"Sexual activity now has a mortality rate associated with it because of AIDS and cervical cancer. You can die from having intercourse or other sexual activities!" Brenda Taylor, M.D., Obstetrics/Gynecology
Sex isn't worth dying for...
September-July 2007: End Of Life
NEW! Largest International Euthanasia and Assisted Suicide Symposium - Toronto Nov. 30
NEW! Seniors Learn to Swallow Again
Turning the Tide Euthanasia DVD Well Received
Arizona Could be the Next Battleground for Assisted Suicide Advocates
Jesse Ramirez, Considered a “Vegetable” Like Terri Shiavo, Now on His Way to Recovery
Forty Percent of PVS Patients Misdiagnosed, Half Recover
Neighbors' Complaints Succeed in Evicting Dignitas from Apartments...
LARGEST INTERNATIONAL EUTHANASIA & ASSISTED SUICIDE SYMPOSIUM - TORONTO NOV.30. Nearly every leader and significant speaker on the issues of euthanasia and assisted suicide will be attending the International Symposium on Euthanasia "Current Issues and Future Directions" to be held Friday, Nov 30th and Saturday, Dec 1, 2007 at the Four Points Sheraton - Toronto Airport Hotel.
Organized by the Euthanasia Prevention Coalition - Canada and co-sponsored by: Co-Sponsored by: Euthanasia Prevention Coalition - Canada, NOT DEAD YET - USA, Compassionate Healthcare Network - Canada, Physicians for Compassionate Care - USA, Vermont Alliance for Ethical Healthcare - Vermont, Care NOT Killing Alliance - UK, No Less Human, UK.
The list of speakers include:
* Margaret Somerville, the founding director of the McGill Centre for Medicine, Ethics and Law. Somerville is the author of many internationally recognized books including: The Ethical Imagination and Death Talk.
* Dr. Peter Saunders is the director of the Care NOT Killing Alliance in the UK, that co-ordinates organizations in the UK that oppose euthanasia and assisted suicide and support palliative care. They were instrumental in defeating a recent assisted suicide bill in the UK.
* Dr William Toffler is the national director of Physicians for Compassionate Care in Portland Oregon, a national organizations of physicians who oppose euthanasia and assisted suicide in the US.
* Dr. Bob Orr is the director of the Vermont Alliance for Ethical Health Care opposes assisted suicide and promotes ethical healthcare practices. They were instrumental in defeating a recent assisted suicide bill in Vermont.
* Diane Coleman is the founder of NOT DEAD YET, a leading disability rights group in the US.
* Stephen Drake is the research director for NOT DEAD YET.
* Allison Davis is the national co-ordinator of No Less Human in the UK, a national disability rights organization
* Hugh Scher is the legal counsel for the Euthanasia Prevention Coalition and the former chair of the Council of Canadians with Disabilities Human Rights Committee. Hugh is a leading lawyer in Canada on Human Rights, Constitutional and End-of-Life Issues.
* Alex Schadenberg is the Executive Director of the Euthanasia Prevention Coalition in Canada.
* Rita Marker is the Executive Director of the International Task Force on Euthanasia and Assisted Suicide. Rita is the leader and the unifying force for groups that oppose euthanasia and assisted suicide.
* Wesley J. Smith, attorney for the International Task Force on Euthanasia and Assisted Suicide. Smith is the author of many books including: Forced Exit. Smith is a powerful speaker.
* Bobby Schindler is the brother of Terri Schiavo and works for the Terri Schindler Schiavo Foundation.
* Catherine Frazee is the co-director of Ryerson University (RBC) Institute for Disability Studies, and the former chair of the Ontario Human Rights Commission (1990 - 95). She is an extraordinarily gifted intellectual leader.
* Bert Dorenbos is the leader of Cry for Life in the Netherlands.
* Cheryl Eckstein is the founder of the Compassionate Health Care Network in Canada.
* Dr. Paul Byrne is a Neonatologist from Ohio and a recognized expert in the area of Brain Death.
* Dr Mark Mostert is an expert on the Nazi T4 - euthanasia program.
There has never been a Symposium on Euthanasia and Assisted Suicide like this before.
The cost for the Symposium is: $189 - adult, $100 - students or people with disabilities.
(Includes Friday lunch & dinner and Saturday lunch)
Register by contacting the Euthanasia Prevention Coalition at:
or call toll free: 1-877-439-3348.
[TORONTO, August 28, 2007 LifeSiteNews.com]
SENIORS LEARN TO SWALLOW AGAIN: A new therapy using electrodes helps patients move from feeding tubes to eating normally
Imagine if you lost your ability to swallow. How would you learn to eat again?
Beaufort Memorial Hospital therapists are using a new method applying electrical stimulation to help stroke patients, seniors and others with problems swallowing regain that basic reflex.
The regimen of electrotherapy, swallowing exercises and special diets is giving patients previously limited to feeding tubes, pureed foods or coughing at the dinner table a chance at enjoying their favorite meals normally.
Beaufort resident Artie Heape is one of the hospital's success stories.
He began choking on food and accidentally inhaling it this spring after surgeries removing half his lung and a triple heart bypass weakened his ability to swallow.
"When he started his treatment he had a feeding tube," said Laurie Martin, pathology department director. "Three weeks ago I ate dinner with him at Duke's BBQ."
