Abortion proponents admit that the “choice” is a “tragedy”.
But a “tragedy” is not a “right”.
Avoiding tragedy is a right.
[Rachel MacNair, Feminists for Life of America, 10/1991]
June & May 2007: End Of Life
Top Russian Scientist Warns Euthanasia Will Increase Human Organ Trafficking
Euthanasia Resource: Turning the Tide
Kevorkian in Demand
Commentary: Michael Schiavo—What Goes Around, Comes Around
Texas Senate Approves Bill Reforming Futile Care Law to Help Patients
Media Reports Erroneously Indicate Netherlands Euthanasia Cases Dropping
Proposal in Brussels: Hospitals must provide euthanasia
14% of Medicare Hospice Providers Overdue for Certification...
TOP RUSSIAN SCIENTIST WARNS EUTHANASIA WILL INCREASE HUMAN ORGAN TRAFFICKING.A leading Russian scientist and politician has warned that trafficking in human organs will explode in the country if legal euthanasia is introduced, Regnum News Agency reported earlier today.
Sergey Kolesnikov is a member of the Russian State Duma, a doctor of medicine and a member of the Russian Academy of Medical Sciences. He told a Regnum correspondent that a law permitting euthanasia would “sharply increase” the risk of criminal seizure of human organs, already a significant problem in the country.
“I strongly oppose legalization of euthanasia,” Kolesnikov said. “Corruption and crime rates in this country make me take such initiatives very seriously. So, it will become one of legal ways to seize property of an individual, depending on how the procedure is stated by the law.”
“It is no secret that there is a practice of signing contracts with elderly people on using their organs after their death. In this case it would be legal,” he said.
“As a doctor I know that when it becomes impossible to sustain immune activity of the human organism (for instance, in case of brain death), a decision is made to stop resuscitation with consent of the family,” Kolesnikov said. “But this is not euthanasia.
“[Euthanasia] can be called ‘a voluntary decision to take one’s life.’ How voluntary is it here? They would say it is necessary to relieve pain, but today the level of painkilling is almost in 100% enough not to make it a reason to take one’s life.”
“There is another question: who will make the decision and who will carry out the procedure? Doctors should be in no way involved in it. Well, will the family want to be the executioner? Thus, a special position of the executioner is to be introduced in hospitals, but I do not know whether this is legal,” Kolesnikov said.
Proposed by Senator Valentina Petrenko, the euthanasia legislation has been criticized by Russian State Duma deputy chair Vladimir Pekhtin, who said the law would contradict the president’s commitment to improve Russia’s demographic situation. With one of the lowest birthrates in the world, Russia is facing a growing crisis of an aging and dwindling population.
EUTHANASIA RESOURCES: Turning the Tide, produced by the Euthanasia Prevention Coalition and Salt and Light television media foundation, was designed to change the way secular society perceives the issues of euthanasia and assisted suicide. Secular society views the issues of euthanasia and assisted suicide to be issues related to autonomy whereas Turning the Tide shifts the focus of the issue by using a personal story style to focus on the vulnerability of the person when one experiences disability, depression or symptoms related to degenerative and/or end of life conditions. The video also focusses on issues related to pain and symptom management and proper end-of-life care.
Groups that have viewed Turning the Tide have been incredibly impressed by the production quality of the video and the profound comments by the people featured in the DVD.
Catherine Frazee, disability studies professor at Ryerson University comments in Turning the Tide that: "People like to frame this debate in the language of autonomy, or individual choice. They'll say to me that it's all right, you can say no, but other people will want to say yes, but I don't think individual autonomy should ever be permitted to trump the safety and well-being of the community."
Wesley Smith comments in Turning the Tide that: "You have a situation in Canada and certainly in the United States, where people are having difficulty getting access to ... good pain control, good psychiatric involvement and good social services. Are we going to say that the answer for these problems is assisted suicide?"
Senator Sharon Carstairs, former chair of the Special Senate Committee on Euthanasia and Assisted Suicide answers the question on why people want euthanasia and assisted suicide by stating: "sometimes the pian is just too horrible, but we can deal with that. The other reason is ... they want their personal dignity. Well that says something pretty awful about each and every one of us. Why have they lost their sense of dignity? It is because we have made them feel less than dignified?"
Jean Echlin, awarded the Dorothy Lea award for excellence in palliative care in 2004 comments in Turning the Tide that: "I could never advocate for someone to suicide when I can offer them pain management and symptom management right where they are."
