World Right to Die Day is celebrated November 2nd in participating countries around the world. The celebration was founded in France at the World Federation of Right to Die Societies Conference in 2008 and has since spread to other parts…
The Belgian state didn't violate the rights of a person suffering from depression when it accepted her decision to go ahead with a euthanasia procedure, the European Court of Human Rights found Tuesday. Judges ruled in favor of Belgium in…
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A terminally-ill Connecticut woman is suing Vermont to drop their residency requirement for physician-assisted suicide. Bridgeport resident Lynda Bluestein, in addition to a Vermont physician, filed a lawsuit in the U.S. District Court in Burlington last month that argues the…
Choice, Dignity and Control at the End of Life This two-hour discussion group will give you the tools for making and communicating your choices at the end of life. We will review documents you'll need (such as Advance Directive, POLST)…
French President Emmanuel Macron has announced a national debate meant to broaden end-of-life options. https://abcnews.go.com/Health/wireStory/france-open-debate-legalizing-assisted-suicide-89824039
Jean-Luc Godard, the maverick French-Swiss director who revolutionised post-war cinema in Europe, died by assisted dying, his lawyer has confirmed. The medical report on the death of the 91-year-old director said he had chosen to end his life. He “had recourse to…
Click here to read the interview. https://www.5280.com/2022/08/author-joanne-tubbs-kelly-talks-about-helping-her-husband-die-with-dignity-in-colorado/
Click here to learn more about the effort to expand the California EOLOA and how you can help. https://broadenchoice.org/
"That makes dementia patients particularly profitable. Doctors have a harder time predicting whether a patient with Alzheimer’s disease or another form of dementia has less than six months to live, the eligibility criterion for enrollment. For-profit hospices enroll those patients…
"It is the second legal filing of its kind in America, with Oregon previously agreeing that they would allow people from out of state to access their facilities without prosecuting them for breaching the residency stipulation." Click here to read…
A Maryland psychiatrist presents rational arguments in favor of medical aid in dying. Full Article
Over 23 years, 5329 patients died by MAID, while 8451 received a prescription. More men than women died by MAID (53.1% vs. 46.9%), and non-Hispanic white individuals (95.6%) died by MAID more than other racial and ethnic groups. The median age…
Click here for full story Many thanks to Maia for sharing this story with us.
A hearing today will decide if California's End of Life Option Act will be put on hold while a lawsuit by the Christian Medical and Dental Association moves forward. The plaintiffs argued the law violates their religious rights by forcing…
We'd like to share this great series of podcasts recorded by Andrew Flack in Oceanside, CA. He describes his project as "the story of a 33 year old man with terminal cancer exploring the physical, social-emotional, and spiritual elements correlated…
Please take a few minutes to read this editorial and watch the compelling video that was sent to us by Maia Calloway. https://progressive.org/latest/denying-patients-assisted-suicide-civil-right-wilder-220623/
Very disappointing news. A federal judge said he cannot allow an Americans with Disabilities Act carveout to California’s assisted suicide law that would let doctors assist people too weak or disabled to ingest end-of-life medication, finding that such a provision…
Should oncology nurses only be familiar with these laws if they live in a state where it is legal? How might nurses support a patient who wants MAiD, yet lives in a state where it is not an option? Click here…
On 20 June 2022, former President of the WFRtDS Professor Sean Davison concluded his sentence of 3 years house arrest in Cape Town after taking a ‘guilty’ plea deal for the ‘murders’ (assisted suicides) of Anrich Burger, Justin Varian and…
