To see Part 1 go here
Friday, May 25, 2012
Saturday, April 21, 2012
Dore v Morris: Assisted suicide debate deals with abuse, compassion
http://www.kamloopsnews.ca/article/20120419/KAMLOOPS0101/120419759/-1...
Lawyer cautions against legislating through courts
By Mike Youds, Daily News Staff Reporter
A right to medically assisted suicide may sound compassionate and just, but beware the details when it comes to the act itself, a U.S. lawyer warned Wednesday in a debate at TRU.
Margaret Dore shared some of her experiences with assisted suicide in Washington State, where the practice became legal through a ballot measure four years ago.
"A lot of people think this is a great idea until they start thinking and reading about how you do it," she told an audience of about 30 people in the Irving K. Barber Centre.
In effect, laws in Washington and Oregon empower people who may choose to abuse the responsibility, Dore said.
"Your heir can be there to help you sign up. Once the legal dose leaves the pharmacy, there is no oversight whatsoever."
Lawyer cautions against legislating through courts
By Mike Youds, Daily News Staff Reporter
 |
| Margaret Dore (L) and Wanda Morris (R) |
A right to medically assisted suicide may sound compassionate and just, but beware the details when it comes to the act itself, a U.S. lawyer warned Wednesday in a debate at TRU.
Margaret Dore shared some of her experiences with assisted suicide in Washington State, where the practice became legal through a ballot measure four years ago.
"A lot of people think this is a great idea until they start thinking and reading about how you do it," she told an audience of about 30 people in the Irving K. Barber Centre.
In effect, laws in Washington and Oregon empower people who may choose to abuse the responsibility, Dore said.
"Your heir can be there to help you sign up. Once the legal dose leaves the pharmacy, there is no oversight whatsoever."
Thursday, April 19, 2012
Assisted Suicide: Debate Deals with Abuse, Compassion
A right to medically assisted suicide may sound compassionate and just, but beware the details when it comes to the act itself, a U.S. lawyer warned Wednesday in a debate at TRU.
Margaret Dore (wearing brown suit) shared some of her experiences with assisted suicide in Washington State, where the practice became legal through a ballot measure four years ago.
“A lot of people think this is a great idea until they start thinking and reading about how you do it,” she told an audience of about 30 people in the Irving K. Barber Centre.
In effect, laws in Washington and Oregon empower people who may choose to abuse the responsibility, Dore said.
“Your heir can be there to help you sign up. Once the legal dose leaves the pharmacy, there is no oversight whatsoever.”
Monday, April 16, 2012
Debates This Week: Margaret Dore v. Wanda Morris!
This Wednesday and Thursday in Kamloops and Kelowna: Margaret Dore vs. Wanda Morris! More information below. To view a poster for the Kelowna debate, click here. To view Margaret Dore's recent column in the New York Times, click here.
Kamloops: Wednesday, April 18, 2012
Kamloops: Wednesday, April 18, 2012
Time: 7:00 pm
Location: 900 McGill Road, Kamloops B.C.
Venue: Irving K. Barber Centre, Thompson Rivers University
Debaters: Margaret Dore, President of "Choice is an Illusion," vs Wanda Morris, Executive Director of Dying with Dignity Canada
Kelowna: Thursday, April 19, 2012
Kelowna: Thursday, April 19, 2012
Time: 7:00pm
Location: Mary Irwin Theatre, at the Rotary Centre for the Arts
Venue: 421 Cawston Avenue, Kelowna, BC, Canada
Debaters: Margaret Dore, President of "Choice is an Illusion," vs Wanda Morris, Executive Director of Dying with Dignity Canada
Debaters: Margaret Dore, President of "Choice is an Illusion," vs Wanda Morris, Executive Director of Dying with Dignity Canada
This Week: Margaret Dore vs. Wanda Morris!
More debates this Wednesday and Thursday:
http://epcdocuments.files.wordpress.com/2012/04/cfi_debate_poster.pdf
http://epcdocuments.files.wordpress.com/2012/04/cfi_debate_poster.pdf
Friday, April 6, 2012
Will Johnston to Debate Wanda Morris, this coming Thursday!
Dr. Will Johnston, Chair of the Euthanasia Prevention Coalition, BC, will be debating Wanda Morris, Executive Director, Dying with Dignity Canada, this coming Thursday! See below:
Vancouver: April 12, 2012
Vancouver: April 12, 2012
Time: 7:00 pm
Location: Simon Fraser University
Venue: SFU-Harbourside Campus Room 1900;
515 West Hastings Street, V6B 5K3
Dr. Johnston and Ms. Morris are both skilled debaters. It will be an interesting program. Please show up to give Dr. Johnston your support!
