Here is a link to the Life News story on the Rasouli case that will be heard by a Canadian court next month. http://www.lifenews.com/2011/04/19/canada-supreme-court-to-hear-key-euthanasia-case-in-may/ The Rasouli case involves an important issue concerning whether doctors need consent before withdrawing life sustaining medical treatment. Richard M.
Category: Euthanasia
Courtesy of Wesley Smith’s blog, here is a link to some insightful commentary by Dr. Diane Meier on assisted suicide. Meier was a proponent of assisted suicide, but has changed her view on the issue. Her emphasis is on palliative care. http://www.firstthings.com/blogs/secondhandsmoke/2011/04/08/assisted-suicide-ex-proponent-dr-diane-meier-speaks-wisdom/ Richard M.
Here is a link to a piece by Bill Saunders (of Americans United for Life) on two pro-life heroes–Pope John Paul II and Terri Schiavo. http://www.lifenews.com/2011/04/07/heroes-for-life-pope-john-paul-ii-and-terri-schiavo/ Richard M.
Here is a link (from the National Right to Life News and the blog of Peter Saunders) to a troubling instance of assisted suicide. http://www.nationalrighttolifenews.org/news/2011/04/nanmaitland1/ Richard M.
That’s the report on Wesley Smith’s blog. See http://www.firstthings.com/blogs/secondhandsmoke/2011/03/31/culture-of-death-elderly-belgian-couple-euthanized-together/ Smith asks: “Why is anyone surprised? Once we accept killing is an acceptable answer to human suffering, there are no brakes. Belgium is merely jumping the most enthusiastically off the vertical moral cliff.” Richard M.
Professor John Keown (Kennedy Institute of Ethics, Georgetown University) will be giving a lecture in London (Attlee Suite, Portcullis House, Westminster) on May 16, 2011. The lecture, which is entitled “The provision of palliative care: an ethical and legal duty?”, is sponsored by by the Anscombe Bioethics Centre. See http://www.bioethics.org.uk/ Professor Keown will also speak on […]
Here, courtesy of Frank Zapatka, are some reflections on passages in John Updike’s last book that address the life issues. Richard M. Here are Frank’s comments– The late John Updike (1931-2009) makes several casual references to life issues in five stories in his last book, My Father’s Tears and Other Stories (NY: Knopf, 2009). As […]
Dr. Andrew Trew will conduct a series of five workshops titled “Bioethics in Clinical Care” in the metropolitan Cleveland, Ohio area February 16 and 23 and March 2, 16, and 23. Participants can earn ten CME/CEU credits. Topics include bioethics consultations, treatment decisions, competent and incompetent patients, early life and end of life care, advanced […]
On the European Life Network blog, Pat Buckley has an interesting post about a case in India that raises some of the same issues presented in the Terri Schiavo case. http://europeanlifenetwork.blogspot.com/2011/02/could-this-be-indias-terry-schiavo-case.html The case involves Aruna Shanbaug who has been seriously disabled since 1973. One interesting twist is that the effort to have Ms. Shanbaug’s feeding halted comes from a […]
Here is Wesley Smith’s commentary on some of the problems with a Vermont bill that would legalize assisted suicide. http://www.firstthings.com/blogs/secondhandsmoke/2011/01/24/vermont-assisted-suicide-bill-the-usual-loophole-scam/ Richard M.