The Completed Life Initiative is launching a new Round Table Death Cafe series via Webex beginning Wednesday, June 29th at 9:00am Pacific Time/12:00pm Eastern Time. For more information and to register for free, please click here: https://completedlife.org/roundtable-death-cafe/
Many thanks to Sharon for bringing this news story to our attention. https://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/975717?src=wnl_edit_tpal&uac=293249FX&impID=4346246&faf=1
A bill proposed in Quebec would include dementia patients in legal assisted dying. It will be interesting to watch how it goes as a potential model for legislative change in U.S. states. It's good to see our friend Kelly Bone…
The California Department of Health Center for Health Statistics and information has an informative webpage on the End of Life Option Act for patients and providers. It includes a downloadable form for Patient's Request for Aid in Dying. Click here…
The American Nurses Association’s Center For Ethics and Human Rights and the University of California, San Diego Health released the results from two new comprehensive studies of more than 2,374 nurses in the United States on Medical Aid in Dying…
NBC’s Peacock streaming service has ordered unscripted series The Gentle Art of Swedish Death Cleaning, which is based on the best-selling book by Margareta Magnusson. According to Peacock, the series will star a “Swedish Death Cleaner” who will help people who “are at a…
Death with Dignity is a national leader in end-of-life advocacy and policy reform. Their website provides an interactive map of the U.S. with current information on their RTD laws and the status of pending legislation. Click Here for State Statues
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/colorado-composts-its-first-human-remains-180979771/
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/oregon-ends-residency-rule-medically-assisted-suicide-rcna21932?fbclid=IwAR3H8TwESh3hY3WnfR2eNXstDmhAND424paeTB_IPxk_1xX4mTFz_CRxeBI
Please note our new mailing address: Hemlock Society of San Diego P.O. Box 600481 San Diego, CA 92160
https://interestingengineering.com/a-3d-printed-assisted-suicide-pod-is-now-legal-in-switzerland?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=mailing&utm_campaign=Newsletter-06-12-2021 The inventor of the Sarco, Dr. Philip Nitschke, will be our guest speaker live on Zoom at our meeting on January 16, 2022 at 1:30pm. The link to register for this program can be found on the event card…
https://khn.org/news/article/new-california-law-eases-aid-in-dying-process/?utm_campaign=KHN%20-%20Weekly%20Edition&utm_medium=email&_hsmi=190750941&_hsenc=p2ANqtz-82Qi87WJ4H912xRjyWoMSffv9Z7JXvz3z3NbfTzPY9ThzD1vrTImFfrjniqzim3bd1zSb1JJFEeNmmP42pjlHbsBSGKg&utm_content=190750941&utm_source=hs_email
For anyone interested eco-friendly burial, this is a very informative video from Caitlin Doughty at The Order of the Good Death. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_LJSEZ_pl3Y
Final Exodus will teach you how to think, talk, and write about your plans for a good death. Valuable information and the latest AHCD and POLST forms are provided on this website by California attorney and HSSD member Bill Simmons.…
https://www.usnews.com/news/best-states/california/articles/2021-11-04/lawsuit-briefly-blocking-california-assisted-death-law-ends
https://www.thegooddeathsocietyblog.net/2021/10/24/what-ways-can-you-die-when-youve-had-enough-of-life/
Many Hemlockers may not know Rodney, but he was a towering voice. Faye interviewed him at length in a recent presentation, Current Issues in the Right to Die: Australia. He was a gutsy doctor — an inspiration for all and…
Viewpoint What's Wrong With Advance Care Planning? October 8, 2021 R. Sean Morrison, MD1,2; Diane E. Meier, MD1; Robert M. Arnold, MD3 Author Affiliations Article Information JAMA. Published online October 8, 2021. doi:10.1001/jama.2021.16430 Advance care planning (ACP) has emerged during the last 30 years as a potential response to the problem…
https://www.fresnobee.com/news/california/article254793857.html
https://hospicenews.com/2021/10/05/california-passes-major-hospice-reform-laws/
