http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/story/0,21985,23103766-2862,00.htmlMercy kill debate to go ahead

Ellen Whinnett

January 25, 2008 12:00am

VICTORIA is set for an explosive parliamentary debate on euthanasia after the Government agreed not to block the introduction of a Private Member’s Bill.

Liberal MP Ken Smith has agreed to introduce a Bill to let doctors help terminally ill patients commit suicide.

Greens MP Colleen Hartland will co-sponsor the Medical Treatment (Physician Assisted Dying) Act 2008, some time in the next six months.

Premier John Brumby’s office has written to the pro-euthanasia group Dying with Dignity and assured them it will not stand in the way of the Bill if it is introduced.

Mr Brumby’s spokeswoman, Alison Crosweller, said no formal request had been made to introduce the Bill.

Children’s and Women’s Affairs Minister Maxine Morand had previously supported the group’s causes.

But Ms Morand could no longer be a sponsor of the Bill as she has been promoted to Cabinet and is not permitted to sponsor anything except government business.

Dying With Dignity president Neil Francis said he was confident the group would have a replacement co-sponsor from Labor’s side of politics, but he would not say who that would be.

MPs already have many controversial social issues this year, including decriminalising abortion, providing IVF to single and lesbian women, and setting up a register for same-sex couples.

But Mr Brumby has never shown support for altering the laws relating to assisted suicide of terminally ill people.

Mr Smith, the Member for Bass, said he felt very strongly about the issue and would definitely be introducing the Bill.

“It’s something I believe in very strongly,” he said.

“I will be talking to my party but I plan to introduce it anyway.”

The move by a Liberal to introduce the Bill is likely to be controversial and cause considerable debate within the party.

If it gets through to a second-reading stage, it’s likely the party would be given a conscience vote.

Mr Smith said he was committed because he had seen members of his family die from cancer.

“I don’t believe a person suffering a terminal illness, in terrible suffering and pain, should have to go through a period with no dignity, before dying.”

Mr Francis said surveys showed 35 per cent of doctors had giving medication to terminally ill patients, expecting they would use it to take their lives.

21 January 2008 from IPP Media – Dar es Salaam (Tanzania)
http://www.philly.com/philly/news/20080120_Upper_Darby_man_kills_daughter_and_self.html 
HIV/AIDS and challenges of euthanasia, suicide
21 Jan 2008
By Keregero KeregeroThe emergency of HIV/AIDS in our society has caused and continues to cause great havoc including the terrible loss of people`s right to life. As a matter of fact, the pandemic has interfered with an individual`s right to life in several ways:The bitter sufferings arising from the pandemic may lead to euthanasia. Euthanasia stands for physician assisted suicide.
Although in the past it has been emphasised that human life must be allowed to continue until a natural end, HIV/AIDS has, on one hand posed challenges including a deliberate call to the effect that euthanasia can be allowed to enable critically ill AIDS patients to die amicably with less pain and dignity, according to Godffrey Ijumba\’s Training Manual for Mass Media Practitioners on HIV/AIDS.

On the other hand, the protracted poignant pangs and sufferings the pandemic imposes on People Living with HIV/AIDS (PLHAs), has led to many attempted suicide and suicidal incidents, most of which are unreported.

In another perspective, stigma has caused and will still cause a considerable number of people to take away their lives but only to give different scapegoats for their untimely death, cushioned in seemengily unclear phrases such as “he or she has died after suffering brief spells“ or that “they suddenly died“, when as a matter of fact, the gentleman or the lady simply committed suicide to relieve themselves of the poignant pangs and sufferings brought about by the pandemic.

Euthanasia goes to the roots of the ethics of the medical profession, by which ethics the medical personnel are obliged by the medical oath to save life however painful.

Sometimes, it is done at the instigation of the patient or the health care provider or family and close relatives.

However, were it to be allowed, euthanasia would disregard the fact that every one has got a right to life; that due to unpredictability, a critical AIDS patient of previous month may well be in robust health in another month.

