Posted on Tuesday 8th March 2016 at 7:53pm
Australia's Medical Registration Board has told Dr Rodney Syme he is a serious danger to patients.
Australia's Medical Registration Board (AHPRA) has told Dr Rodney Syme that he is a serious danger to patients.
Dr Rodney Syme, who occasionally provides advice and medication for dying patients to give them control over their dying process, has been reprimanded by Australia's Medical Registration Board (AHPRA) for posing a 'serious danger' to such patients. The story has been reported widely in the media.
Keywords:
Assisted dying (AD) |
Physician-assisted dying (PAD) |
Australia |
AHPRA
Read more...
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'
Read more...
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'
Read more...
Posted on Sunday 22nd November 2015 at 5:05am
The Victorian Parliament's inquiry into end-of-life decision making has fired up the Victorian community, receiving a record number of submissions.
The standing Legal and Social Issues Comittee of the Parliament of Victoria, Australia, is currently conducting an inquiry into end-of-life decision making, to inform any legislative changes required in order to reflect contemprary views and best practice.
The inquiry has certainly engaged the community: it has received a record number of submissions. The Legal and Social Issues Committee typically receives a couple of dozen submissions to any of its inquiries, occasionally even sixty or eighty. In contrast, the inquiry on end-of-life decision making has received more than one thousand (1,017) submissions.
Keywords:
Physician-assisted dying (PAD) |
Voluntary euthanasia (VE) |
Assisted dying (AD) |
Legislative reform
Read more...
Posted on Sunday 15th November 2015 at 2:38am
Catholic scholar Bernadette Tobin rails against assisted dying arguments advanced in the ABC's Q&A program this week. I explain why her arguments fail.
In a recent opinion piece in the ABC’s Religion and Ethics section, Bernadette Tobin1 rails against assisted dying, commencing with the criticism that the ABC’s Q&A discussion on the subject this week “lacked precision.” But Tobin’s opinion piece itself commits exactly this offence, as I explain.
For the sake of brevity I’ll only quickly mention that Tobin’s piece also fails on the score of accuracy. For example, she wrongly asserts that “euthanasia” means a doctor administering lethal medication to a patient. It doesn’t. “Euthanasia” simply means “good death”: nothing more and nothing less, regardless of how it occurs. Tobin also asserts that voluntary euthanasia in lawful jurisdictions has caused non-voluntary euthanasia to develop.
Keywords:
Physician-assisted dying (PAD) |
Voluntary euthanasia (VE) |
Australia |
Bernadette Tobin |
Catholic |
Analysis |
Lobbying: Opponents |
Rhetoric: Killing |
Rhetoric: Slippery slope
Read more...
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)
Read more...
Posted on Thursday 17th September 2015 at 6:06am
Victorian Parliament Committee finds Australian Christian Lobby's evidence this week "quite surprising" and "quite contrary" to evidence already received.
On 16th September 2015, the Victorian Director of the Australian Christian Lobby (ACL), Dan Flynn, appeared as a witness to the Victorian Parliament’s end of life choices inquiry being conducted by the Legal and Social Issues Committee. He made a number of mistaken statements, but what was most worrisome was the revelation of the ACL’s real agenda: to wind back patient rights more than a quarter century.
Keywords:
Fearmonger |
Flip-flop |
Fudge |
Fiction |
Faith |
Assisted dying (AD) |
Physician-assisted dying (PAD) |
Refusal of medical treatment (ROMT) |
Voluntary euthanasia (VE) |
Voluntary refusal of food and fluids (VRFF) |
Withholding/withdrawal of medical treatment (WOMT) |
Australia |
Victoria |
Belgium |
Netherlands |
Australian Medical Association (AMA) |
Christian |
Legislative reform |
Lobbying: Opponents |
Rhetoric: Slippery slope |
Rhetoric: Suicide
Read more...
Posted on Tuesday 8th September 2015 at 5:16am
The Archbishop of Canterbury and other clergy attempt to persuade British politicians that assisted dying law reform will have terrible consequences.
It was inevitable, the latest attempt by senior British clergy to persuade politicians to reject Lord Joffe’s Assisted Dying for the Terminally Ill Bill. Led by the Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby—whose predecessor Lord Carey now supports the reform—nine clergy sent a letter to ‘remind’ Parliament of supposed terrible consequences.
So what points did the clerics offer to Parliamentarians, and are they valid? Let’s take a look at each of the five ‘reasons’ advanced in order to deny Brits assisted dying choice.
Keywords:
Fearmonger |
United Kingdom |
Religion |
Jewish |
Muslim/Islam |
Christian |
Anglican/Church of England/Episcopal |
Catholic
Read more...
Posted on Sunday 23rd August 2015 at 10:00pm
Northern Territory Health Minister John Elferink sparks a furore over ill-informed and insensitive remarks about dying Northern Territorians.
ABC journalists Jesse Dorsett and Eleni Roussos recently reported remarks made by the Northern Territory (Australia) Health Minister John Elferink, about the cost of supporting dying patients in the last year of life. Elferink said that dying patients could be personally persuaded to forgo medical treatment specifically in order to have more money available for their grandkids' 'opportunities'. Why is he wrong and what should he do about it?
Keywords:
Refusal of medical treatment (ROMT) |
Withholding/withdrawal of medical treatment (WOMT) |
Australia |
Northern Territory |
Analysis
Read more...
Posted on Thursday 23rd July 2015 at 1:22am
Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews needs to rethink his current lack of support for assisted dying law reform.
Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews reports that he doesn’t support voluntary euthanasia “at this stage” (The Age, 21 Jun 2015), and that his objections are not based on his Catholic faith. I think it is fair to take him at his word given his historical record in facilitating conversation and reform around values-based issues such as abortion. But his current thinking on assisted dying is indefensible as I explain.
Keywords:
Assisted dying (AD) |
Euthanasia |
Physician-assisted dying (PAD) |
Refusal of medical treatment (ROMT) |
Voluntary refusal of food and fluids (VRFF) |
Victoria |
Catholic |
Legislative reform |
Rhetoric: Slippery slope
Read more...
