February 17, 2025
(New York Times) – In the Netherlands, doctors and dementia patients must negotiate a fine line: Assisted death for those without capacity is legal, but doctors won’t do it. Ms. Mekel, 82, has Alzheimer’s disease. It was diagnosed a year … Read More
February 17, 2025
(Washington Post via MSN) – In a pastoral Vermont valley, a former hospice chaplain named Suzanne runs a retreat center for artists, health-care workers and educators — and, since mid-2023, terminally ill people seeking a safe, peaceful place to die. … Read More
February 12, 2025
(Military.com) – Marine Corps drill instructors are a national symbol of discipline. But for some, their imposing persona belies a dark reality. Logan Sowell’s suicide in July 2021 is one of at least seven in the past five years involving … Read More
February 3, 2025
(The Times) – A palliative care doctor is called to A&E to attend to an elderly man who has arrived in severe pain with metastasised prostate cancer. “I just want to die,” he tells her. Yet when she sits with … Read More
January 28, 2025
(The Telegraph) – Terminally ill patients given six months to live often survive for three years, official figures have revealed, fuelling fresh concern over assisted dying becoming legal Patients who are given a prognosis of six months by their doctors … Read More
January 17, 2025
(Washington Post via MSN) – In statehouses across the country, lawmakers this year will consider bills that, if widely adopted, could chart a new course for how Americans approach end-of-life decisions by giving terminally ill patients a legal means of … Read More
January 16, 2025
(Undark) – The Netherlands allows medically assisted euthanasia for extreme mental suffering. Some doctors question the guardrails. In recent years, Dutch psychiatrists have seen a steep upswing in requests for medical assistance in dying, or MAID, on psychiatric grounds, rising … Read More
January 10, 2025
Developing World Bioethics (vol. 24, no. 4, 2024) is available online by subscription only. Articles include:
December 20, 2024
(National Post) – A new report from Health Canada confirms that more than 60,000 lives have been lost to “medical assistance in dying” in Canada between 2016 and 2023. Euthanasia was supposed be the exception to the rule, but Canada … Read More
December 19, 2024
(The Guardian) – At the last minute, Zoë decided to call off her euthanasia. But how do you start over after you’ve said all of your goodbyes? Everybody gathered round the bed. Evelien was standing at the head. She had … Read More
December 18, 2024
Theoretical Medicine and Bioethics (vol. 45, no. 6, 2024) is available online by subscription only. Articles include:
December 12, 2024
(IBTimes) – An annual report by the Canadian government showed that deaths by euthanasia have steadily grown since it became legal. Since the establishment of Canada’s Medical Assistance In Dying (MAID) law in 2016, more than 60,000 people have used … Read More
December 9, 2024
(Christianity Today) – Advocates of the bill say assisted dying is a compassionate response to the excruciating pain experienced by many terminally ill patients. But Christian leaders from a variety of denominations in the UK say that this decision devalues … Read More
December 4, 2024
(Colorado Public Radio) – A patient with terminal cancer approached Dr. Barbara Morris in 2019 for help ending his own life. The Colorado End of Life Options Act, which allowed for it, had passed with broad voter support just a … Read More
December 2, 2024
(Associated Press) – British lawmakers gave initial approval on Friday to a bill to help terminally ill adults end their lives in England and Wales, following an impassioned debate that saw people sharing personal stories of loss and suffering. Members … Read More
December 2, 2024
(The Spectator) – Those all seem to me good, cogent and to my mind compelling arguments for rejecting the proposed bill on Assisted Dying. Yet I can’t help thinking that Christian faith still has something deeper to bring to this … Read More
December 2, 2024
(BBC) – A transsexual has been helped to die by doctors in Belgium, after a series of failed sex-change operations. Nathan Verhelst, born a girl, asked for help to end his life on grounds of psychological suffering. He died in … Read More
November 27, 2024
(BBC) – For the first time in almost a decade MPs are going to vote on giving terminally ill adults in England and Wales the right to have an assisted death. While it’s something that remains illegal in most countries, … Read More
November 25, 2024
(Wall Street Journal) – Actress Liz Carr warns that no society can permit assisted suicide without endangering the disabled. When an able-bodied person says something like that about himself, it’s a tragedy, and society seeks to prevent suicide. Plaques offering … Read More
November 21, 2024
(Associated Press via MSN) – The right-to-die activist behind a new “suicide capsule” says he rejects “absurd” allegations that the U.S. woman who was said to be its first user may have actually been strangled. Philip Nitschke of advocacy group … Read More
November 20, 2024
(New York Times) – Her fight for disability rights included founding a group called Not Dead Yet, which protested the work of Dr. Jack Kevorkian and others. Diane Coleman, a fierce advocate for disability rights who took on Dr. Jack … Read More
November 18, 2024
(The Telegraph via MSN) – The assisted dying bill risks opening the door to “non-voluntary euthanasia”, the former chief coroner has warned. Ahead of a free vote on assisted dying at the end of the month, Thomas Teague KC, who … Read More
November 18, 2024
(New York Times) – Earlier this year, my mother ended her life via medical aid in dying, also known as MAID. She had A.L.S., so she was suffering in many ways, and her choice to die in this manner felt … Read More
November 18, 2024
Hastings Center Report (vol. 54, Issue 5, 2024) is available online by subscription only. Articles include:
November 15, 2024
(Military.com) – Suicides increased among U.S. military personnel last year, an ongoing trend Pentagon officials say they plan to address with a $125 million investment in prevention and mental health programs next year. The rate for active-duty personnel rose to … Read More