Moreover,allowing euthanasia may provide an excuse to get rid of the unfortunate members of humanity like the mentally sick, lepers and others, according to Human Rights Basic Texts, Dar es Salaam, May 2006, page.7.

Suffice it to note that the above observation notwithstanding,the euthanasia call or debate emanates from the fact that some patients with advanced manifestations of the pandemic in the absence of a cure, ask for a right to die.

AIDS patients are also subjected to immense societal and personal pressure.

The suicidal attempts should therefore be understood in that light.

Many AIDS patients have tended to reason that since death will surely come, it is better to hasten it to avoid pain for both relatives and the infected as well as the attendant financial burden.

Although such reasoning is not necessarily right, its logic can be appreciated.

In the circumstances, we hold the view that where HIV/AIDS infected persons attempt suicide, more sympathy and understanding should be demonstrated by responsible authorities just as in other cases where the patients have terminal diseases, for instance, terminanal cancer, though contracting HIV/AIDS is no defence against criminal prosecution.

This should be more entertained especially to those who are merely HIV positive and may still live for years and benefit from a future care.

On the other hand, poverty has also been singled out as a cause and often a product of human rights violation including the right to life.

It is this double edge that makes poverty probably the greatest human rights challenge in the world. In Tanzania, the problem of abject poverty speaks for itself.

Tanzania is the 166 out of 177 poorest countries of the world, according to Robert V. Makaramba in his paper titled “Human Rights Provisions in the Constitution of the United Republic of Tanzania: Notes for for a Briefing session for Journalists on Human Rights,“ held at UNICEF Conference Room No.1 on the 6th December, 2006 .

In some cases people have taken their lives in the ugly face of abject poverty. Early last year, a Dar es Salaam City hawker popularly known as “machinga“ committed suicide after his make shift shop was razed down to the ground by a municipal bulldozer.

The machinga left behind him a tragic message saying the decision of the Ilala Municipality rendered him too poor to re-pay a bank loan he had taken for business purposes, hence resorted to taking his own life as a solution for the problem!

However, that apart there have unfortunately been reported incidents of people committing suicide after they tested HIV positive.

The incidents are several and various and no doubt such a number is likely to increase in the near future in the light of the fact that many of such incidents may not be reported to responsible organs: A resident of Maramba village in Mkinga District, Mariam Ninde(25), committed suicide in her room by hanging herself using a piece of rope after she tested HIV positive, according to Tanga Regional Police Commander Simon Nyakaro Sirro.

Frank Sanga(22) a former Form Six student at St.Aggrey Secondary who was living at Uyole locality, Mwawamji street in Mbeya City committed suicide on December 19th,2007 in similar circumstances, according to information relayed by Justin Sanga, an elder brother of the deceased.

Simon Mwakasindile alias Maneno (29) also hanged himself in his room at Kibaoni in Singida after his girl friend informed him that she had tested and found to be HIV positive, according to Celina Kaluba, Singida Regional Police Commander.

In Dar es Salaam, Mohammed Omari (29) committed suicide in his room by using a khanga after he tested HIV positive, according to Kinondoni Regional Police Commander Assistant Inspector Jamali Rwambo.

These incidents are not taking place in Tanzania alone but in many other places in Africa and the world at large.

For instance, in South Africa a person was killed upon declaring that he was HIV positive; many others have committed suicide in different styles.

In Malawi a woman killed her nine year old son with an axe after discovering that they were both HIV positive.

The mother and the child both tested HIV positive in a hospital in the Northern District of Karonga after suffering prolonged bouts of malaria.

At this juncture we appeal to fellow compatriots, especially those already affected and those living with HIV/AIDS, not to commit suicide for there is still life ahead for those infected and patients.

As a matter of fact researches have shown that some of the PLHAs have lived with AIDS for 13 years as in the case of a servant of God, Pastor Amin Sandewa of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Tanzania (ELCT); others have lived with it for more than 15 years now, such as Canon Gideon Byamugisha, another servant of God, who is a christian leader in the service of the Anglican Church in Uganda. He knew of his sero status since 1992.

