Posted on Tuesday 24th September 2024 at 11:54pm
Lobbyist complaints that the Dutch Groningen Protocol would worsen the rate of '650 babies euthanised each year' even worse, have been proven very wrong.
Nearily two decades ago...
It seems like such a long time.
The Groningen Protocol
Back in 2005, the Dutch Paediatric Association (NVK) ratified what is known as the Groningen Protocol. It was adopted into the nation's regulations in 2006. It allows for the termination of a neonate's life in very particular circumstances, via strict processes, and reported to the regulating authority, the LZA-LP.
Keywords:
Bull |
Fearmonger |
Fiction |
Assisted dying (AD) |
Euthanasia |
Groningen Protocol |
Netherlands |
Analysis |
Claim response |
Lobbying: Opponents |
Statistics |
Rhetoric: Nazi regime
Read more...
Posted on Saturday 14th October 2023 at 2:40am
Branka van der Linden shrilly cherry-picks one finding from a journal paper and tells whoppers about the Netherlands and other VAD jurisdictions.
I haven’t written for a while, but was prompted to do so by my friend and colleague Ian Wood. He pointed me to an email just sent about by Branka van der Linden of the anti-VAD “HOPE” blog site.
I've written about Ms van der Linden's musings before, including:
What’s the big deal?
In her email, Ms van der Linden wrote provocatively against the Netherlands’ voluntary assisted dying (VAD) law, citing a recently-published medical journal study of Dutch VAD cases that involved people with intellectual disabilities or autism spectrum disorder (or both). The study is a legitimate examination of cases published by the Dutch Euthanasia Commissions, and contains numerous observations and some qualifications.
Keywords:
Fearmonger |
Flapdoodle |
Fudge |
Fiction |
Voluntary euthanasia (VE) |
Netherlands |
Branka van der Linden |
Article review |
Claim response |
Legislation |
Legislative reform |
Lobbying: Opponents
Read more...
Posted on Friday 18th March 2022 at 1:00am
The Anglican archbishop of Sydney has revealed profound ignorance by revealing he hasn't a CLUE what his own flock think about voluntary assisted dying law reform.
I've written previously about bishops demonstrating their ignorance, as in the example of Catholic Bishop Tim Harris who presumed most or all of his flock opposes voluntary assisted dying (VAD), when in fact a significant majority support it. This time it's the Anglican Sydney diocese archbishop who's loudly flaunting his biases.
Sydney Anglican archbishop Kanishka Raffel (pictured on the diocese website above), has launched a program calling on NSW parliamentarians to reject a bill that, with a large number of safeguards, seeks to make VAD lawful in the state. NSW is the last state in the nation that still outlaws the practice.
Keywords:
Fearmonger |
Fudge |
Fiction |
Faith |
Australia |
New South Wales |
Frank Brennan |
Margaret Somerville |
Religion |
Christian |
Anglican/Church of England/Episcopal |
Legislative reform |
Lobbying: Opponents |
Rhetoric: Slippery slope |
Rhetoric: Suicide |
Rhetoric: The 'vulnerable'
Read more...
Posted on Thursday 23rd May 2019 at 2:39am
Plenty of Catholic propaganda is evident in Cabrini Health Palliative Care Director's "Palliative Care Week" editorial, opposing VAD for incoherent reasons.
Director of Palliative Care at Cabrini Health, Associate Professor Natasha Michael, yesterday published an opinion piece in The Age newspaper. In it, she rails against Victoria’s voluntary assisted dying (VAD) Act which comes into effect on 19th June. Instead she articulates an arrogant and prescriptive view of what Australians should and shouldn’t be allowed, consistent with Catholic dogma, as I uncover.
Michael, along with fellow devout Catholic Dr Stephen Parnis, ‘tirelessly’ opposed the introduction of Victoria’s VAD law. They continue to actively oppose it, and her opinion piece reveals her spurious ‘reasoning’.
The Catholic Healthcare brick wall
More than half of all palliative care services in Australia are delivered through Catholic institutions, of which Cabrini Health is one arm. These institutions have determined that VAD will not be available in any of their facilities or via any of their services, even if the individual patient and doctor are supportive.
This arbitrarily limits access to lawful choice by citizens.
Keywords:
Fearmonger |
Fudge |
Assisted dying (AD) |
Australia |
Victoria |
Catholic Church |
Legislative reform |
Lobbying: Opponents |
Rhetoric: Killing |
Rhetoric: Suicide
Read more...
Posted on Wednesday 10th April 2019 at 8:39pm
HOPE’s Director, Branka van der Linden, is at it again, foisting more misleading information on unwilling members of Parliament. I expose the rot and provide some background on Mrs van der Linden.
HOPE’s Director, Branka van der Linden, is at it again, foisting more misleading information about voluntary assisted dying (VAD) on unwilling members of Parliament. I expose the rot and provide some background on Mrs van der Linden.