Turning the Tide features: Bobby Schindler (Terri Schiavo's brother), Wesley Smith (Attorney, International Task Force on Euthanasia and Assisted Suicide), Catherine Frazee (former chair of the Ontario Human Rights Committee), Adrian Dieleman (counselor, rehabilitation clinic for spinal cord injuries), Jean Echlin (palliative care nursing consultant), Senator Sharon Carstairs (Canadian Senator), Alex Schadenberg (executive director, Euthanasia Prevention Coalition), Reg Hancock (spinal cord injury survivor) and more.
A Discussion Guide for small group or classroom presentations has been designed for use and included with the DVD package.
The Turning the Tide DVD package includes the DVD, the Discussion Guide, a recording sheet and all the resources that are necessary for making a presentation on euthanasia and assisted suicide. It can be ordered for $50.00 for 1 package, $70.00 for 2 packages, or $100.00 for 4 packages by contacting the Euthanasia Prevention Coalition at: Box 25033, London ON, N6C 6A8, email: , or calling: 1-877-439-3348. Further bulk rates upon request. The Euthanasia Prevention Coalition sold more than 300 copies of Turning the Tide within its first three weeks of distribution.
Comment: I have viewed this persuasive and gripping DVD - Turning the Tide produced by The Euthanasia Prevention Coalition and want to make a few suggestions. This compelling DVD will engage its audience from beginning to end. If you have wanted to do something to educate the masses, protect the vulnerable, the infirm, people with disabilities etc,. here is your opportunity to be pro-active and make a difference - purchase a gift copy for your pro-life organization, seniors home, and for whoever, and where ever you believe this will bring a crowd. Help promote and present it to the public. This is such an excellent opportunity for those who wish they could do something positive. May I also suggest you order it now, while it is fresh in your mind. I can not emphasize enough, the importance of showing this remarkable DVD. All the information on Turning the Tide is posted below. (Don't forget to get a copy for yourself, show your family, friends, neighbors.) Cheryl Eckstein, CHN Compassionate Healthcare Network www.chninternational.com/default.html; CHN is member of the World Federation of Doctors Who Respect Human Life (WFDWRHL) Dr. Karl Gunning, Pres.
KEVORKIAN IN DEMAND as a speaker: $100K-per-talk offers to discuss assisted suicide. Jack Kevorkian is to be freed June 1 after having served eight years in the poisoning of a man with Lou Gehrig's disease.
Known as Dr. Death, Kevorkian is about to get a new lease on life -- one that may bring speaker fees of up to $100,000 as he advocates for the legalization of assisted suicide, according to his attorney. According to his attorney, Mayer Morganroth, the man who once bought his clothes from thrift shops, drove old cars and lived in inexpensive apartments has several offers to speak about legalizing assisted suicide for between $50,000 and $100,000. Morganroth would not name who made the offers or whether Kevorkian has accepted them. "He's not real keen on the idea, but there are bills to be paid," Morganroth said. While a $100,000 speaking engagement is high, it's not unheard of in an industry that closely guards fees. Former President Bill Clinton makes $125,000 to $350,000 per appearance, according to his reports on his wife's Senate ethics disclosure forms. And filmmaker Ken Burns acknowledged pulling in $50,000 per talk. Kevorkian, who turns 79 six days before his release, has spent more than eight years behind bars. In April 1999, he was imprisoned for 10-25 years for second-degree murder in the 1998 poisoning of Thomas Youk, a 52-year-old Waterford Township man with Lou Gehrig's disease.
Youk's death is one of 130 assisted suicides linked to Kevorkian, whose crusade for a person's right to commit suicide assisted by another rocked the medical and legal establishments in the 1990s.
There's little doubt that Kevorkian is in demand. He reportedly has done an interview with Mike Wallace of CBS's "60 Minutes" that will air on June 3, and will appear on "Larry King Live" shortly after his release. Morganroth said Kevorkian isn't accepting money for media appearances and has no interest to do so.
Corrections officials who had hoped for a low-key release aren't expecting that now.
"Some national (media) people said they would rent helicopters if needed to get their 'money shot' of him leaving prison," said Russ Marlan, spokesman for the Michigan Department of Corrections. "We hope not. Some prisoners already think he gets preferential treatment and there are three facilities all in this area. We don't need a riot over his release."