And, still others have lived with it for more than 20 years, researches have further shown.

Moreover, contracting HIV/AIDS does not necessarily mean one will die the following day; it is certainly not a valid “instant death certificate.“

We therefore further appeal to all health service providers not to divulge information of HIV patients to third parties unless it is effected by the operation of the law or dictated by any other exceptional lawful requirement.

This is because unlawfully divulging such information to third parties causes PLHAs to face stigma that may lead to their being descriminated, dejected, ostracised and even committing suicide, at the end of the day.

There is evidence that even health service providers living with HIV/AIDS themselves have been facing stigma from even their fellow members of staff in hospitals, a documented confession by those infected with the pandemic has revealed.

The confession is documented in the “lET US Break the Silence,“ A U$ 145,OOO documentary in a form of film which was shot and produced in Tanzania.

The documnentary contains tales of bitter experiences of health providers, including the ugly face of marauding stigma.

* SOURCE: GUARDIAN

19 January 2008 from BusinessNorth (Duluth MN)

 

http://www.businessnorth.com/kuws.asp?RID=2141

 

Doctor assisted suicide bill gets first hearing in Wisconsin Wednesday

“Death with Dignity” or doctor assisted suicide will get a public hearing in Madison next week. Danielle Kaeding reports in Superior.
It’s called the ‘Death with Dignity’ bill, and it’s the first time in 10 years that it will receive a public hearing. State Representatives Fred Risser of Madison and Frank Boyle first introduced the bill in 1994. That was the same year Oregon became the first state in the nation to legalize doctor assisted suicide. Boyle says it’s time to follow Oregon’s lead and let people choose whether they want to live or die. “It’s not the slippery slope of euthanasia as the opponents have indicated we’re going to be dicing and slicing people. It’s a compassionate alternative to what could be a very painful death and demise as we see in a number of serious cases.” But the opposition is organized and strong. Wisconsin Right to Life Legislative Director Susan Armacoft argues that people suffering from serious illnesses often change their minds. “When they don’t feel well, they may want to die. When feeling better, they may want to live. You have a patient suffering depression who may request death not knowing that their quality of life can be improved with proper treatment. If we endorse this legislation, it’s going to teach individuals who are weak and frail that they actually have a duty to die.” Both will testify at the hearing before the Senate Committee. The hearing is set for Wednesday Jan. 23 in a Senate committee.

18 January 2008 from All Headline News  

http://www.allheadlinenews.com/articles/7009751367 

Jack Kevorkian Speaks Out Against Catholic Doctors, Religion And Oregon’s Suicide Law
span style=”font-size: 10pt; font-family: ‘Arial’,’sans-serif’”>January 17, 2008 6:01 p.m. EST

