plea from his friend, Vermont Governor Peter Shumlin, to allow a vote in the full Senate. (Governor Peter Shumlin campaigned on a promise of legalization aid-in-dying which he views as a major civil rights issue.) Vermont's highly-mobilized aid-in-dying movement is still trying to pass the bill in 2012, but, if that becomes impossible, it will refocus its efforts on 2013.

February 12, 2012: Death with Dignity initiative now officially on the Massachusetts ballot for November 2012. If passed, the ballot initiative will make it legal for terminally ill patients to take a doctor-prescribed lethal dose of sleeping pills. To get on the blallot, the Dignity 2012 coalition submitted more than 86,000 certified signatures to the Secretary of the Commonwealth’s office, well exceeding the 68,911 required. The main opposition to the initiative is from the Roman Catholic bishops.

March 28, 2012: British Parliament unanimously backs the prosecutor's lenient policy on assisted dying. For the first time, this historic debate brings recognition that Parliament now accepts that, in certain circumstances, people who compassionately assist a loved one to die at their request should not be punished. With 82% of the British public in favor of aid in dying, the vote shows that the people's elected representatives have taken note. What's next? According to Sarah Wootton, chief executive of Dignity in Dying, "Dying Britons should have the choice of an assisted death in the UK....This is the best we can hope for under the current law but it is by no means a substitute for a proper assisted dying law. We will be continuing to work hard to ensure a safeguarded assisted dying law in the UK."

April 3, 2012: State of Georgia takes a giant step backward. In an attempt to reverse the Georgia Supreme Court's decision in favor of aid in dying, the state legislation introduced a bill that reversed the decision. Bill HB 1114 just landed on Governor Nathan Deal’s desk; it is expected that he will sign it into law. Unfortunately, it's a poorly drafted prohibition law that threatens the foundations of palliative care--including advance directives, the treatment of terminal pain, and comfort care at the end of life. The law creates uncertainty among medical providers and caregivers as to whether it is a crime to administer palliative sedation upon the request of the patient or to write a prescription intended to provide the patient with comfort and control at the end of life. Accusations of murder for palliative care are a growing national problem. Patients suffer when doctors are afraid to treat their pain.

June 15, 2012: B.C. Supreme Court strikes down law banning assisted suicide in Canada. ALS patient Gloria Taylor won her day in court (see below). B.C. Supreme Court Justice Lynn Smith declared the 120-year-old prohibition on physician-assisted dying unconstitutional but also suspended her ruling for one year to give Canada's federal Parliament time to draft legislation with her ruling in mind. After reviewing the evidence presented by both sides, including evidence based on experiences in Oregon and the Netherlands, the B.C. court concluded that none of it supports fears that mistake and abuse are more likely in a permissive but regulated regime. Justice Smith noted that even the best palliative care cannot relieve all suffering and that some of the currently accepted medical practices are very similar to physician-assisted death. Note: During the one-year suspended period, Gloria Taylor, 64, can seek a physician-assisted dying if she wants. The court said the provisions in Canada's constitution infringe on Taylor's rights to life, liberty and security of persons, and discriminate against grievously ill or physically disabled patients who want to have some control over their circumstances at the end of their lives.

June 16, 2012: The Catholic archbishop of Vancouver called on government to appeal the landmark B.C. Supreme Court decision. The Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops issued a statement expressing its dismay on the ruling and declared that humans are stewards, not owners, of God’s gift of life. If appealed, the case will end up in front of Canada's Supreme Court now headed by Chief Justice Beverley McLachlin, author of the minority opinion in the landmark Sue Rodriguez case (5 to 4). In 1994, Rodriguez lost because there was no evidence of working safeguards (see below).

June 18, 2012: ALS patient Gloria Taylor issues her first public comment on the B.C. ruling. She told reporters she knows her life is ending, but she says the ruling now gives her control over when and how that will happen. Says Taylor: "To die screaming at the top of my lungs because the pain is so great that I can't stand it is something I try not to think about…. Now, thankfully, I don't have to fear that kind of death, an ending to a life that's been full of so many good things and challenges. I can do dying, but I can't do major suffering to get there." Ms. Taylor cited Ms. Rodriguez at Monday’s news conference and said she’s proud to carry on her legacy. “It took a long time and now, finally, we have emerged from the Dark Ages to realize that dying is a part of living,” Taylor said.