Posted on Saturday 3rd September 2016 at 4:44am
A Catholic publishing group responded with a vile and despicable attack when I pointed out serious misinformation they had published and courteously asked for withdrawal of the offending article.
I recently exposed (another) piece of misinformation published by LifeSiteNews, and wrote courteously to them to request withdrawal of the offending article. While I wasn’t hopeful the request would be accepted, I wasn’t prepared for the shocking and vile response I received.
Exposing bull about assisted dying is a key purpose of DyingForChoice.com and it will continue to do so as long as bull is published or publicly spoken, and especially when it makes claims or generates innuendo that is at odds with the readily-available facts, as a smokescreen for fundamentally religious objections.
The specific request to withdraw
Keywords:
Bull |
Faith |
Assisted dying (AD) |
Catholic Church |
Catholic |
Rhetoric
Read more...
Posted on Saturday 3rd September 2016 at 1:12am
A meeting at the British Medical Association resolved in favour of assisted dying.
A meeting has been held at BMA House in Tavistock Square, the home of the British Medical Association since 1925, to discuss assisted dying law reform.1
The meeting, chaired by Lord Moynihan and attended by eminent doctors, dignitaries and the President of the Free Church Council, discussed and voted on the motion:
"That in the interests of humanity it is desirable that voluntary euthanasia subject to adequate safeguards should be legalized for persons desiring it who are suffering from incurable, fatal, and painful disease."
Keywords:
United Kingdom |
Legislative reform
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Posted on Sunday 28th August 2016 at 12:58am
Assisted dying opponents often misuse statistics in an attempt to create an impression of a crisis that doesn’t exist. In this blog I ‘out’ the nonsense argument that’s starting to trend about Belgium’s general (non-assisted dying) suicide rate.
The latest misinformation employed by assisted dying opponents is to imply that Belgium’s general suicide rate is high as a consequence of its assisted dying law: i.e. to argue the discredited 'suicide contagion' line which has in the past been peddled about the USA state of Oregon. I have demonstrated that it was false in Oregon, and I equally demonstrate here that it's false in Belgium.
Mr Brad Mattes recently published emotional anti-assisted-dying nonsense in LifeSiteNews. (LifeSiteNews is a Canadian blog site that was established by the conservative Christian Campaign for Life Coalition and which has a primary principle of promoting “traditional Judeo-Christian principles”.
Keywords:
Bull |
Flapdoodle |
Fudge |
Fiction |
Assisted dying (AD) |
Involuntary euthanasia (IVE) |
Non-voluntary euthanasia (NVE) |
Physician-assisted dying (PAD) |
Voluntary euthanasia (VE) |
USA |
Rhetoric: Suicide 'contagion'
Read more...
Posted on Wednesday 3rd August 2016 at 4:15am
Paul Russell does it again, accidentally advancing arguments in favour of assisted dying without realising it.
Assisted dying critic Mr Paul Russell has done it again. I’m beginning to think that he’s a tremendous asset to the pro-assisted-dying movement. Why would I say that?
Well, this time his pronouncements appear in National Right To Life News, the online newspaper of the USA Catholic-founded National Right To Life Committee, and in which Mr Russell represents ‘HOPE,’ his anti-euthanasia lobby platform founded by the Australian Family Association—itself Catholic-founded and backed.
The complaint
Keywords:
Bull |
Flip-flop |
Assisted dying (AD) |
Australia |
South Australia |
Paul Russell |
Catholic |
Rhetoric: The 'vulnerable'
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Posted on Sunday 26th June 2016 at 2:05am
Alex Scadenberg and Paul Russell publish desperate nonsense about medical neutrality toward assisted dying. I set things straight.
Last week, Alex Schadenberg wrote—and Paul Russell republished—another nonsense article, this time about medical associations going neutral on assisted dying. They opine that there is no such thing as neutrality. And start out by getting their facts wrong... again.