More information:
The debate is the second in a series of debates to be held across Canada over the next few months. The debate coordinator is the Centre for Inquiry. Future debates are scheduled for Kamloops, Kelowna, Calgary, Saskatoon and Toronto. Specifics:
Kamloops: April 18, 2012
Dr. Johnston and Ms. Morris are both skilled debaters. It will be an interesting program. Please show up to give Dr. Johnston your support!
More information:
The debate is the second in a series of debates to be held across Canada over the next few months. The debate coordinator is the Centre for Inquiry. Future debates are scheduled for Kamloops, Kelowna, Calgary, Saskatoon and Toronto. Specifics:
Kamloops: April 18, 2012
Time: 7:00 pm
Location: 900 McGill Road, Kamloops B.C.
Venue: Irving K. Barber Centre, Thompson Rivers University
Debaters: Margaret Dore, President of "Choice is an Illusion," vs Wanda Morris, Executive Director of Dying with Dignity Canada
Kelowna: April 19, 2012
Kelowna: April 19, 2012
Time: 7:00pm
Location: Mary Irwin Theatre, at the Rotary Centre for the Arts
Venue: 421 Cawston Avenue, Kelowna, BC, Canada
Debaters: Margaret Dore, President of "Choice is an Illusion," vs Wanda Morris, Executive Director of Dying with Dignity Canada
Calgary: April 22, 2012
Debaters: Margaret Dore, President of "Choice is an Illusion," vs Wanda Morris, Executive Director of Dying with Dignity Canada
Calgary: April 22, 2012
Time: 3:30 pm
Location: Science Theatre Bldg, Room ST140
Venue: University of Calgary, 2500 University Dr. N.W., Calgary
Debaters: Dr. Will Johnston, Chair of the Euthanasia Prevention Coalition, BC vs Wanda Morris, Executive Director of Dying with Dignity Canada
Saskatoon: May 3, 2012
Debaters: Dr. Will Johnston, Chair of the Euthanasia Prevention Coalition, BC vs Wanda Morris, Executive Director of Dying with Dignity Canada
Saskatoon: May 3, 2012
Time: 7:00 pm
Location, etc.: To be determined
Toronto: June 6, 2012
Toronto: June 6, 2012
Time: 7:00 pm
Location, etc.: To be determined.
For more up to date information, contact the debate host and coordinator, the Centre for Inquiry, or the individual speakers. Dr. Johnston can be reached at 604 220 2042. Margaret Dore can be reached at 206 697 1217.
For more up to date information, contact the debate host and coordinator, the Centre for Inquiry, or the individual speakers. Dr. Johnston can be reached at 604 220 2042. Margaret Dore can be reached at 206 697 1217.
Hope to see you there!
Sunday, February 5, 2012
Teen Suicide: "Assisted sucide law sends contradictory message"
From the US State of Vermont where the state legislature is considering a bill to legalize assisted suicide under an Oregon-style law:
http://vtdigger.org/2012/02/01/page-assisted-suicide-law-sends-contradictory-message/
Article printed from VTDigger: http://vtdigger.org/
URL to article: http://vtdigger.org/2012/02/01/page-assisted-suicide-law-sends-contradictory-message/
URLs in this post:
http://vtdigger.org/2012/02/01/page-assisted-suicide-law-sends-contradictory-message/
Editor’s note: This op-ed is by Guy Page, a parent and resident of Cambridge.
In the Jan. 19 mail I received a letter from Lamoille Union High School, where my daughter is enrolled. It begins with the following sentence: “Over the last few years Vermont has seen an increase in suicide among young people.” It went on to describe a school initiative to hopefully address this awful development. I hope they are successful. All of my children have friends, or friends of friends, who have taken their own lives.
My eldest son, Tim, was a constant suicide risk through his teens. Through the wise, compassionate help of state social workers, Tim escaped his teen years alive. I can tell you that he was personally shaken by the implications, to him, of the proposed assisted suicide law several years ago. When he heard about it, my brilliant, troubled son began to shake in anger and almost despair. “Those hypocrites,” he said. “They’ve been telling me all this time that suicide is never OK.” It didn’t matter when I said the law is meant to address another set of problems – his teenaged hypocrisy-o-meter had already pegged assisted suicide as another example of “do as I say, not as I do, it’s all right for adults, not OK for kids.”