Van der Linden’s latest email to all WA MPs states:
Subject: WA Report relies on troubling Belgian study
[MP Salutation] --
Did you know that a study showing that one person in Belgium is euthanised every three days without their explicit consent also found that:
Keywords:
Fearmonger |
Flapdoodle |
Faith |
Australia |
Anthony Fisher |
Paul Kelly |
Paul Russell |
Alex Schadenberg |
Margaret Somerville |
Branka van der Linden |
Religion |
Catholic |
Claim response |
Legislative reform |
Lobbying: Opponents |
Statistics |
Rhetoric: The 'vulnerable'
Read more...
Posted on Monday 1st April 2019 at 9:59pm
Revealed – how Dutch ethicist Theo Boer uses smoke and mirrors to suggest assisted dying is out of control in the Netherlands, and a possible explanation why.
In my most recent article in the Journal of Assisted Dying, I forensically analyse Dutch ethicist Professor Theo Boer’s 2017 paper purporting to find suicide contagion from assisted dying in the Netherlands. It doesn’t go well for Professor Boer, to put it mildly. You can find the full article here.
I also find an astonishing coincidence that occurred in 2014, the year Boer went feral against the Dutch euthanasia law.
Multiple fatal flaws
Keywords:
Bull |
Fearmonger |
Flapdoodle |
Flip-flop |
Fudge |
Fiction |
Faith |
Assisted dying (AD) |
Euthanasia |
Belgium |
Netherlands |
Article review |
Claim response |
Lobbying: Opponents |
Statistics |
Rhetoric: Suicide 'contagion'
Read more...
Posted on Saturday 11th August 2018 at 11:33pm
In this week's Senate debate, misinformation about indigenous Territorians' attitudes toward lawful assisted dying will abound. Senators should reject such rubbish.
In 1996 the Northern Territory Rights of the Terminally Ill Act (ROTI) came into effect. Just four people had used the Act when seven months later an Act of the Federal Parliament extinguished the NT law, by cancelling the Territories’ authority to enact it.
This week, the Senate [federal parliament] debates the Restoring Territory Rights (Assisted Suicide Legislation) Bill, sponsored by libertarian Senator David Leyonhjelm. If the Bill passes both houses, the Territories will again have the authority to legislate the matter of assisted dying.
Opponents of lawful assisted dying have been sharpening their knives to ensure that Senator Leyonhjelm’s Bill fails and that Territorians remain second-class citizens. In this post I expose one of the desperate and disgraceful pieces of misinformation opponents use to try and curry fear about law reform.
Opponent signals
There are signals from many quarters that assisted dying opponents are dragging out the tired old argument that indigenous Australians are too fearful of assisted dying to allow reinstatement of the Territories’ legislative authority.
The signals are clear, though so far mostly behind the scenes. Nevertheless, they predict a full onslaught of invalid “fear” claims in the parliamentary debate this week.
Keywords:
Fearmonger |
Filibuster |
Fudge |
Fiction |
Faith |
Australia |
Australian Capital Territory |
Northern Territory |
Religion |
Catholic |
Legislative reform |
Lobbying: Opponents |
Statistics |
Rhetoric
Read more...
Posted on Tuesday 10th October 2017 at 7:58am
Catholic anti-assisted dying lobbyist Mr Paul Russell bombards Victorian politicians with selective misinformation.
As the Parliament of Victoria prepares to debate an assisted dying Bill, South Australian Catholic anti-assisted-dying lobbyist Mr Paul Russell is at it again. This time he's sent a missive to Victorian politicians shouting about, amongst other things, a crisis of assisted dying numbers in Washington state. He’s conveniently cherry-picked his arguments again.
Mr Russell wrote that in Washington state:
“deaths from lethal drugs prescribed under the Act have nearly quadrupled (376%) from 51 in 2010 to 192 in 2016.”
Keywords:
Fearmonger |
Filibuster |
Fudge |
Assisted dying (AD) |
Australia |
Victoria |
Paul Russell |
Catholic |
Legislative reform |
Lobbying: Opponents |
Statistics
Read more...
Posted on Thursday 14th September 2017 at 10:20pm
I expose the misinformation and incoherent arguments of the Catholic church recently published in Fairfax media.
It’s very disappointing that Catholic theologian Dr Joel Hodge’s recent editorial in Fairfax media about assisted dying law reform contained misinformation: the same old tired and discredited story trotted out as though it's true. Dr Hodge also repeated an old and curiously one-sided (Catholic) examination of the hypothetical slippery slope.
Unhappily, the kind of misinformation that Dr Hodge advances muddies the waters and cruelly stands in the way of legislative action, which most Australians want.
Keywords:
Fearmonger |
Fudge |
Fiction |
Faith |
Assisted dying (AD) |
Australia |
New South Wales |
Victoria |
Catholic |
Legislative reform |
Lobbying: Opponents |
Rhetoric: Slippery slope |
Rhetoric: The 'vulnerable'
Read more...
Posted on Sunday 6th August 2017 at 2:31am
Religious leaders have the right to argue for their faith. But they deserve scrutiny when they put forward misleading arguments.