https://apnews.com/article/europe-health-crime-netherlands-assisted-suicide-54fd090d8a261723b9a04bcb8fea08f4
September 19, 2021 Sandy Morris Challenges California Law Lisa Krieger, Mercury News Sandy Morris Challenges California Law – But How? Sandy Morris challenges California law because when found out she would die of ALS, she resolved that she would bravely,…
https://www.recordnet.com/story/news/state/2021/09/11/california-moves-extend-streamline-process-assisted-death/8298243002/
https://www.lajollalight.com/news/story/2021-09-04/la-jolla-centenarian-retired-la-jolla-physicist-ken-watson-celebrates-a-century-of-having-fun
We’d like to hear about your experiences with loved ones, or yourself, trying to or using VSED (Voluntarily Stopping Eating and Drinking) and also using the End of Life Option Act to achieve a peaceful death. I will compile them,…
SB 380, the bill in the California State Legislature that would liberalize the End of Life Option Act in several important ways, is currently in The State Assembly Appropriations Committee with a hearing on August 26, 2021. The one local…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u6k4Y5MbX0Y A discussion on right-to-die issues and laws in Australia led by Faye Girsh with speakers from Australia presented on July 8, 2021,
This program was held on June 24, 2021 via Zoom. It is first in a series of presentations by Faye Girsh and Ken Watson on Current Issues in the Right to Die. Note: To view this video, click "Watch on…
Using the Stanford What-Matters-Most letter form and answering some simple questions, any adult can write about what matters most to them when it comes to their healthcare choices they want to make for their future when they cannot speak for…
By Anne M. Haule, Hemlock Society Member and VolunteerRecently I went to a movie theater and saw my first movie in over 14 months of pandemic. It was so exciting to be in an actual theater again instead watching films…
By Anne Haule, Member, Hemlock Society It’s been almost 10 years, but I still cry when I think or talk about Larry’s death. I can’t get the picture out of my mind of his deteriorating body, hooked to his catheter,…
The Inevitable: Dispatches on the Right to Die by Katie Engelhart, 2021 Review by Faye Girsh While thousands were dying from Covid 19, assisted dying laws were passed in Spain, Austria, New Mexico, being considered in both Australian and U.S.…
April 11, 2021 (From Exit International) The Coöperatie Laatste Wil (CLW), together with thirty Dutch citizens, is taking the Dutch State to court to create the legal right for voluntary, elective dying at a time of one’s choosing that does…
Kim Callinan of Compassion and Choices writes about the ways the Catholic Church's Ethical and Religious Directives (ERD's) govern what kind of treatment you will receive (or NOT) at Catholic hospitals. Many of these directives influence end-of-life care. The majority…
January 16 marks Religious Freedom Day. While people’s spiritual beliefs take on heightened meaning at the end of their life, religious freedom at this time is unfortunately an aspiration, not a reality. A Jan. 4 study in the Journal of…
Medscape reported on two studies of in-hospital cardiac arrest in Covid patients. In a report from William Beaumont Hospital, Royal Oak, Michigan, 60 of 1309 hospitalized patients with COVID-19 (4.6%) had an in-hospital cardiac arrest. Of these, 54 had documented…
by Rohin Francis, MBBS, Medlife Crisis Modern technology has blurred the lines of life and death to a confusing extent. Heart transplant operations changed the definition of death. The external corporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) machine can keep a person "alive"…
Covid-19 can cause Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome (ARDS) in which oxygen levels plunge and breathing is impossible without a ventilator. Unless there is an advance directive stating that the patient does not want ventilation, she is heavily sedated and a…
Dr. Ramy Salah, a hospice & palliative care clinical fellow at the University of California, San Francisco discusses end of life issues from an islamic perspective.