Matthew Borghese – AHN News Writer
Gainesville, FL (AHN) – Dr. Jack Kevorkian surprised a crowd of over 5,000 people at the University of Florida (UF) Tuesday night when he unleashed an attack on the “made up mythology of religion,” and said that while in medical school he never took the Hippocratic Oath.
Kevorkian, 79, spent his time in Gainesville meeting with the UF ACCENT Speakers Bureau and speaking with students at a question-and-answer session ahead of his sold-out speech at the Stephen C. O’Connell Center, Tuesday evening. Throughout the day though, Kevorkian’s theme remained focused on the often overlooked 9th Amendment and the “terrible crisis” that is gripping the nation.
Aside from what some students called a “rambling tirade on law,” Kevorkian did take some time to address the issue that most had come to hear; physician-assisted suicide. Kevorkian said he disagreed with an Oregon law that mandated a patient must take the suicidal medicine himself. Kevorkian has long maintained that suicide must be treated as a medical procedure, with the direct intervention of a physician, who will make sure there is an immediate and painless death.
“It’s got to be a medical service. That’s the only way to control it… It must be a medical service, so the obstacle is the [American Medical Association]. All you have to do is declare it to be a medical service, legitimately, and they’ll take care of all the rest of it, just like they do with every medical procedure. You can’t dictate medical procedures by law; they change all the time; research changes.”
“My aim was not to cause death, that’s crazy. My aim was to end suffering.” Kevorkian cited modern examples of physician-assisted suicides, including the medically-involved deaths of author Mark Twain, psychologist Sigmund Freud and British King George V.
Yet from there, Kevorkian digressed into an attack on Catholic doctors, the Hippocratic oath and religion. Kevorkian said that the Hippocratic oath “wasn’t discussed in medical school, and our class never took the oath. It isn’t a medical oath; you pledge allegiance to all the gods and goddess, the pagan gods and goddesses of Greeks – what sense is that today?” He added that the Hippocratic oath was the byproduct of a “secret, small Pythagorean sect” that was the only group to oppose the ancient tradition of a physician helping a terminally ill patient end his life.
“The only oath we have, the only ethics we have in medicine are religious ethics” and “religion is nothing more than a made-up mythology [and] the basis of religion is fear.”
“A doctor limited by dogma isn’t a real physician; he should have been a priest,” Kevorkian said. “They think life’s sacred… I don’t feel sacred, frankly. I’ve got a life and I don’t feel sacred.”
Overall, students felt Kevorkian should have spent more time talking about physician-assisted suicide, the issue that brought him to trial five times in the 1990’s and finally led to his conviction in 1999. “It’s good to hear his point of view,” UF undergraduate student Kristen Perry said. “I don’t know if i would go so far as to say that euthanasia should be legalized, but I think if it is, he’s definitely right about how we should go about doing it.”
Another issue ahead of the speech was protests. While local activist groups like the UF on-campus branch of the Pro Life Alliance organization claimed almost a hundred demonstrators would show up, AHN found a meager handful of bused-in retirees and high school students on hand for the event. A graphic banner equating abortion to physician-assisted suicide was silently put up while bland signs saying “DEATH isn’t welcome here” were handed out to a handful of demonstrators who braved 40-degree weather to get their message out.
Bobby Schindler, brother of the late Terri Schiavo, was also scheduled to make an appearance amid the tight security the university arranged for the event. However, despite starting a petition to persuade UF to rescind its offer to Kevorkian and speaking out against the speech to several pro-life groups, Schindler was an inexplicable no-show on Tuesday.
Local and university police were on hand, but the protesters gathered without even a chant and went largely unnoticed by a sold-out crowd that began lining up hours before the event. In the end, it was Kevorkian’s radical comments on race, religion and the state of the Union that became the bombshell.

http://www.bradenton.com/331/v-print/story/314212.html

Excerpts from editorials in Florida newspapers

The Associated Press

Jan. 8, 2008

The (Fort Myers) News-Press, on how the complicated three-drug “cocktail” used in Florida executions should be changed:

Florida and other states that use drugs to execute capital criminals should stop dragging their feet and change the prescription.

It’s pretty clear now that the three-drug cocktail developed as a humane alternative to the electric chair or gas chamber is itself unreliable. There’s a better way, readily available, but someone needs to take the lead. It should be Florida, which has been
studying the matter since the last botched lethal injection.

The U.S. Supreme Court heard arguments Monday on whether it violates the constitutional ban on cruel punishment to use methods that carry an unnecessary risk of pain and suffering, and if an alternative is available.

The simple sodium pentobarbital overdose used to put down pets is apparently more reliably painless than the complicated three-drug “cocktail” in general use in executions. Sodium pentobarbital can cause involuntary muscular contractions that are gruesome to watch but are not evidence of suffering.

We need to apply the least painful, most effective method of execution, not because murderers deserve humane treatment but because we are not a nation of torturers. It’s for our sake, not theirs.

Exceptionally brutal crimes demand capital punishment, in the name of justice. The argument that the death penalty deters crime is hard to make. It may in some cases. Generally, the evidence is inconclusive.

