Category: Euthanasia

Belgian Catholic psychiatric hospitals ‘adjust’ their view of euthanasia

BioEdge

Michael Cook*

One of the last substantial barriers to increasing the number of euthanasia cases for non-terminally-ill psychiatric patients in Belgium seems to have crumbled.  A religious order in the Catholic Church, the Brothers of Charity, is responsible for a large proportion of beds for psychiatric patients in Belgium – about 5,000 of them. The international head of the order, Brother René Stockman, is a Belgian who has been one of the leading opponents of euthanasia in recent years.  Nonetheless, in a surprise move this week, the board controlling the institutions of the Brothers of Charity announced that from now on, it will allow euthanasia to take place in their psychiatric hospitals. . . . Full Text

21 in Saskatchewan choose death with medical assistance

‘We all want to die with dignity,’ says palliative care director

CBC News

Danny Kerslake

For about a year, it has been legal to die with medical assistance in Canada. Almost two dozen people in this province have chosen that option and ended their lives.

“We all want to die with dignity,” said Carmen Johnson, medical director of Palliative Care at Pasqua Hospital in Regina.

According to numbers obtained by CBC, as of the end of March, 21 people in Saskatchewan have died with medical assistance since the federal government’s assisted-dying law passed last June. . . [Full text]

 

Politicians wrestle with doctors’ consciences in Victoria

Conscientious objection needs to be protected

MercatorNet
Reproduced with permission

Paul Russell*

As the Victorian Ministerial Advisory Panel on “assisted dying” makes ready to release its interim report sometime in April, The Age newspaper turned its attention to the matter of conscience whether a doctor may refuse to take part in any action that would bring about the premature and deliberate death of a person.

Conscience – or the ability to draw upon one’s own personal belief system in making a decision about an action – plays out at different levels in any debate on euthanasia and assisted suicide. . . [Full text]

 

Fewer than half of assisted-death requests in Nova Scotia have been granted

Provincial stats on medical assistance in dying include applications filed between June 2016 and March 2017

CBC News

Frances Willick

Sixty-seven Nova Scotians have requested medical assistance to die since Canada’s assisted dying legislation was passed last June.

But of those 67 applicants, only 31 actually received medical help to die.

The Nova Scotia Health Authority, which oversees assisted dying in the province, said there are several reasons why the remaining applicants may have not received the help they requested. . . .[Full text]