Got the facts wrong yet again, lads
Keywords:
Bull |
Fearmonger |
Flapdoodle |
Australian Medical Association (AMA) |
Paul Russell |
Alex Schadenberg |
Rhetoric: Suicide
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Posted on Tuesday 14th June 2016 at 10:22pm
Inga Peulich's minority report to the Victorian Parliament LSI Committee's end-of-life choices report reveals an incoherent and entenched hostility toward assisted dying. I challenge Mrs Peulich to furnish verifiable evidence to support her claims.
Mrs Inga Peulich is MLC for the Victorian state region of South-Eastern Metropolitan and is Shadow Minister for Multicultural Affairs and for Scrutiny of Government. She is a member of the Parliament's Legal and Social Issues Committee, which recently recommended assisted dying law reform.
Mrs Inga Peulich is MLC for the Victorian state region of South-Eastern Metropolitan and is Shadow Minister for Multicultural Affairs and for Scrutiny of Government. She is a member of the Parliament's Legal and Social Issues Committee, which recently recommended assisted dying law reform.
Keywords:
Australia |
Victoria |
Rhetoric |
Rhetoric: Slippery slope
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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
Read more...
Posted on Sunday 8th May 2016 at 9:48pm
Conservative religious blog LifeSiteNews didn't take long to publish outright lies about Dutch euthanasia after the official 2015 report was released.
Well it didn't take long. Recently I posted a fact-based report card on Dutch euthanasia practice, based on the actual data from the 2015 annual report (and all the earlier reports) of the Dutch Euthanasia Commission. Now, just a few days later, conservative religious opponents have begun publishing completely untrue statements about Dutch euthanasia practice.
Catholic blog LifeSiteNews' 'Paris correspondent' Jeanne Smits has bolted out of the misinformation blocks, assertively and categorically stating in respect of the small increase in number of euthanasia cases from 2014 to 2015, that:
Keywords:
Fearmonger |
Fiction |
Euthanasia |
Netherlands |
Catholic |
Rhetoric: Killing |
Rhetoric: Slippery slope |
Rhetoric: The 'vulnerable'
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Posted on Wednesday 27th April 2016 at 11:36pm
Wesley Smith is consistsent if nothing else. He's opined about assisted dying once again, this time that the USA's national suicide rate is a consequence of assisted suicide law in those few USA jurisdictions that permit it.
Wesley Smith never seems to tire of spreading opinion. In another piece of published nonsense, he's proposed that USA's rise in national suicide rate is in significant part a consequence of assisted dying law in those few states that permit it (up until the most recent general suicide data that's Oregon, Washington state, Vermont and Montana). His claim flies in the face of actual evidence.
Wesley Smith is a Senior Fellow at the Discovery Institute. Remember that? It's the organisation that a USA Federal court ruled pursues "demonstrably religious, cultural, and legal missions," and which comprehensively lost a test case in which it tried to have 'intelligent design' (that's creationism with lipstick) taught as a 'scientific' alternative to evolution.
Keywords:
Fearmonger |
Flapdoodle |
USA |
Wesley Smith |
Rhetoric: Slippery slope |
Rhetoric: Suicide 'contagion'
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Posted on Sunday 24th April 2016 at 8:02am
Legal academic Dr Andrew McGee advances arguments against assisted dying legalisation that fail to pass coherence basics
Dr Andrew McGee, Senior Lecturer in law at Queensland University of Technology, published an opinion piece, "Why Bob Hawke is wrong about euthanasia," opposing assisted dying law reform in the Sydney Morning Herald on the 19th April. He invokes straw-man arguments and conflates different issues.
His ‘they might choose to die too early’ argument overlooks both the current tragedy of the terminally ill suiciding by violent means, as well as that in currently lawful jurisdictions like Oregon and Washington, a third of people who qualify for their medication never take it: it provides strong psychological relief that there is another option available whether they take it or not.
Keywords:
Flapdoodle |
Euthanasia |
Australia |
Legislative reform
Read more...
