Blogs with keyword: Voluntary euthanasia (VE)

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

 

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Posted on Thursday 13th January 2022 at 11:00pm

A repeat publisher against voluntary assisted dying for the terminally ill, Dr Marion Harris has let ‘er rip again in The Australian newspaper with eye-watering logical inanity, and misinformation about palliative care.

Dr Marion Harris recently published another op-ed, this one in The Australian, against legalising voluntary assisted dying for the terminally ill. Her “reasoning” is inane, failing the basics of Logic 101 and offering up misinformation about palliative care. It also comprehensively fails to mention her deep underpinning Catholic ideology.

Dr Marion Harris is an experienced Melbourne-based oncologist. Having practiced for some twenty years, she’s co-authored research papers published in the peer-reviewed medical literature regarding the assessment of treatments for particular kinds of cancer.

Keywords: Fearmonger | Flapdoodle | Fudge | Faith | Assisted dying (AD) | Voluntary euthanasia (VE) | Australia | Victoria | Catholic | Rhetoric: The 'vulnerable'

 

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Posted on Sunday 12th August 2018 at 7:40am

In today’s Sydney Morning Herald, Margaret Somerville plugs her latest co-authored paper appearing in a medical journal. Trouble is, the article’s appalling rubbish containing egregious misinformation. The authors deserve ridicule and censure for it.

If there’s one thing you have to admire about Margo Somerville, Catholic Professor of Bioethics at the University of Notre Dame Australia, it’s her persistence in the face of being called out for misrepresenting facts about assisted dying. She’s at it again.

Today in the Sydney Morning Herald, Somerville was quoted spruiking her credentials via a recent publication in the peer-reviewed Journal of Palliative Care.1 Since I study the professional literature, I’m aware of said article, which was published several weeks ago. It's a shocker.

Keywords: Fudge | Fiction | Non-voluntary euthanasia (NVE) | Voluntary euthanasia (VE) | Belgium | Netherlands | Margaret Somerville | Analysis | Rhetoric

 

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Posted on Tuesday 13th February 2018 at 9:37pm

A DyingForChoice.com article in LivingNow explains why assisted dying law reform has taken so long, and why it will accelerate from here.

A DyingForChoice.com editorial in the Jan/Feb 2018 issue of lifestyle magazine, LivingNow, explains why assisted dying law reform in Australia has taken so long, and why it will accelerate from here.

Download the editorial (PDF 3.5Mb)


Visit LivingNow

Keywords: Physician-assisted dying (PAD) | Voluntary euthanasia (VE) | Australia | Religion | Legislative reform | Rhetoric

 

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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.

antiassisteddyingadtheageheraldsun14jun08.gif


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'

 

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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'

 

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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

 

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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

 

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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

 

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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

 

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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

 

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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

 

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Posted on Sunday 14th June 2015 at 4:06pm

Neil Francis announces the official launch of DyingForChoice.com

Neil Francis announces the official launch of DyingForChoice.com, the world's premier source of reliable, evidence-based information about assisted dying, and responsible law reform to permit it in restricted circumstances.

Keywords: Physician-assisted dying (PAD) | Voluntary euthanasia (VE) | Assisted dying (AD) | Legislative reform

 

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