Recently I researched teen suicide in Oregon, where assisted suicide became legal in 1998. According to the Oregon health department website, there were more teen suicides after the law passed than before — 1999: 29 suicides. 2000: 44 suicides. 2001: 31. 2002: 37. 2003: 46. 2004: 52. The last two years were the highest two-year period in their survey. Furthermore, 94 percent of teen suicide attempts leading to hospitalization were caused by ingesting drugs – the only form of assisted suicide permitted by Oregon state law. Kids learn from their elders.
In the Jan. 19 mail I received a letter from Lamoille Union High School, where my daughter is enrolled. It begins with the following sentence: “Over the last few years Vermont has seen an increase in suicide among young people.” It went on to describe a school initiative to hopefully address this awful development. I hope they are successful. All of my children have friends, or friends of friends, who have taken their own lives.
My eldest son, Tim, was a constant suicide risk through his teens. Through the wise, compassionate help of state social workers, Tim escaped his teen years alive. I can tell you that he was personally shaken by the implications, to him, of the proposed assisted suicide law several years ago. When he heard about it, my brilliant, troubled son began to shake in anger and almost despair. “Those hypocrites,” he said. “They’ve been telling me all this time that suicide is never OK.” It didn’t matter when I said the law is meant to address another set of problems – his teenaged hypocrisy-o-meter had already pegged assisted suicide as another example of “do as I say, not as I do, it’s all right for adults, not OK for kids.”
Recently I researched teen suicide in Oregon, where assisted suicide became legal in 1998. According to the Oregon health department website, there were more teen suicides after the law passed than before — 1999: 29 suicides. 2000: 44 suicides. 2001: 31. 2002: 37. 2003: 46. 2004: 52. The last two years were the highest two-year period in their survey. Furthermore, 94 percent of teen suicide attempts leading to hospitalization were caused by ingesting drugs – the only form of assisted suicide permitted by Oregon state law. Kids learn from their elders.
Does this “prove” a link between the Oregon physician-assisted suicide law and teen suicide? No. But the burden of proof is on those who say, “Don’t worry, it will all be OK, none of our teens will think that.” As a parent of an at-risk child, I think this law may unintentionally tell other troubled teens “when it gets too hard it’s okay to end it all.” As the letter from my daughter’s high school says, the real world is a very hard place for some teens right now, and I think this law will just make it harder.
There are plenty of other reasons to oppose this bill. Before my wife passed in February 2011, she was appalled and upset at end-of-life questions asked of her in the ICU that to her seemed motivated by hospital cost-control. It drove a (thankfully temporary) wedge of distrust between her and her caregivers. So Vermont Insurance Commissioner Steve Kimball’s newspaper comments connecting this end-of-life issue with the high cost of health care were chilling. By contrast, Orange County Sen. Mark MacDonald’s daughter was one of Diane’s nurses and provided skilled, affirming care that should be the goal of the state’s health policy. But for me the teen suicide connection is reason enough for the Senate to drop this bill before it does irreversible harm.
There are plenty of other reasons to oppose this bill. Before my wife passed in February 2011, she was appalled and upset at end-of-life questions asked of her in the ICU that to her seemed motivated by hospital cost-control. It drove a (thankfully temporary) wedge of distrust between her and her caregivers. So Vermont Insurance Commissioner Steve Kimball’s newspaper comments connecting this end-of-life issue with the high cost of health care were chilling. By contrast, Orange County Sen. Mark MacDonald’s daughter was one of Diane’s nurses and provided skilled, affirming care that should be the goal of the state’s health policy. But for me the teen suicide connection is reason enough for the Senate to drop this bill before it does irreversible harm.
URL to article: http://vtdigger.org/2012/02/01/page-assisted-suicide-law-sends-contradictory-message/
URLs in this post:
Thursday, January 26, 2012
The Leblanc Case: A Recipe for Elder Abuse and a Threat to the Individual
Margaret Dore
January 26, 2012
"Those who believe that legal assisted
suicide/euthanasia will assure their
suicide/euthanasia will assure their
autonomy and choice are naive."
William Reichel, MD
Montreal Gazette,
May 30, 2010[1]
A. Introduction
Leblanc vs. Attorney General of Canada brings a constitutional challenge to Canada's law prohibiting aiding or abetting a suicide. Leblance also seeks to legalize assisted suicide and euthanasia as a medical treatment. In 2010, a bill in the Canadian Parliament seeking a similar result was overwhelmingly defeated.
Legalization of assisted suicide and/or euthanasia under Leblanc will create new paths of elder abuse. This is contrary to Canadian public policy. Legalization will also empower the health care system to the detriment of individual patients.
