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January 2005
In light of the seminar discussion, here are some of the questions raised which provided our food for thought:
If a person has terminal conditions and suffers heavily, should they have the moral right to seek assistance from partner or relatives to end their life?
What should the law state with regards Euthanasia (Assisted suicide)?
If legitimised, how would Euthanasia be regulated in order to allow only genuine moral acts?
What conditions would need satisfying for individual cases of Euthanasia to be sanctioned?
What impact would terminating the life of a suffering partner/relative have on the individual undertaking such task?
How do we determine ‘the right state of mind’ necessary for such a decision to be made and acted upon?
Is Euthanasia murder? Consider religious beliefs.
Up to 15,000 people a year could be helped to commit suicide under planned new laws, peers heard yesterday. They are debating a euthanasia bill that would let the terminally ill receive assistance to die. Bill proposer Lord Joffe reckons seven percent could use such a law. Baroness Finlay added: “I make that about 15,000 deaths a year, potentially.” Some Brits have escaped charges for helping suicides. But Attorney-General Lord Goldsmith said the CPS would not reveal their criteria for deciding whether to prosecute.
Related Web resources
kindly provided by Rachel Coulshed:
http://www.rense.com/general/kvork.htm
5-31-00
SYDNEY (AFP) - Australia's "Dr Death" said Wednesday he plans to bypass
national law by performing euthanasia on a ship anchored in international waters.
Philip Nitschke, who has assisted in the deaths of four people, told Australian
reporters in London that he wanted to use a hospice-equipped ship to deliver
"peaceful deaths." He said he had sought legal advice on operating
the vessel outside Australia's territorial waters and was in discussions with
"interested parties." "I want to see if I can operate a vessel
outside the 200 milekilometre) international shipping limit and take advantage
of international law to allow patients access to a peaceful death," he
said. "I believe one is bound by the conventions of the nation under which
the ship is registered, so it will not be simple, but I am seriously looking
at the possibilities." If a legal loophole, and financial backing are found
it would be the first ship-delivered euthanasia service in the world. Nitschke
said demand would be great as around 200 people had contacted him seeking assistance
for their suicides in the past 18 months. He was in London to display his "Death
Machine" at the Science Museum. Consisting of a computer, a case, a syringe
and tubes, the machine was originally used in Darwin in 1996 by Bob Dent, the
first man in the world to die under legally sanctioned euthanasia following
the introduction of legislation in the Northern Territory. Under the law, two
doctors had to confirm a patient was terminally ill and suffering unbearable
pain before life could be ended. A psychiatrist had to confirm the patient was
not suffering from treatable clinical depression. Three others took advantage
of the the law before it was overriden in a conscience vote by Australia's upper
house, the Senate, following strong condemnation by opponents including church
leaders and Aborigines. Nitschke said he had reluctantly accepted the term "Death
Machine" because he had "nothing better" to call it. The device
had been sitting in his garden shed outside Darwin for two years.
He cancelled negotiations to sell it to Sydney's Powerhouse Museum claiming
political pressure from Canberra had prompted the curators to tell him it would
not be displayed. "That would have been the same as burying it," he
said. The Science Museum said it had no views for or against euthanasia but
recognised it was a significant issue in contemporary medicine. "Our aim
in acquiring the euthanasia machine is to stimulate thoughtful and responsible
public debate about the issue," the Museum said in a statement. Nitschke's
machine will be displayed in a new wing of the museum, touted as the world's
leading centre for presenting medical science and technology to the public.
By Dominic Kennedy http://www.thetimes.co.uk/news/pages/tim/2000/05/31/timnwsnws03027.html
5-31-00
The world's first machine to kill sick people legally has arrived at the Science
Museum with its Australian inventor, whose support for euthanasia earned him
the nickname "Dr Death".
Philip Nitschke's euthanasia machine killed four people in the Northern Territory
of Australia before the Federal Parliament in Canberra overruled the state's
eight-month-old right-to-die legislation in March 1997.
The machine will go on display at the new £50 million Wellcome Wing of
the Science Museum in London, which opens in July. Dr Nitschke was helping curators
last night to assemble the device, which John Durant, the museum's assistant
director, described as "disturbing".
The Science Museum paid £1,000 for the euthanasia machine, which had been
gathering dust in the doctor's shed in Darwin after Sydney's Powerhouse Museum
rejected the exhibit under pressure from outraged politicians. The Science Museum,
now the permanent owner, said that the payment was only to help Dr Nitschke
to replace the Toshiba laptop computer whose space bar was pressed by the agonised
patients in their last act to end their lives.
The doctor moved the machine to Britain hurriedly when some politicians threatened
to deem it an "item of cultural significance" to prevent it from being
exported.
The machine administered a huge dose of Nembutal, the barbiturate that killed
Judy Garland and Marilyn Monroe. Candidates for voluntary euthanasia in the
Northern Territory had to be inspected by four doctors: one to confirm that
they were terminally ill; a psychiatrist to ensure that they were sane; a palliative
care expert; and Dr Nitschke himself.
Each patient was given a nine-day "cooling off" period to decide if
they wanted to postpone their death, then Dr Nitschke would arrive.
"It was always difficult," he said. "When you knocked on that
door, the patient knew you were coming there to end their life."
Dr Nitschke attached a needle to the patient's arm and placed the laptop on
the bed. The computer asked the patient twice if they knew what they were doing
and that if they pressed the button they would die. The third time the question
was asked, the patient had to press the space bar to answer yes. Any other button
would abort the suicide.
Fifteen seconds after they pressed the button, a message was sent to a switching
unit, which turned on a compressor. A 14in tube containing 100 millilitres of
liquid Nembutal was then forced up a thin wire into the patient's arm, putting
them to sleep within 30 seconds and killing them within five minutes.
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Article: The
Times On-line
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/newspaper/0,,173-1448048,00.html
Ms Lawson, a former bank manager who had suffered from multiple sclerosis for 14 years and was unable to care for herself, asked her brother to be with her while she put a plastic bag over her head.
She “howled” in despair, however, every time that she pulled the bag off her head, unable to resist taking a breath. After more than a day of trying to die, she succeeded on the eighth attempt.
Mr Lawson, an agricultural worker, called a GP, and then the police arrived and arrested him. In the first case of its kind in Britain, the decision by police and prosecutors on whether to take action hinged on the failure of Mr Lawson to dial 999 as his sister took her life at her home in Kent.
Describing the experience in December 2003, Mr Lawson, 35, said: “I had been staying with her for about a month, when she was really, really ill. She was sitting in her wheelchair and said, ‘Right, I’ve had enough. I want to do it’. I carried her upstairs to her bed. She took an overdose and she suffocated herself with a bag — she wanted to make sure that she died.
“I don’t think I should have stopped her, because of her determination and her bravery. This seems wrong to say, but it was quite an amazing thing to see. Sue told me she wanted to die and she asked if I would be there for her. I made a promise that I would.”
Ms Lawson’s suicide attempt began at 3pm and she died at about 5.30pm the next day, he said. “Her body was fighting to live but she overrode it. She was determined. I was just being compassionate.”
The Director of Public Prosecutions, Ken Macdonald, informed Mr Lawson’s solicitors that no action would be taken against him.
Deborah Annetts, chief exe-cutive of the Voluntary Euthanasia Society, said:
“Sue’s case illustrates the dilemma that faces people towards the
end of their lives under our cruel law”.
Tracey
Created 21:02:04