Blogs with keyword: Oregon

Posted on Wednesday 3rd March 2021 at 9:32pm

Belgium and Oregon have just released their 2020 reports cards covering voluntary assisted dying practice.

Belgium and the USA state of Oregon both released their annual voluntary assisted dying (VAD) reports this week. I report on the numbers.

While the Netherlands and Washington state haven't released their 2020 annual VAD report cards yet, Belgium and Oregon have.

Keywords: Assisted dying (AD) | Belgium | Netherlands | Oregon

 

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Posted on Tuesday 2nd April 2019 at 7:23pm

Anti-assisted-dying ginger group 'HOPE' continues to pedal egregious misinformation to politicians considering law reform: this time to Western Australian MPs.

The Catholic-backed anti-assisted-dying ginger group, HOPE, was represented for years by Paul Russell. He's retired and Branka van der Linden is now at the helm. But its penchant for pedaling egregious misinformation hasn't changed. Van der Linden recently sent an email to all WA members of parliament, containing three points.

Van der Linden's email reads:

 

Dear [MP salutation],

Did you know that the WA majority report that recommended assisted suicide for WA either dismissed or failed to report on the following statistics?

Keywords: Fearmonger | Flapdoodle | Fudge | Fiction | Faith | Belgium | Netherlands | Oregon | Branka van der Linden | Claim response | Legislative reform | Statistics | Rhetoric: Slippery slope | Rhetoric: The 'vulnerable'

 

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Posted on Monday 13th November 2017 at 6:28pm

A new report to be published this week slams Jones & Paton’s 2015 “suicide contagion” study, and Kheriaty’s editorial of it, as unscientific and containing multiple substantial instances of bias.

In the ongoing political campaign against assisted dying law reform, opponents have spread one piece of egregious misinformation after another. One of the most common is supposed “suicide contagion” from assisted dying laws to general suicide, a theory popularised by Catholic Prof. Margaret Somerville. Despite the nonsense of her claim being comprehensively exposed, she still believes that her opinion “will prove to be correct.” Two journal papers published in 2015 purported to, but didn't, establish suicide contagion in Oregon and Washington states.

Note: the report is now published here.


Keywords: Fearmonger | Fudge | Fiction | Assisted dying (AD) | USA | Oregon | Catholic Church | Margaret Somerville | Analysis | Article review | Statistics | Rhetoric | Rhetoric: Suicide 'contagion'

 

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Posted on Sunday 19th March 2017 at 11:37pm

A recently published scientific study shows that the USA states of Oregon and Washington, which legalised assisted dying in 1997 and 2008 respectively, have leading indicators for end of life choices, including home hospice care.

A scientific study just published in the New England Journal of Medicine reveals that residents of both Oregon and Washington states, which legalised assisted dying in 1997 and 2008 respectively—as well as establishing formal advance directive programs—are far more likely to experience the kind of death they prefer, and with better access to palliative care, than is the average USA resident.1

It's well-established that most westerners would prefer to die peacefully at home rather than in a medicalised or other institutional setting. Yet it is recognised by doctors and families alike that there is a kind of medical ‘conveyer belt’ to acute care at the end of life that tends to shunt the dying individual through to ICU—a place where more and more burdensome medical interventions are administered with less and less likelihood that they’ll actually provide any benefit.

Keywords: USA | Oregon | Washington (state) | Analysis | Article review

 

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Posted on Sunday 5th March 2017 at 10:24pm

Catholic Canadian anti-euthanasia blogger Alex Schadenberg is at it again, this time spreading shrill misinformation about a potential Oregon law change.

Catholic Canadian anti-assisted-dying blogger Alex Schadenberg is at it again. This time he’s parading his ignorance and spreading bull about a potential change in Oregon’s assisted dying legislation.

The Bill


Mr Schadenberg correctly reproduced Section 3 of Oregon Senate Bill 893, which states:


Keywords: Fearmonger | Fudge | Fiction | USA | Oregon | Paul Russell | Alex Schadenberg | Catholic | Legislative reform | Rhetoric: Slippery slope | Rhetoric: The 'vulnerable'

 

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Posted on Saturday 24th September 2016 at 11:31pm

Father John George amply demonstrates that Catholic hubris is alive and well in the modern world, using selective and canonical arguments and resorting to the ad hominem attack.

Against current moves to legalise assisted dying, Australian Catholic Father John George invokes Nazi Germany, resorts to ad hominem attacks to dismiss those who disagree with him, and demands that the Pope’s edicts are binding on everyone regardless of their own faith or world view.