"What if the seemingly rational choices you prefer when you're healthy no longer make sense to you when you're actually confronting death?" This poignant story is told by the husband of a nurse. Throughout her life this nurse, Stephanie, was…
"The more people engage and understand death and know where it's heading ... the better prepared the person is to be able to let go to the process, and the better prepared the family is to reconcile with it, for…
Judith Graham | Kevin Md, Conditions | August 13, 2019 This article talks about: "....a common complaint: Surgeons don’t help older adults and their families understand the impact of surgery in terms people can understand, even though older patients face…
Cancer is the #1 diagnosis for those taking advantage of medical (or physician) aid in dying. This could be simply because the prognosis (to achieve the required six months or less to live) is more predictable than other diseases. This…
Melissa Bailey, Kaiser Health News June 18, 2019 The latest miracle machine in modern medicine — whose use has skyrocketed in recent years — is saving people from the brink of death: adults whose lungs have been ravaged by the…
Opinion piece by Theresa Brown, hospice nurse. New York Times, April 27, 2019 A hospice nurses argues that lack of time is the main cause of over treatment at end of life. She suggests the development of end-of-life treatment guidelines.…
by Joanne Faryon inewsource.org A report about the "vent farms" in Coronado, and the helpless people in it. In California, 4,000 men, women and children are being kept alive with machines in special wards in California’s nursing homes. "The default…
by MD Brad Stuart, Tracey Danaher, PhDb, Rana Awdish, MD, FCCPc, Leonard Berry, PhDd,e Mayo Clinic Proceedings XXX 2019, 1-9 This article examines how clinicians can help affected families find their way from “focused hope” (which centers on cure) to…
By Barbara Coombs Lee, February 11, 2019 When Blake Nordstrom, one of the fourth-generation of his family to lead the Nordstrom department store chain, died in January at age 58, the extended family of Nordstrom customers and associates were not…
BASICS: Make sure those who are involved in your care know your wishes. Document this in your Advance Directive. Appoint someone to speak for you who knows and agrees with your wishes — your Health Care Agent, who can speak…
Numerous studies have demonstrated that healthcare surrogates lack knowledge of patients’ preferences. Surrogates struggle with guilt, stress, and doubt when they make decisions without knowledge of their loved ones' wishes. Surrogates should be included in the process of advance care…
By Marissa Cabrera, Maureen Cavanaugh, KPBS June 6, 2017. Audio: 6 min 35 seconds Hemlock Society of San Diego founder Faye Girsh discusses why the California End of Life Option Act does not go far enough.
By Linda Van Zandt - Los Angeles Times Aug 14, 2016 "We had been forced to assist in the most bizarre fashion, jumping through seemingly random legal hoops and meeting arbitrary deadlines while my aunt suffered, and finally emptying capsules,…
KevinMd.com Feb. 8, 2016 Many doctors are reluctant to talk about end of life issues. Many families want to avoid the issue altogether and are shocked when the end "suddenly" appears. Read more about doctors' reluctance to talk about end…
Opinion Piece By Kristen McConnell, New York Times, August 26, 2015 A nurse explains dying in an intensive care unit and corrects the impression that being in ICU is a "pause." "When I first realized that in intensive care we…
In this 1973 award-winning French-Italian film with Marcello Mastroianni, four gourmet friends rent a chateau. If you ever thought about how it would be to eat yourself to death, this will amuse and entertain you.
by Deborah Brauser Medscape April 08, 2015 Rational suicide is discussed at the American Association for Geriatric Psychiatry (AAGP) 2015 Annual Meeting. "Our main focus was on the fact that more and more individuals are expressing the wish to end…
Ezekiel J. Emanuel, The Atlantic, October 2014 "Americans may live longer than their parents, but they are likely to be more incapacitated. Does that sound very desirable? Not to me." Ezekiel J. Emanuel The compression of morbidity "...this theory postulates…
by Lindsey Fitzharris in Medium Kate Granger, a 31-year-old physician who was diagnosed with an aggressive form of sarcoma and given less than 5 years to live decided to forgo chemotherapy. She made her decision based on quality of life.…
by Faye Girsh, Ed.D. If you’re thinking about ending your life maybe you are depressed. Depression is a treatable condition which often leads to thoughts of dying. If you have at least five of these symptoms occurring nearly every day…
By Erwin J. D. Kompanje - Translated from Dutch into English from the NNVE newsletter 'RELEVANT'. (Vol.30. Number 1.2004):- It is often suggested that terminal patients die sooner after having received a higher dose of morphine or terminal sedation.…
Keynote speech to the 13th National Hemlock Conference 1/10/03 by John Shelby Spong, Eighth Episcopal Bishop of Newark I am both honored and delighted to speak to this national gathering of the Hemlock Society. It is a rare experience for…
by Bishop Shelby Spong I want them to remember me as a person who was vital to the end, as one who was in possession of all that makes me who I am, and as one who died well. My…
by Rodney Syme, MD What is a good death? Well, it is the antithesis of a bad death. In my view, a good death is not what Philip Aries described as a ' wild death', an unprepared death without peace,…
The Colombian Constitution provides a solid basis for decriminalizing merciful homicide, when a person who is undergoing intense suffering caused by an incurable illness, requests that it be put to an end, which implies causing death. I will briefly refer…
