assisted suicide

Stories 41 - 60 | << Prev   Next >>

Calif. Governor Decides on 'Assisted Suicide'

Gov. Jerry Brown meets with bishop, doctors before deciding

(Newser) - Gov. Jerry Brown signed legislation Monday allowing terminally ill people in the nation's most populous state to take their own lives, saying the emotionally charged bill forced him to consider "what I would want in the face of my own death." Brown, a lifelong Catholic and former...

Access to Assisted Suicide May Soon Triple in US

'Death with dignity' bill headed to Calif. governor's desk

(Newser) - A bill to legalize assisted suicide has made it through California's legislature and will become law unless Gov. Jerry Brown decides to pull the plug on it. The bill passed the state Senate 23-14 after emotional testimony from "death with dignity" advocates including state Sen. Hannah-Beth Jackson. She...

Healthy 75-Year-Old Ends Her Life So She Won't Grow Old

Retired nurse Gill Pharaoh says she saw too much in nursing home

(Newser) - A British woman with no serious health issues ended her life July 21 at a suicide clinic because, she said, she didn't want to grow old. Gill Pharaoh, 75, said her work in a nursing home revealed the "awful" truth of old age and burdens placed on loved...

Stephen Hawking: I'd Consider Assisted Suicide

Physicist says he'd think about it if he ever became a burden or was in great pain

(Newser) - The man who showed the world exactly why he was meant to live despite a devastating diagnosis 52 years ago now says he'd think about assisted suicide—but only under certain circumstances. In an interview set to be broadcast on BBC One in mid-June, Stephen Hawking says, "I...

Dying Mom Sues for Right to Die

Christy O’Donnell, 46, doesn't want her daughter to come home, find her dead

(Newser) - Christy O’Donnell knows how she will die, should her body have its way: "Most likely ... my left lung will fill with fluid, I’ll start drowning in my own fluid." Doctors could drain the lung, painfully; ABC News reports she has a morphine intolerance that makes pain...

Sick Canadian Patients Can Now Die With Doctors' Help

Highest court gets rid of ban on assisted suicide for the mentally competent

(Newser) - Canada's highest court has unanimously struck down a ban on doctor-assisted suicide for mentally competent but suffering and "irremediable" patients. The Supreme Court's decision today sweeps away the existing law and gives Parliament a year to draft new legislation that recognizes the right of consenting adults who...

Brittany Maynard Sent Email Before She Died

It was message of support to woman who tried to help her dad die

(Newser) - A former nurse who is now an advocate for assisted suicide says one of her most cherished possessions is an email of support she got from Brittany Maynard , who chose to die on Nov. 1 before brain cancer overwhelmed her. But what makes the email special for Barbara Mancini is...

Brittany Maynard's Death 'Reprehensible,' Says Vatican

Ending one's life isn't 'dignity': spokesman

(Newser) - The Vatican has made its views on Brittany Maynard's death very clear: The decision to end her own life was "reprehensible," says the Vatican's bioethics chief. "Assisted suicide is an absurdity," Monsignor Ignacio Carrasco de Paula tells ANSA . As for Maynard's support for...

Woman Choosing to Die Has Completed Her Bucket List

Brittany Maynard visits the Grand Canyon

(Newser) - Brittany Maynard, the 29-year-old woman choosing to die on her own terms before a brain tumor kills her, has checked off every item on her bucket list. She crossed off the final item last week, when she visited the Grand Canyon, Fox News reports. "This week, my family and...

Woman Ends Life, Leaves Parting Words on Right to Die

Gillian Bennett was suffering from dementia

(Newser) - An elderly woman, knowing she was suffering from dementia, chose to leave the world on her own terms this week—and she left behind a website calling for the right to physician-assisted suicide. Gillian Bennett, of British Columbia, wrote on the site that she didn't want to end up...

All Old People Can Now Get Help Dying in Switzerland

Option usually reserved for terminally ill

(Newser) - Being old is now an acceptable justification for assisted suicide in Switzerland. At its annual meeting this weekend, the group Exit said that it would now help the elderly die even if they aren't terminally ill, the Guardian reports. While technically anyone in Switzerland—even the young and healthy—...

NM Judge: Doctors Can Help Patients Die

Ruling could make state 5th to allow physician-assisted suicide

(Newser) - Terminally ill patients have a right to get help ending their lives, a New Mexico judge ruled yesterday, carving out a massive exception to a 1960s state law that makes assisting suicide a felony. The ruling could make New Mexico the fifth state to allow physician-assisted suicide, the New York ...

Stephen Hawking Changes Tune on Assisted Suicide

He's now in favor of it, assuming there are safeguards

(Newser) - Stephen Hawking has come out in favor of physician-assisted suicide for the terminally ill, provided there are significant safeguards in place. When asked about his position on the issue in 2006, the famous cosmologist and author called it a "great mistake," noting, "While there's life, there'...

Dementia Patient Ends Life at Assisted-Suicide Clinic

83-year-old is first Brit to do so at Switzerland's Dignitas

(Newser) - An 83-year-old man in the early stages of dementia has become the first person in Britain so diagnosed to end his life at an assisted-suicide clinic, reports the BBC . The unidentified man did so with the support of his family—in fact, his wife made the trip with him to...

Vermont Legalizes Assisted Suicide

Third state in US to do so

(Newser) - Vermont has passed a bill legalizing physician-assisted suicide, and with Gov. Peter Shumlin's signature expected this week, will become the nation's third state to allow it. Under the new law, people over 18 with an "incurable and irreversible disease" and less than six months left to live...

Ireland: Paralyzed Woman Can't Get Help to Die

Supreme Court rules against Marie Fleming

(Newser) - Marie Fleming, 59, is in the final stages of multiple sclerosis and is ready for a quiet death at home. Under Irish law, which decriminalized suicide in 1993, Fleming could legally take her own life—but her physical condition will not allow her to do so without assistance. So Fleming...

Paralyzed Woman in Ireland Loses Right-to-Die Case

Marie Fleming, 59, asked court to bend on assisted suicide

(Newser) - A 59-year-old woman in Ireland paralyzed with severe multiple sclerosis has lost her court fight against the nation's ban on assisted suicide, reports the Irish Times . Marie Fleming sought permission to end her life with the help of her partner of 18 years, but Dublin's High Court rejected...

Suicide by Choice Is a Fantasy

 Suicide by Choice Is a Fantasy 
OPINION
Nov 1, 2012 12:41 PM CDT

Suicide by Choice Is a Fantasy

Patients near end of life are surrounded by 'invisible coercion': Ben Mattlin

(Newser) - A proposed law in Massachusetts to make assisted suicide legal has built-in rules to make sure patients aren't coerced into the decision, but journalist and author Ben Mattlin thinks the concept of coercion is murky, dangerous water, he writes in the New York Times . The subject is close to...

'Death With Dignity' Should Become the National Norm

And it may, thanks to proposed Massachusetts act: Lewis Cohen

(Newser) - “It is time we became pro-choice at the end of life,” writes Lewis M. Cohen, and Massachusetts’ Death With Dignity Act, poised to pass on Election Day, could finally make that happen. The ballot question, if approved, could “turn death with dignity from a legislative experiment into...

A Sick Doctor Shines Light on Assisted Suicide

Richard Wesley: typical of those who consider an early death

(Newser) - The slow degeneration of a Seattle doctor is sad to see, but his plight shines a spotlight on surprising facts about assisted suicide, the New York Times reports. Richard Wesley, stricken with Lou Gehrig's disease, has only a short time to live—but thanks to Washington state's Death...

Stories 41 - 60 | << Prev   Next >>