A. Introduction
Leblanc vs. Attorney General of Canada brings a constitutional challenge to Canada's law prohibiting aiding or abetting a suicide. Leblance also seeks to legalize assisted suicide and euthanasia as a medical treatment. In 2010, a bill in the Canadian Parliament seeking a similar result was overwhelmingly defeated.
Legalization of assisted suicide and/or euthanasia under Leblanc will create new paths of elder abuse. This is contrary to Canadian public policy. Legalization will also empower the health care system to the detriment of individual patients.
Wednesday, January 4, 2012
"No bill has made it through the scrutiny of a state legislature, even after 100 attempts"
Published in the National Post: http://fullcomment.nationalpost.com/2012/01/04/todays-letters-e-cigarettes-will-still-prove-deadly-to-smokers/
Poll: 67% Support Assisted Suicide, Dec. 30.
Tom Blackwell’s article reporting that 67% of Canadians poll in favor of assisted suicide is déjà vu all over again for readers in the United States. The superficial and often misleading poll questions on this topic produced similar statistics in a number of U.S. states over the years.
One superficial assumption is that there’s no meaningful distinction between suicide and assisted suicide — most people know that it could tip the scales if your doctor and family members agreed that it was time for you to go.
Another factor is that the phrase “physician-assisted suicide” implies that a trust-worthy doctor is the only assistant. However, the language of assisted suicide laws actually immunizes all potential suicide assistants from any type of liability, not just doctors.
And, finally, there’s a vague sense of comfort that safeguards can ensure that the process is voluntary. But even if the relatively flimsy protections leading up to the lethal prescription are assumed to be ironclad, once the lethal drugs are in ones home, the law does nothing to ensure that they are taken voluntarily.
All in all, a closer look at this complex issue raises so many doubts that only two of our 50 states have legalized the practice by ballot referendum, and no bill has made it through the scrutiny of a state legislature, even after 100 attempts.
Diane Coleman, president/CEO Not Dead Yet, Rochester, N.Y.
Poll: 67% Support Assisted Suicide, Dec. 30.
Tom Blackwell’s article reporting that 67% of Canadians poll in favor of assisted suicide is déjà vu all over again for readers in the United States. The superficial and often misleading poll questions on this topic produced similar statistics in a number of U.S. states over the years.
One superficial assumption is that there’s no meaningful distinction between suicide and assisted suicide — most people know that it could tip the scales if your doctor and family members agreed that it was time for you to go.
Another factor is that the phrase “physician-assisted suicide” implies that a trust-worthy doctor is the only assistant. However, the language of assisted suicide laws actually immunizes all potential suicide assistants from any type of liability, not just doctors.
And, finally, there’s a vague sense of comfort that safeguards can ensure that the process is voluntary. But even if the relatively flimsy protections leading up to the lethal prescription are assumed to be ironclad, once the lethal drugs are in ones home, the law does nothing to ensure that they are taken voluntarily.
All in all, a closer look at this complex issue raises so many doubts that only two of our 50 states have legalized the practice by ballot referendum, and no bill has made it through the scrutiny of a state legislature, even after 100 attempts.
Diane Coleman, president/CEO Not Dead Yet, Rochester, N.Y.
"What I have witnessed will change any Canadian's opinion in a hurry"
Published in the National Post: http://fullcomment.nationalpost.com/2012/01/04/todays-letters-e-cigarettes-will-still-prove-deadly-to-smokers/
The poll conducted by Forum Research further exploited voters’ own fear of their personal uncertain future. If the poll question was: “If evidence found that close to 50% of the legalized deaths are without consent, would you still legalize euthanasia/assisted-suicide?,” I guarantee that the poll would show drastically different results.
I have had to live in a long-term care facility since 2000. What I have witnessed here will change any Canadian’s opinion in a hurry.
Robert Greig, Montreal.
The poll conducted by Forum Research further exploited voters’ own fear of their personal uncertain future. If the poll question was: “If evidence found that close to 50% of the legalized deaths are without consent, would you still legalize euthanasia/assisted-suicide?,” I guarantee that the poll would show drastically different results.
I have had to live in a long-term care facility since 2000. What I have witnessed here will change any Canadian’s opinion in a hurry.
Robert Greig, Montreal.