Kevorkian's parole will last two years and includes a provision designed specifically for him: that he not attend any assisted suicides. His other parole conditions are designed to ensure that Kevorkian does not perform in any capacity in which he would become a caregiver for the disabled or elderly -- such as an operator of a group home, Marlan said.
"It doesn't mean he cannot be involved with seniors, but he will have to run employment matters by his parole officer to ensure he is not doing anything inappropriate or that might be viewed as inappropriate," Marlan said. But Kevorkian says his days of breaking the law for the cause are over.
In response to questions from The News last year, Kevorkian said he still believed in assisted suicide where legal, regretted flouting the law and once free, would no longer assist suicides. "Only as a person who will speak out to its legalization," Kevorkian said. "I will not be involved otherwise."
Marlan said Kevorkian took the same position at his parole board hearing. "He was asked about his plans after release and if he would continue to violate the law and he said he had no desire to do that but that he had some speaking requests and would be speaking on the issue," Marlan said.
Even Michigan Appeals Judge Jessica Cooper, who sentenced Kevorkian in 1999 with a "no one is above the law" comment, said she doesn't believe he poses any threat to society. "He served his time and he's coming out," Cooper said.
Attorneys have been trying for years to get an early release for Kevorkian, whose efforts -- while criticized and illegal -- undeniably advanced international dialogue over death and society's silence on an individual's right to die under certain conditions.
"This is long overdue and we're just happy to get him out," said Morganroth, Kevorkian's attorney. While still fighting health problems, Kevorkian will live with friends at an undisclosed Metro Detroit location, Morganroth said. Morganroth said Kevorkian's health has improved in recent months.
Cheryl Eckstein, Founder President Compassionate Healthcare Network (CHN)
CHN is a not for profit organization, formed 1990. CHN - 11563 Bailey Cres., Surrey, B.C. V3V 2V4 Canada Phone - 604 582 3844 Visit us at / www.chninternational.com/default.html
CHN is member of the World Federation of Doctors Who Respect Human Life (WFDWRHL) Dr. Karl Gunning, Pres..
[22May07, Mike Martindale, The Detroit News, http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070522/METRO/705220387]
The Schiavo case was a public relations effort for euthanasia and assisted suicide, trying to make it acceptable and more palatable to terminate the disabled, elderly and vulnerable if it becomes too costly to keep them alive.
It was and is about egos, greed, jealousy, revenge, ideological agendas. And money..."
TX SENATE APPROVES BILL REFORMING FUTILE CARE LAW . The Texas state Senate has approved a bill that would revise a law that allows families just 10 days to find care for a loved one when a medical facility refuses to provide continued lifesaving medical treatment. Under the measure, families would get a minimum of 21 days to locate a medical facility that will care for the patient.
Current state law allows medical facilities to determine that a patient is too far gone to receive further care and they can tell families that they will stop lifesaving medical treatment in 10 days.
Pro-life groups and disability rights advocates have fought the law saying it promotes euthanasia and puts families in a difficult position.
Although lawmakers are keen on improving the law, pro-life groups and legislators were split on two bills -- one upping the 10 day window and another providing an indefinite period of time to placed a loved one somewhere else.
Lawmakers eventually compromised on the bills as Sen. Bob Deuell and House Public Health Chair Dianne Delisi worked middle ground between their measures.
"This has been a very difficult bill to deal with," Duell told the Dallas Morning News. "There's value in each and every life. As a physician, I can tell you no person is the same when they have a disease."
Two pro-life groups -- Texas Right to Life and Texas Alliance for Life -- disagreed on which bill was better, but TRTL came around to support the compromise when additional safeguards were added.
Those provisions will ensure that patients similar to Terri Schiavo who are marked "futile" by hospital ethics committees can continue to receive food and water while the family searchers for another medical facility. The compromise bill also provides for a liaison to help families locate medical care when a hospital refuses to provide it. The compromise bill now heads to the state House for its consideration.
After previously opposing the measure eight months ago, the Texas Hospital Association and Texas Medical Association are planning to tell a committee today that they support the change allowing more time as long as the law isn't scrapped entirely.
During a hearing on the Duell bill Lanore Dixon, who battled with St. Luke's Episcopal Hospital over the fate of her sister Andrew Clark represents many families who have had problems with the futile care provision.
"This law allowed a hospital to steal precious time from our family during a loved one's end days," she said, according to the Houston Chronicle. "Was that really necessary?"
Clark, 54, suffered complications following open heart surgery and required a ventilator and dialysis to survive. Her motor control faculties were damaged but, her family says her cognitive abilities were unaffected.