But if we are going to use capital punishment, we have several moral obligations, the first of which is to be as sure as possible of the suspect’s guilt. The use of DNA has exonerated a painfully large number of men on death row, but not enough to invalidate
execution. We just need to try harder, and one way is to spend what it takes to make full use of DNA technology, and to provide defendants with competent lawyers and appeals.

We should also move cases along more briskly. There is no good reason for men to linger for 15 or 20 years or longer on death row. If there is a question about their guilt, lift their death penalty.

And finally, the method of execution should be reasonably humane.

In sodium pentobarbital we have such a method. We should use it, without being forced to by the high court.

17 January 2008 From LifeSite News

http://www.lifesite.net/ldn/2008/jan/08011607.html

 
Kevorkian Denounces Unnamed “Tyrant,” Pushes for Euthanasia in Florida Speech

Angrily defends “right” to carry cocaine, to smoke marijuana in interview with local newspaper

 

 By Hilary White and John Jalsevac

GAINESVILLE, Florida, January 16, 2008 (LifeSiteNews.com) – The US’ most notorious euthanasia activist, Jack Kevorkian, spoke at the University of Florida in Gainesville yesterday, despite thousands of protest emails having been sent about his appearance.

Nicknamed “Dr. Death”, the former pathologist served eight years of his 10-25 year sentence for the 1998 second degree murder of Thomas Youk, who had suffered from Lou Gehrig’s disease. Kevorkian was released from prison on parole last June.

Pro-life advocates rallied outside as the 79 year-old former pathologist spoke for an hour to nearly 5000 students and faculty, defending his actions and calling US lawmakers “a criminal group” for refusing to legalize euthanasia. The students’ speakers bureau paid Kevorkian $50,000 for his appearance. He was given an additional $7,500 by UF’s Foundation after the appearance had to be rescheduled.

In his speech Kevorkian claimed that he didn’t intend to cause the death of his victims. “My aim helping a patient was not to cause death. I mean, that’s crazy,” he said. “My aim was to end the suffering.”

“I am a physician. I knew how to do it. … I did it humanely.”

Kevorkian railed against US lawmakers who refuse to legalize euthanasia. “We have a bunch of cruel dictators,” he said. “Everyone should refuse to vote. That would send the tyrant a message.”

A central theme of Kevorkian’s speech was that law is intrinsically anti-liberty. He also repeatedly referred to “the tyrant,” who seeks to control people with law, thereby removing their “natural rights”.

“Every law is an infraction of liberty. Every law! So when you see those law books in the lawyers office – hundreds of laws!…Those are all the rights you’ve lost. You can’t use ‘em. All law can stop you from doing is using the right that you have naturally.”

“That’s the problem. The tyrant owns the legislative branch, owns the laws. Anything he wants he just makes a law. Now he’s got you controlled.”  

The aging doctor repeatedly referred to euthanasia as a medical solution to a medical problem. At one point the doctor responded to a question, in which he was asked what he thought of the fact that many people believe that suicide is wrong, and believe that it is “unpardonable because forgiveness cannot be asked after it is done.” 

“Don’t introduce religion into a medical problem,” responded the doctor, at which point the crowd burst into uproarious cheering.

In an interview with the Gainesville Sun, conducted before the speech, a visibly angry Kevorkian repeatedly invoked the Constitution’s ninth amendment as justifying his actions, and denounced an unnamed tyrannical ‘they,’ apparently identified with “the tyrant”.

“I’m trying to understand where your anger is aimed,” says the interviewer at one point, after Kevorkian had begun yelling at him.

“My anger is aimed at my rights being blocked!” retorted Kevorkian. “By whom?” he was then asked. “I don’t know!” the doctor yelled back. “But the point is that I’ve got the power to fight ‘em. It’s in the highest law in the land.”

“I am born with every right. To pick my nose when I want. To carry cocaine in my pocket when I want. To smoke marijuana when I want. As long as I don’t hurt anyone or threaten them.”

“They’ll do anything to stay in control. They’ll lie through their teeth,” he continued.

“Who is the ‘they’?” the off-camera reporter asks.