"What happened in the Netherlands can happen next in Canada"
Published in the National Post: http://fullcomment.nationalpost.com/2012/01/04/todays-letters-e-cigarettes-will-still-prove-deadly-to-smokers/
I have studied assisted suicide in the Netherlands since 1988. At first there was no law against assisted suicide. When there was a law, doctors were supposed to obtain the patient’s consent — but they did not, often performing euthanasia when they thought the patient would benefit. The doctor was supposed to get a second opinion from a colleague — but often did not. The doctor was supposed to report the assisted suicide to the government — but often did not.
What happened to the Netherlands can happen next in Canada.
Dr. William Reichel, affiliated scholar, Center for Clinical Bioethics at the Georgetown University School of Medicine, Timonium, Md.
I have studied assisted suicide in the Netherlands since 1988. At first there was no law against assisted suicide. When there was a law, doctors were supposed to obtain the patient’s consent — but they did not, often performing euthanasia when they thought the patient would benefit. The doctor was supposed to get a second opinion from a colleague — but often did not. The doctor was supposed to report the assisted suicide to the government — but often did not.
What happened to the Netherlands can happen next in Canada.
Dr. William Reichel, affiliated scholar, Center for Clinical Bioethics at the Georgetown University School of Medicine, Timonium, Md.
Monday, January 2, 2012
"If euthanasia were legal, the wife, not wanting to die, would still be a victim"
The Danger of Euthanasia
By Alex Schadenberg, Ottawa Citizen
Re: Time to rethink euthanasia, Dec. 29.Marcel Lavoie implies that legalizing euthanasia would stop violent deaths in the elderly, such as the death of Doreen Flann by stabbing.
In many of these deaths, the perpetrator-husband also kills himself for a murder-suicide.
In Oregon, where assisted-suicide has been legal since 1997, murdersuicide has not been eliminated. Indeed, murder-suicide follows the national pattern.
Moreover, according to Donna Cohen, an expert on murder-suicide, the typical case involves a depressed, controlling husband who shoots his ill wife: "The wife does not want to die and is often shot in her sleep. If she was awake at the time, there are usually signs that she tried to defend herself."
If euthanasia were legal, the wife, not wanting to die, would still be a victim.
Our laws against assisted suicide and euthanasia are in place to protect vulnerable people. Assisted suicide and/or euthanasia should not be legalized in Canada.
[For more indepth information, see Dominique Bourget, MD, Pierre Gagne, MD, Laurie Whitehouse, PhD, "Domestic Homicide and Homicide-Suicide: The Older Offender," Journal of the American Academy of Psychiatry and the Law, September 2010 (Canadian study); Don Colburn, "Recent murder-suicides follow the national pattern," The Oregonian, November 17, 2009; and “Murder-suicides in Elderly Rise: Husbands commit most murder-suicides – without wives’ consent” ]
Alex Schadenberg, London
Executive Director, Euthanasia Prevention Coalition
Sunday, January 1, 2012
No Right to be Killed by Others
http://www.nationalpost.com/todays-paper/right+killed+others/5931282/story.html
Re: Poll: 67% Support Assisted Suicide, Dec. 30.
I am greatly perplexed when I hear euthanasia proponents talk about a "basic human right to die," when there is no such thing. We are all going to die anyway, so let's please be honest and call it what it is: The right to be killed by somebody else. I am deeply disturbed by people who overlook the failure of the euthanasia experiments in other countries. Why do they coldly dismiss all those hundreds of people who have been euthanized without their consent? Do they consider them collateral damage? Would they call for an absolute right to drive for everybody, even if they knew lots of innocent people would be killed by incompetent drivers? I don't think so.
Canada rightly forbade capital punishment, due to the fact that no system can guarantee that no one will be killed by mistake. We have the freedom to make choices, but those choices should not hinder the safety of others, especially our most vulnerable.
Rene Leiva, physician, Ottawa.
Re: Poll: 67% Support Assisted Suicide, Dec. 30.
I am greatly perplexed when I hear euthanasia proponents talk about a "basic human right to die," when there is no such thing. We are all going to die anyway, so let's please be honest and call it what it is: The right to be killed by somebody else. I am deeply disturbed by people who overlook the failure of the euthanasia experiments in other countries. Why do they coldly dismiss all those hundreds of people who have been euthanized without their consent? Do they consider them collateral damage? Would they call for an absolute right to drive for everybody, even if they knew lots of innocent people would be killed by incompetent drivers? I don't think so.
Canada rightly forbade capital punishment, due to the fact that no system can guarantee that no one will be killed by mistake. We have the freedom to make choices, but those choices should not hinder the safety of others, especially our most vulnerable.
Rene Leiva, physician, Ottawa.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)