Doctors in the Netherlands are proposing to harvest organs from euthanised people to increase the number of life-saving organs available for transplant. If approved, the procedures would be binding on hospitals and doctors throughout the country. The move is spurred on by what transplant surgeons consider the waste of healthy organs. “An estimated 5 to 10% of Read more
Brittany Maynard’s mother is calling the Vatican’s response to the 29 year old’s decision to terminate her life “more than a slap in the face”. In a sharply written response to the Vatican, Debbie Ziegler said the comments came at the wrong time; while the family was grieving. Monsignor Ignacio Carrasco de Paula, head of the Read more
Pope Francis denounced the right to die movement on Saturday, saying that euthanasia is a sin against God and creation. The Latin American pontiff said it was a “false sense of compassion” to consider euthanasia as an act of dignity. He classified as equally false the belief that abortion helps women. Rather, the image of Read more
Labour leadership contender Andrew Little says he does not want a colleague to restart the highly divisive debate on legalising euthanasia when the party is trying to restore confidence with voters. Labour’s Palmerston North MP Iain Lees-Galloway has taken over responsibility for the End of Life Choice Bill after sponsor Maryan Street failed to get Read more
New Zealand Catholic Bioethics Centre director John Kleinsman wonders how free Brittany Maynard really was. Maynard, a terminally ill 29 year old American ended her life last week home in Oregon, using drugs supplied legally to her under the state’s Death with Dignity Act. She worked as a volunteer advocate for the nation’s leading end-of-life choice organisation, Read more
Did Brittany Maynard die freely? This is the question that must be asked after the attractive 29-year-old woman with a brain tumour announced earlier in the week that she would probably postpone the assisted suicide she had scheduled for Saturday, November 1. “I still feel good enough, and I still have enough joy — and Read more
A Vatican ethicist has condemned young American Brittany Maynard’s decision to end her life. Msgr Ignacio Carrasco de Paula, who is head of the Pontifical Academy for Life, said there was no dignity in her physician assisted death. Ms Maynard, 29, took a lethal prescription provided by a doctor under Oregon state’s death-with-dignity law. Earlier Read more
A Christchurch father’s call for the right to end his life has reignited debate about assisted-suicide for the terminally ill. Philip Broderick, 33, has the same type of brain cancer as American Brittany Maynard, who chose to end her life this week. Palmerston North Labour MP Iain Lees-Galloway said he would take the debate forward Read more
Suicide has never looked more vivacious. In Brittany Maynard, advocates of assisted suicide have found their ideal spokeswoman. She is not an aging hippy embittered by her loss of energy. As far as one can tell, she is neither a radical individualist nor a nihilist. She is, by all appearances, a loving, life-embracing young woman. Read more
A question hangs over the future of the End of Life Choices private member’s bill because its sponsor, Maryan Street, has not been elected to the new parliament. The proposed bill provided for both physician-assisted euthanasia (PAE) and physician-assisted suicide (PAS). The Bill was introduced in 2012 but was withdrawn in September 2013. The reason Read more