assisted suicide – News Stories About assisted suicide - Page 4

OPINION

Nov 1, 2012 12:41 PM CDT

Suicide by Choice Is a Fantasy

Patients near end of life are surrounded by 'invisible coercion': Ben Mattlin

(Newser) - A proposed law in Massachusetts to make assisted suicide legal has built-in rules to make sure patients aren't coerced into the decision, but journalist and author Ben Mattlin thinks the concept of coercion is murky, dangerous water, he writes in the New York Times . The subject is close to...

'Death With Dignity' Should Become the National Norm

OPINION

Oct 29, 2012 1:55 PM CDT

'Death With Dignity' Should Become the National Norm

And it may, thanks to proposed Massachusetts act: Lewis Cohen

(Newser) - “It is time we became pro-choice at the end of life,” writes Lewis M. Cohen, and Massachusetts’ Death With Dignity Act, poised to pass on Election Day, could finally make that happen. The ballot question, if approved, could “turn death with dignity from a legislative experiment into...

A Sick Doctor
Shines Light
on Assisted
Suicide

Aug 12, 2012 3:30 PM CDT

A Sick Doctor Shines Light on Assisted Suicide

Richard Wesley: typical of those who consider an early death

(Newser) - The slow degeneration of a Seattle doctor is sad to see, but his plight shines a spotlight on surprising facts about assisted suicide, the New York Times reports. Richard Wesley, stricken with Lou Gehrig's disease, has only a short time to live—but thanks to Washington state's Death...

Inside the Murky World of Elderly Assisted Suicide

May 17, 2012 10:41 AM CDT

Inside the Murky World of Elderly Assisted Suicide

Case of Calif. husband who watched wife die raises unanswered questions

(Newser) - The headline of a heart-wrenching story from the Los Angeles Times neatly poses a long-debated question: "Assisted suicide or a show of love?" In this instance, the Times dives into the case of Alan Purdy, an 88-year-old who was booked on suspicion of assisting in a suicide (the district...

Ross Douthat on the Right to Die: Jack Kevorkian Was No Hero

'Dr. Death'
Kevorkian
Was No Hero

OPINION

Jun 6, 2011 1:44 PM CDT

'Dr. Death' Kevorkian Was No Hero

Do those not terminally ill have the right to die?

(Newser) - Many in America celebrate Jack Kevorkian as a humanitarian champion—but “the moral case for assisted suicide depends much more on our respect for people’s own desire to die than on our sympathy for their devastating medical conditions,” writes Ross Douthat in the New York Times . “...

Jack Kevorkian Dead at 83

obituary

Jun 3, 2011 8:20 AM CDT

Jack Kevorkian Dead at 83

Assisted suicide advocate hospitalized since last month

(Newser) - Jack Kevorkian, longtime advocate of assisted suicide, died early this morning at age 83. Kevorkian had been hospitalized in Michigan since last month for kidney trouble and pneumonia. A friend tells the AP he recently spoke to Kevorkian about his pending release and rehabilitation, "then I left and he...

Suspect:
Victim
Paid Me
to Kill Him

Feb 17, 2011 1:39 AM CST

Suspect: Victim Paid Me to Kill Him

Trial may set precedent in assisted suicides

(Newser) - Is murder still murder when the victim hires his own killer? A New York City jury may soon face that question and set a precedent on assisted suicide judgments, when a bizarre murder trial starts today. Defendant Kenneth Minor— arrested after motivation speaker Jeff Locker was found stabbed to death...

Germany OKs Assisted Suicide in Some Cases

Jun 25, 2010 11:15 AM CDT

Germany OKs Assisted Suicide in Some Cases

Euthanasia with patients' consent permitted, court rules

(Newser) - A German court made a landmark ruling in favor of euthanasia today, overturning the conviction of a lawyer who’d advised a family to cut a comatose relation’s feeding tube. The patient, 71-year-old Erika Kuellmer, had made it clear she didn’t want to be kept alive if she...

EBay De-Lists Kevorkian's Van

Apr 27, 2010 11:56 AM CDT

EBay De-Lists Kevorkian's Van

Says it violates 'murderabilia' rule

(Newser) - Jack Kevorkian's old assisted suicide van can't be sold on eBay, the company decided yesterday, because it's “murderabilia,” and hence violates eBay's policies. The 1968 Volkswagen van had drawn a high bid of $3,400 before the company pulled it down, telling the AP that it “does...

Suicide Law
Sees 63 Apply,
36 Die in 9 Months

'DEATH WITH DIGNITY'

Mar 5, 2010 9:12 AM CST

Suicide Law Sees 63 Apply, 36 Die in 9 Months

Prescriptions for lethal drugs aren't always used, and 3 attempts failed

(Newser) - Washington State’s Death with Dignity medical suicide law was enacted a year ago today, and in the first 9 months 63 terminally ill patients were prescribed fatal medication and 36 used it to end their lives. Three people attempted to use the drugs but failed; one vomited them back...