The hospital informed her family that her medical care would be discontinued in 10 days after a hospital committee decided Clark's condition was beyond hope and refused further medical treatment.
It took legal action from a family attorney to prevent Clark's treatment from being withheld, in an act of euthanasia.
Cynthia Deason, who took Houston's Memorial Hermann Hospital to court to stop it from taking her disabled daughter off life support added, "I just don't want anybody else to go through what I've gone through."
MEDIA REPORTS ERRONEOUSLY INDICATE NETHERLANDS EUTHANASIA CASES DROPPING by Alex Schadenberg
A recent report published in the New England Journal of Medicine (May 10, 2007) has been reported by the media as stating that the practice of Euthanasia in the Netherlands has dropped since it was formally legalized in 2002.
When reading the actual report we learn of a different reality than the media has reported.
The report states that in 2001, the year before euthanasia was formally legalized in the Netherlands, there were approximately 3500 (2.6%) euthanasia deaths, there were approximately 300 (0.2%) assisted suicide deaths and approximately 8500 (5.6%) deaths by terminal sedation (sedation followed by dehydration).
The report states that in 2005 there were approximately 2325 (1.7%) euthanasia deaths, there were approximately 100 (0.1%) assisted suicide deaths and approximately 9685 (7.1%) deaths by terminal sedation.
It seems that the decreased incidence of active euthanasia was replaced by the increase in deaths by terminal sedation in the Netherlands.
The other fact in the new study is that approximately 550 (0.4%) of deaths resulted from the ending of life without explicit request. These numbers are not part of the euthanasia numbers because they lack the requirement of voluntary request and therefore they are placed in a separate category. This number appears to have remained steady since 2001. The practice of terminal sedation needs to be separated from decisions to sedate patients without the explicit intention of causing death. In 2005 there were another 1.1% of deaths whereby the patient was sedated without the explicit intention of causing death. [16May07, LifeNews.com]
PROPOSAL: HOSPITALS MUST PROVIDE EUTHANASIA. The Flemish liberals Open VLD want patients in all government-funded hospitals to have the right to euthanasia if they so choose.
The hospital should make provisions for this option if a patient comes up against opposition from a physician who on principle refuse to perform euthanasia.
This proposal is included in the draft version of the party's electoral platform presented on Wednesday.
The philosophy behind the proposal is that it is not enough that the ethical achievements not be reversed during the next legislative term, but that they are also effectively put into practice. The government must therefore monitor that institutions which receive government funding are actually enforcing the law.
[24Apr07, Cheryl Eckstein, Compassionate Healthcare Network (CHN) www.chninternational.com, 18April07,Brussels, http://www.expatica.com/actual/article.asp?subchannel_id=48&story_id=38857]
14% OF MEDICARE HOSPICE PROVIDERS ARE OVERDUE FOR CERTIFICATION. The report used data from a 2005 survey of 2,537 active hospices. According to the report, hospices overdue for certification had not been surveyed for an average of nine years
As of July 2005, 14% of Medicare hospice providers were overdue for certification, according to an HHS Office of Inspector General report released 24Apr, [AP/Houston Chronicle].
The report used data from a 2005 survey of 2,537 active hospices. According to the report, hospices overdue for certification had not been surveyed for an average of nine years -- three years longer than the standard time set by CMS. Hospices in California, Illinois and Michigan accounted for 41% of the overdue certifications, the report found.
Health deficiencies, such as insufficient patient care plans, were found in 46% of the hospices surveyed. Medicare payments in 2004 to hospices overdue for inspection averaged $2.7 million each, according to the report.
The only way the federal government can discipline a hospice found to have patient care problems is to eliminate it from the Medicare program, whereas nursing homes can be fined or eliminated from the program. The report recommends establishing other means of enforcing rules for hospices.
In addition, HHS Inspector General Daniel Levinson in a statement said, "Hospice facilities should be surveyed timely so that problems can be detected and addressed." The frequency of hospice inspection is set by CMS as part of its budget process. From fiscal year 2000 to 2005, hospices were set to be inspected every six years, but the requirement was changed to eight years in 2006.
[This is not surprising. The government provides very little oversight over the hospice industry. They basically can do whatever they want, and no state inspector or even the police will do anything. Standards of care can be violated with impunity as they know "nobody is watching!" R Panzer, HPA, 25Apr 2007]
End of Life / Euthanasia 