On 24th September 2016, Journalists Greg Brown and Rick Morton published an article in The Australian, Victorian coroner credited with turning tide on euthanasia, summarising recent Australian moves to legalise assisted dy

Keywords: Fearmonger | Fiction | Faith | Physician-assisted dying (PAD) | Australia | Victoria | Oregon | Catholic Church | Religion | Hindu | Jewish | Muslim/Islam | Atheist | Agnostic | Christian | Catholic | Buddhist | Rhetoric: Nazi regime | Rhetoric: Palliative care can always help | Rhetoric: Slippery slope | Rhetoric: The 'vulnerable'

 

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Posted on Thursday 12th May 2016 at 4:30pm

Wesley Smith has missed his true vocation as a comedian. He lets rip a number of gags in his latest musings.

The more anti-euthanasia campaigner Mr Wesley Smith publishes, the more I think he’s missed his true vocation as a comedian. His latest comical gig against assisted dying is a gem.

Mr Smith starts with the case of two Californian doctors found guilty of Medicare fraud: billing fake hospice care for patients who weren't terminally ill. He artfully turns the story into a series of anti-assisted-dying gags.


Who’s on first, What’s on second?


Keywords: Flapdoodle | Flip-flop | Fudge | Physician-assisted dying (PAD) | USA | Oregon | Wesley Smith

 

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Posted on Saturday 2nd January 2016 at 12:35am

The Journal of Assisted Dying is launched today, commencing with a fully researched article on how several Oregonian doctors use mistaken information to paint a bleak and incorrect picture of Oregon's Death With Dignity Act.

A new scholarly journal focused on end-of-life ethics, decision-making and practice has just been launched: the Journal of Assisted Dying. In the first article, claims by Oregon lobby group Physicians for Compassionate Care (PCC), including Doctors Bill (William) Toffler and Ken Stevens (and others) are assessed against empirical evidence and found to be completely wrong, or highly misleading as a result of selective use of data.

The new scholarly journal, the Journal of Assisted Dying, is dedicated to careful and holistic analysis of evidence in regard to the various forms of assisted dying that are lawful in a number of jurisdictions around the world... and to practices in jurisdictions where assisted dying remains illegal.

Keywords: Fearmonger | Filibuster | Fudge | Fiction | Physician-assisted dying (PAD) | Assisted dying (AD) | Oregon | Ken Stevens | William (Bill) Sylvester | Rhetoric: Slippery slope | Rhetoric: Suicide 'contagion'

 

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Posted on Wednesday 25th November 2015 at 8:00pm

The Catholic Archdiocese of Melbourne appeared before the Victorian Parliamentary inquiry into end-of-life decision making last week. A key 'fact' they told the Committee was absolutely false.

On Wednesday 19th November 2015, the Catholic Church appeared before the Victorian Parliament's Legal and Social Issues Committee. Monsignor Anthony Ireland, the Episcopal Vicar for Health, Aged and Disability Care, and Father Anthony Kerin, Episcopal Vicar for Life, Marriage and Family gave evidence about end-of-life decision making. They made a factually wrong allegation about Oregon during their testimony.

Anthony Ireland spoke first, making it clear that they were appearing before the Committee with delegated authority from the Catholic Archbishop of Melbourne (Denis Hart) and with the endorsement of the Victorian Catholic Bishops. He emphasised that "the Catholic Archdiocese of Melbourne does not come to this Committee with fanciful or frivolous arguments."

Keywords: Fiction | Physician-assisted dying (PAD) | Australia | Victoria | Oregon | Catholic Church | Catholic | Rhetoric: Slippery slope | Rhetoric: Suicide 'contagion'

 

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Posted on Thursday 12th November 2015 at 5:35am

It's so easy to get assisted dying data, and therefore the interpretation of practice, wrong. Even the usually rigorous Guardian newspaper made a significant 'bludner'.

I was browsing the internet the other day checking out commentary on assisted dying in Oregon and Washington state in the USA, and came across an argument in The Guardian—complete with a chart of 'evidence'—that unlike in Oregon, almost all folks who receive a prescription under Washington's Death With Dignity Act (DWDA) die from taking it. 'Eh!?' I thought to myself. I've read all the Washington annual DWDA reports and analysed the data in my own spreadsheets. What The Guardian says is simply not true. How so?

In an editorial on July 18, 2014, The Guardian attempted to estimate the number of people who might use an assisted dying law if it were legalised in the UK. They noted that around a third of Oregonians receiving a prescription under the DWDA died not having taken it. But, they said, "the figures in Washington look quite different.

Keywords: Physician-assisted dying (PAD) | Oregon | Washington (state)

 

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