“They’re tyrants. No one knows who they are,” Kevorkian responded. “You don’t think the president runs the country do ya? That dumbbell? He can’t think his way out of a…I like what Mollie Ivins said. ‘If his IQ sinks any lower we’re going to have to water him twice a day.’”

In his 70-minute long speech, Kevorkian touched on numerous other topics, besides euthanasia, including the war in Iraq and the United States’ penal system. Kevorkian is forbidden to give details about how to commit suicide or euthanasia, according to his terms of parole. “Let’s start with euthanasia. I can’t talk much about it. I’m on parole,” he said towards the beginning of his speech, which remark was greeted with appreciative laughter. “I guess this is the first time you’ve heard an ex-con speak.”

“You think Iraq is a war?” he said at one point. “That’s not a war. That’s a modified genocide.”

“Violence breeds common violence,” he said in his remarks on the prison system. “Putting a man or woman in prison is violence.” Instead of prisons and jury trials, Kevorkian advocated a system where criminals could claim “sanctuary” in a designated area, and then work to come to an agreement about a just punishment with the victims of their crime

Kevorkian claims to have “ended the suffering” of at least 130 people and he developed a medical machine to allow patients to administer lethal doses of drugs to themselves.

He has promised that he will commit no more “mercy killings” but will be spending his remaining years campaigning for legalization of euthanasia. “It’s got to be decriminalized and the law has to step out of the picture,” he said.

To read further coverage and to view video footage of Kevorkian’s speech see:
http://www.gainesvillesun.com/article/20080116/NEWS/80116033…

To view the Gainesville Sun’s interview with Kevorkian, see:
http://www.gainesvillesun.com/article/20080115/MULTIMEDIA/85…

Choice Comments:  I’d asked the writer of the previous segment  No More Words, Reeve Lindbergh’s book for more detail regarding the availability and details of the book,   Here is her response unedited except for exclusion of the writer’s name.  Choices!!

From “ No More  Words”  

 Page 46-47  by Reeve Lindbergh. (Daughter of Anne & Charles Lindbergh)

ISBN 0 7432- 0313-5  Simon & Schuster

 Previously Reeve points out that we all read at a higher level than most of us write…..how true… Most of us can read Shakespeare, but can we write like Shakespeare?. …  

 The following section spoke so deeply to me…

  How many of us have taken our loved animals to the Vet for their final sleep….. isn’t this what we hope and want for our final sleep? Isn’t this what we are working for?  For our selves and our loved ones, and  for all who cry out in despair for a choice other than pain. And in memory of those who did not leave in this way.

 

I could never have put these words together   Regards (name deleted)

 _____

                           

The Hamster Died….. It was one of a pair Ben got this October.

 I found the dead hamster when I went to wake Ben. It didn’t look bad to me . It was a little furry death.  Stiff of course, as I discovered when I put my hand in to verify the animals condition. But there was nothing violent here, and nothing ugly; no seeping liquids, and no grotesque positioning of limbs.

 I though immediately of the death of my sister’s dog, Sydney, only a few weeks earlier. He was a terrier who had outlived his mistress by six years and was almost twenty, in dog years a Methuselah. Still he persistently lived on, year after year, doing well until this fall, when his back legs stopped working properly. At first he trembled as he moved, and then when he was quiet, too.  Later he could only hop, though his terrier tail nonetheless wagged as furiously as ever when he dragged himself along. He confused us with his happiness.

 Ann’s daughter Connie and I took him to be put to sleep, both of us patting him on the head and cuddling him warmly in an old black- and- red- checked blanket. The needle went in and the dog, blessedly, did go to sleep, while one tear ran down Connie’s cheek.

 

“I was just remembering him when we got him as a puppy Aunt Reeve” she explained, as if embarrassed, while we continued patting, soothing, and murmuring. Sydney breathed evenly several times under our hands, and there was a hush in the room like snow in the air. Then he stopped trembling for the first time in many weeks, and then he just stopped.

He was the same dog, in the same blanket, and we were still patting him in the same way, and it felt exactly the same except that he had stopped, and it was absolutely silent where he lay.