BBC Announcer:
'I Smothered
Dying Lover'

Feb 16, 2010 4:56 AM CST

BBC Announcer: 'I Smothered Dying Lover'

Ray Gosling confesses to mercy killing of lover with AIDS

(Newser) - British police plan to investigate a BBC presenter's confession that he smothered a lover who was dying of AIDS. "In a hospital one hot afternoon, the doctor said, ’There’s nothing we can do’. He was in terrible, terrible pain," Ray Gosling revealed in a program on...

Jury Acquits Mom for Helping Daughter Die

Jan 26, 2010 9:56 AM CST

Jury Acquits Mom for Helping Daughter Die

British woman had been charged with attempted murder

(Newser) - A jury today acquitted a British woman who helped her 31-year-old disabled daughter commit suicide. Bridget Gilderdale, 55, had been charged with attempted murder after giving her daughter a cocktail of morphine and other drugs to help end her life. The daughter, Lynn Gilderdale, had been afflicted with the chronic...

Montana Court OKs
Assisted Suicide

3 states and counting

Dec 31, 2009 5:51 PM CST

Montana Court OKs Assisted Suicide

State's top judges rule that doctors can't be prosecuted

(Newser) - Montana's highest court today cleared the way for doctors to help their terminally ill patients commit suicide. Physicians who do so can't be prosecuted, says the ruling, which makes Montana the third state to legalize the practice after Oregon and Washington, notes Bloomberg . “We find nothing in Montana Supreme...

Home Movie
Reveals
'Toking'
Monroe

Dec 2, 2009 2:08 AM CST

Home Movie Reveals 'Toking' Monroe

'It was just a get-together,' says pal who filmed smokin' star

(Newser) - A recently surfaced home movie of Marilyn Monroe shows the star languorously sucking on what a friend revealed is a marijuana joint as she lounges with pals. Monroe takes a hit before vamping for the camera in a New Jersey apartment sometime in the 50s. The movie was purchased by...

Swiss Crack Down
on 'Suicide Tourism'

Oct 29, 2009 3:55 AM CDT

Swiss Crack Down on 'Suicide Tourism'

Assisted suicides to be restricted to the terminally ill

(Newser) - Swiss authorities are trying to cut back on the numbers of people swarming its borders with the intention of dying. The government plans to cut back or even ban assisted suicide amid concerns that too many people—some of them not suffering terminal illnesses—are traveling to Switzerland for assisted...

Swiss Politicians Battle 'Suicide Tourism'

Sep 21, 2009 5:10 AM CDT

Swiss Politicians Battle 'Suicide Tourism'

As Britain eases rules, Switzerland fears rush of ill bent on killing themselves

(Newser) - Swiss politicians have stepped up efforts to battle "suicide tourism" as British officials prepare to announce new rules expected to make it easier for citizens to cross borders to die, reports the Independent. Some 115 Britons have died at assisted suicide operations run by Dignitas in Switzerland. Assisted suicide...

Montana May Be 1st
to Make Suicide a Right

Sep 1, 2009 11:15 AM CDT

Montana May Be 1st to Make Suicide a Right

If affirmed, state would be first to guarantee right constitutionally

(Newser) - The Montana Supreme Court tomorrow will take up the issue of—and likely affirm the right to—assisted suicide, the New York Times reports. The case is being brought on behalf of Robert Baxter, who died last year from leukemia after fighting for the right to end his own life....

Ezekiel Emanuel
No 'Doctor Death'

OPINION

Aug 11, 2009 10:09 AM CDT

Ezekiel Emanuel No 'Doctor Death'

Reform opponents grossly distort bioethicist's record

(Newser) - To hear conservative bloggers tell it, Ezekiel Emanuel, Rahm’s brother, is a bean-counting euthanasia enthusiast who wants to deny care for the disabled. The New York Post dubbed him a “deadly doctor,” and Sarah Palin warned supporters to fear his “Orwellian thinking.” It’s pretty...

British MS
Victim Wins Key Right-to-Die Ruling

Jul 31, 2009 7:12 AM CDT

British MS Victim Wins Key Right-to-Die Ruling

Court orders that current law be clarified

(Newser) - A British woman has won her legal battle to force the government to clarify its law on assisted suicide, the Guardian reports. Multiple sclerosis sufferer Debbie Purdy, whose health is deteriorating, wants to travel to a Swiss euthanasia clinic to die when her condition becomes unbearable. Britain's highest court agreed...

Couple's Pact Worries Anti-Suicide Groups

Jul 15, 2009 2:28 AM CDT

Couple's Pact Worries Anti-Suicide Groups

(Newser) - Anti-suicide campaigners fear that the death of a British conductor and his wife in a Swiss suicide clinic this week will cause a rise in "together forever" suicides among the elderly, the Times of London reports. Edmund Downes, 85, chose to die alongside his terminally ill wife. Church groups...