In Monday’s Herald Sun, Victorian Archbishops Philip Freier and Denis Hart, and Bishops Ezekiel, Suriel, Lester Briebbenow, Bosco Puthur and Peter Stasiuk published a half-page advertisement admonishing the Victorian government for its initiative to legalise assisted dying for the terminally ill, an ad similar to the one published by religious figures in 2008.
I have no quarrel with individuals of faith regarding their own private beliefs. However, the bishops’ attempt at public “leadership” through the advertisement is deserving of redress for its multiple fallacies.
The ‘abandonment’ fallacy
Keywords:
Fearmonger |
Fudge |
Faith |
Assisted dying (AD) |
Australia |
Victoria |
Religion |
Catholic |
Legislative reform |
Lobbying: Opponents |
Rhetoric: Palliative care can always help |
Rhetoric: Slippery slope |
Rhetoric: Suicide |
Rhetoric: The 'vulnerable'
Read more...
Posted on Saturday 11th February 2017 at 1:02am
More clear proof of the religious foundations of opposition to assisted dying could not have been made but by the international body for palliative care in response to my previous post.
In response to my previous post about the religious basis of organised opposition to assisted dying, Dr Katherine Pettus, Advocacy and Human Rights Officer at the International Association for Hospice and Palliative Care (IAHPC), tweeted:
“#Catholic church @Pontifex believes all life is sacred&supports #PalliativeCare and use of strong #pain medicines” — Dr Katherine Pettus
Keywords:
Faith |
Assisted dying (AD) |
Physician-assisted dying (PAD) |
Australia |
USA |
EAPC |
IAHPC |
Catholic |
Lobbying: Opponents |
Rhetoric: Palliative care can always help
Read more...
Posted on Thursday 9th February 2017 at 9:53pm
There’s overwhelming evidence that it’s religious conservatives who oppose your right to choose an assisted death, despite their protestations that their opposition is nothing to do with religion.
You only have to look to understand who is campaigning against your right to choose an assisted death in the face of intolerable and unrelievable suffering.
A case in point is a massive advertisement published in both of Melbourne’s daily newspapers: News Corp’s The Herald Sun (right-wing) and Fairfax Media’s The Age (left-wing). The ad was published in 2008 when Victorian MLC Colleen Hartland introduced the Medical Treatment (Physician Assisted Dying) Bill into the State legislature.
Keywords:
Faith |
Physician-assisted dying (PAD) |
Voluntary euthanasia (VE) |
Australia |
Victoria |
Religion |
Jewish |
Christian |
Anglican/Church of England/Episcopal |
Catholic |
Legislative reform |
Lobbying: Opponents |
Rhetoric: The 'vulnerable'
Read more...
Posted on Tuesday 19th April 2016 at 2:00am
Lyle Shelton tweets misinformation on ABC Q&A. Is this an omen for his upcoming appearance on the program next week?
The Managing Director of the Australian Christian Lobby, Mr Lyle Shelton, is at it again.
Yesterday, he tweeted ABC's Q&A program as thousands of people do while it is on air. His tweet was broadcast live to air as shown above. What did he say as panelists were discussing assisted dying law reform?
"Sadly voluntary euthanasia quickly became involuntary euthanasia in Holland. #qanda" LyleShelton
Mr Shelton's claim is bunkum.
Keywords:
Fearmonger |
Fiction |
Faith |
Assisted dying (AD) |
Involuntary euthanasia (IVE) |
Non-voluntary euthanasia (NVE) |
Voluntary euthanasia (VE) |
Australia |
Netherlands |
Religion |
Christian |
Lobbying: Opponents |
Rhetoric: Killing |
Rhetoric: Slippery slope
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 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 Sunday 14th June 2015 at 4:28pm
Sydney psychologist Mary Ticinovic advances specious arguments against rational assisted dying choice.
In today’s Fairfax press, Sydney woman Mary Ticinovic advances a number of reasons as to why she believes that assisted dying is not merciful. The by-line identifies her as a “clinical psychologist”. But her arguments are not founded on the basic tenets of psychology. How so?
Read Mary’s opinion piece in The Age
All life is precious
Keywords:
Flapdoodle |
Faith |
Voluntary euthanasia (VE) |
Assisted dying (AD) |
Australia |
Christian |
Catholic |
Lobbying: Opponents |
Rhetoric: Hippocratic oath
Read more...
Posted on Sunday 14th June 2015 at 4:13pm
Conservative religious groups mistakenly report that a Council of Europe declaration 'bans euthanasia' across Europe — which it explicitly did not.
On the 25th January 2012, the Council of Europe passed declaration 1859 on advance care planning. Immediately, lobbyists opposed to assisted dying loudly proclaimed that the resolution banned euthanasia across Europe, when it did nothing of the sort. What actually happened?
Keywords:
Fudge |
Voluntary euthanasia (VE) |
Non-voluntary euthanasia (NVE) |
Euthanasia |
Europe |
Catholic Church |
Rita Marker |
Wesley Smith |
Yuri Koszarycz |
Paul Russell |
Alex Schadenberg |
Gregor Puppinck |
Religion |
Lobbying: Opponents
Read more...