 The unexpected quiet after the expected death came as a relief to me. It was very much like what happens in my mind when the snowfall, silent and inevitable, finally covers the ground and changes the season beyond doubt. Yes. Now you know that Autumn is indeed over and Winter has begun

When I catch myself thinking these thoughts, as I did when I was standing over the hamsters cage, I am shocked. What am I trying to do, anyway? Establish some kind of cozy relationship with death? The hamsters death?, the dog’s death? My mother’s death in anticipation, my own death in rehearsal? How can anyone realistically expect to prepare for any death at all?

 I purchased the book on the internet for US$1:00  postage was about $12:00

This excerpt was received by email from a friend, whose own story it could well be -  It explains so graphically why some of us are Pro Choice.

  Excerpt from “ No More Words” by Reeve Lindbergh  Pages 77-78

 Writing about her mothers’ six year long journey to death on  7 Feb 2001

 This is the way I think about my mother’s movement. Whether towards the bathroom or towards her death.. It happens so slowly that I don’t believe it is happening at all.

When she sits in her chair all day long, as she usually does unless she stays in bed, every few hours someone comes over to her chair and suggests to my mother that it might be a good time to get up and walk. Then she rises, with support, and takes the handles of her walker, and prepares to move. As I see it every part of this sequence takes tremendous effort on her part. At every stage, the whole process is in doubt.

 

Will she get all the way up onto her feet, or will she sink down again in her chair? When she is up finally, can she stand on her two feet for long enough to steady herself? When she is steady will she have enough energy left after the exertion of rising and standing to take one step forward? If she takes one step, does she have the strength to take another?

 The whole thing seems inconceivable, yet I watch it happen. On the inside of my mother’s frail body, where it counts, the heart and the will are as strong and firm as the arms and legs are weak and unsteady. And so, as she has always done, she prevails.

 

She is up. Long pause. She is steady. Longer pause. She is moving at her infinitesimal pace.

---

  The writer informs me that:

                                      Anne Lindburgh was  the wife of Charles Lindburgh, together they flew and charted the routes for USA airlines among other pioneering things. She could navigate at night by using the stars as her compass. She was an inspiration to many women in the 50’s  with her book ” Gifts From The Sea” 

This book is very descriptive of the journey  of aging for both the individual and the family. This family could afford 24 hour carers.

 

There is also a segment on taking the dog to be “put down”

  I don’t know what any of their “Choices” were, but I feel reading between the lines there is anger and frustration at the situation they were in. There is also mention that Charles took matters into his own hands  with his illness by discharging himself from hospital and going to his home in Hawaii to die….

 

Choice Comments: It is rather pleasing to learn that the Pro Life will not get their way in having Kevorkian banned by speaking to the students of an American University. That censorship has not prevented “free speech for the individual”…..Does it matter whether a terminally or chronically ill person is suffering depression and choose to hasten their suffering with or without that additional health burden?. I believe any normal person suffering great distress would be “depressed” by their circumstances. I can’t say I would be swinging off the chandeliers with happiness if I was suffering intolerable pain. “Curing the depression” by “jollying” people out of the perception of the seriousness of their condition does not remove the underlying cause of the depression! With or without pills for the depression, they still have the terminal or chronic illness!

If the students who oppose listening to an alternative point of view to their own go on into the work force with the same closed minds, they won’t ever be open to hear the voices servicing other people’s needs. Dictatorships in the making? “My way or no way”, would be the lessons they learned at University. I learned lateral and flexible thinking as part of my course.

Only a religious person able to fight through the barrier of the pain threshold by believing it is “God’s Will” to suffer appalling pain for the cleansing of the soul, may cope. Other simple mortals like myself who believes in Humanism, and even a great many religious folk being honest with themselves, would appreciate the alternative to ongoing suffering, with a peaceful pill, or a quick fix with a dose of Nembutal.

 

 

 

13 January 2008 from the Independent Florida Alligator (University paper?)

http://www.alligator.org/articles/2008/01/11/news/uf_administration/emails.txt

Machen’s inbox flooded with anti-Kevorkian e-mails

By LIA GANOSELLIS, Alligator Writer

An upcoming speech at UF from Dr. Jack Kevorkian, who spent eight years in prison for assisting more than 130 suicides, has spurred about 1,000 e-mails to UF’s administration in the past few days.

The letters all request one thing — cancel the date with Dr. Death.

Kevorkian is scheduled for a speech at the O’Connell Center Tuesday night sponsored by Accent, Student Government’s speakers bureau.

Kevorkian, a retired doctor who specialized in disease diagnosis, was released on parole in June.

Janine Sikes, UF spokeswoman, said she and UF President Bernie Machen plan to respond to every e-mail.

Although each one is from a different address, they are all identical in form, and UF doesn’t know who’s leading the effort, Sikes said.

“With the forced starvation of Terri Schiavo still fresh in our nation’s memory,” one e-mail states, “I am appalled that a convicted felon like Dr. Kevorkian is being given the microphone at the University of Florida.”

Katherine Schinn, president of UF’s Pro-Life Alliance, said she didn’t know about the e-mails or who was responsible for them, although her organization plans to protest the speech Tuesday.

Schinn and her group plan to demonstrate with signs and fliers but “no crazy stunts,” she said.

She said she disagrees with Kevorkian’s actions because many of the 130 patients Kevorkian helped die were not physically ill but rather suffering from depression.

Several services for suicidal students exist at UF and in most cities, but Kevorkian’s patients weren’t offered similar help, Schinn said.

Yiana Michalakopoulos, a UF classics and pre-med sophomore, said she’s interested in what Kevorkian has to say, even though she doesn’t support his beliefs.

Michalakopoulos volunteers at Haven Hospice, a community for the terminally ill. She said she has aided people with as few as two weeks to live, but she doesn’t believe a bleak prognosis would justify aided suicide.

“Even people with terminal illnesses should be given the opportunity to finish their lives with dignity,” Michalakopoulos said.

Despite strong student opposition, Sikes said UF does not plan to cancel the speech.

“Dr. Kevorkian is certainly a controversial speaker, but we’ve had controversial speakers on this campus before,” Sikes said.

Whether its America, Australia, Europe or Asia the need for legislative reform is imperative to ease unnecessary suffering in the terminal and chronically ill.

11 January 2008 from the Seattle Times

 http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/editorialsopinion/2004116199_deaded10.html

 EDITORIAL

 Judging the dying: Oregon’s experience

The “death with dignity” ballot measure promoted by former Gov. Booth Gardner deserves public support.

Assisted suicide for the terminally ill is humane and, as Oregon has demonstrated, can be administered in a civilized way. It provides a choice that is actually taken by fewer than two dying people per thousand, but for them it solves a terrible problem. The people who used Oregon’s law in 2006 — 46 did so — were very ill. Forty had terminal cancer and most of the rest had Lou Gehrig’s disease. They were people who were losing control over their motions and bodily functions; some of them were in great pain. They were not ending their lives on a whim.

Having the option of taking one’s life is a comfort even to some who never do it. Here are Oregon’s figures. In 2006, 35 people ordered a lethal dose of drugs and used them. Another 11 used drugs they had received before 2006. That’s the 46. Another 19 died of their diseases even though they had the drugs and could have used them. Eleven had received the drugs and were still alive at the end of the year.

Many people who opposed Oregon’s law feared that patients would be railroaded into suicide. The law has a number of safeguards to prevent this — waiting periods, doctors’ signatures and witnesses who aren’t named in the patient’s will. It can’t be used for non-adults, nonresidents, the nonterminal, the mentally impaired or anyone who objects.

There have been no big scandals under this law, which has been used by a small and steady number of patients. In a population of 3.7 million, of which 30,000 die each year, deaths under the law have been running at about 40 per year. That suggests a death rate for Washington of about 70 per year.

Gardner’s law will not affect many people. But those it does affect, and their families, will be thankful for its passage.