After three months of therapy, Heape said he's off his feeding tube and back devouring anything he wants.
"You don't think about (swallowing) when it just always happens and you didn't have to worry about it before," said senior speech pathologist Kim Cummings. "It's like a life sentence if you can't eat."
The disorder can disrupt social lives that revolve around eating out, cause weight loss and raise the risk of pneumonia, she said.
About 15 million people in the U.S. suffer from dysphagia, or difficulty swallowing, most of whom are elderly, claims Chattanooga Group, which began marketing the therapy called VitalStim in 2003.
For some, the normal aging process is to blame. Others have survived strokes, throat or neck cancer or neurological diseases such as Parkinson's.
In each case, the mouth and throat muscles weaken, causing food to stick in the throat or liquids to enter the windpipe instead of going down the trachea and into the stomach.
During a 45-minute treatment, four nickel-sized electrodes taped to the patient's neck cause the muscles to contract into swallows, strengthening the reflex through repetition.
"Have you ever grabbed a hold of an electric wire?" asked Heape, smiling as Cummings raised the charge flowing to his neck to 16 milliamps.
Cheryl Eckstein, Compassionate Healthcare Network (CHN), www.chninternational.com/default.html
CHN is member of the World Federation of Doctors Who Respect Human Life (WFDWRHL) Dr. Karl Gunning, Pres..
[http://www.beaufortgazette.com/local_news/story/6643897p-5919820c.html, August 28 2007, By REBEKAH L. SANDERS,
843-986-5539; N Valko RN, 29Aug07]
TURNING THE TIDE EUTHANASIA VIDEO WELL RECEIVED. Turning the Tide, the powerful DVD on euthanasia and assisted suicide, has been incredibly well received. The Euthanasia Prevention Coalition has sold more than 700 copies of Turning the Tide since its release in April and Turning the Tide has received positive reviews from people across Canada and the US.Turning the Tide is produced by the Euthanasia Prevention Coalition and Salt and Light media foundation.Turning the Tide 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.Turning the Tide presents personal stories that focus on the vulnerability of the person when one experiences disability, depression or symptoms related to degenerative and/or end of life conditions. It also focusses on issues related to pain and symptom management and proper end-of-life care.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 pain 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?"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 is included within the DVD package. The discussion guide enables groups and individuals to organize effective presentations on the issues.
The Turning the Tide DVD package can be ordered from the Euthanasia Prevention Coalition 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:
, website: http://www.epcc.ca/, or calling: 1-877-439-3348. Further bulk rates exist upon request. [September 10, 2007 LifeSiteNews.com]
ARIZONA COULD BE THE NEXT BATTLEGROUND FOR ASSISTED SUICIDE ADVOCATES. Assisted suicide advocates have lost in some of the most liberal states in the country. They failed to get bills legalizing the practice approved in Vermont, Hawaii, and even California. Voters in Michigan and Main have rejected ballot proposals as well to promote euthanasia.
Now assisted suicide backers want to make Arizona the next target and State Rep. Linda Lopez spoke in favor of such a bill this weekend. Her comments came at a meeting sponsored by the Arizona chapter of Compassion & Choices, the leading pro-euthanasia group in the country. "We want to build up membership to support Linda's bills," Billie Stockl, president of the State Board of Directors for Compassion & Choices Arizona, told the Arizona Republic newspaper. "We need the numbers to show this is what Arizona wants."
Lopez first put forward an assisted suicide bill in 2003 and has been proposing one each legislative session since. Pro-life groups are delighted that none of her bills have ever received a hearing. They also would likely respond to a new bill by citing the case of Jesse Ramirez, who was severely injured in a car crash in a May 30 car accident.
He has since recovered form his coma and appears to be on the road to recovery. [2July07, LifeNews.com, Phoenix]
Jesse Ramirez, Considered a “Vegetable” Like Terri Shiavo, Now on His Way to Recovery. Written off by doctors as a hopeless “vegetable”, an Arizona man would not now be on his way to recovery from an accident caused by a marital quarrel if not for his family’s unrelenting struggle for his life.
The Arizona Republic reports that on Wednesday, Jesse Ramirez, awoke from his nearly month long persistent vegetative state (PVS) and now “can hug and kiss, nod his head, answer yes and no questions, give a thumbs-up sign and sit in a chair.”
If not for the past few weeks’ legal battles that ended Tuesday with a favorable settlement for him and his family, Jesse Ramirez, who depended on feeding tubes for food and water, would certainly have died in circumstances very similar to the tragic 2005 death of Terri Schindler-Schiavo.
On May 30, Jesse Ramirez and his wife Rebecca Ramirez were quarreling in their SUV when he lost control and crashed into a pottery market, ejecting them both from the vehicle. Ramirez suffered a broken neck and major head-trauma, while his wife had only minor injuries.
Just before the accident, Rebecca had attempted to jump from the moving vehicle saying she was afraid of her husband, who accused her of marital infidelity. Police have yet to determine what exactly led Ramirez to lose control of the wheel.
Ten days after the accident and Ramirez’s PVS diagnosis, Rebecca ordered the hospice where he was staying to remove his feeding tubes on June 8. Ramirez family then began pleading with her to let them try and save his life.
“I'm asking you for the biggest favor of my life,” Jesse’s father told her. “Can you give my son another chance?” Jesse Ramirez Sr. told the Arizona Republic she then hung up on him.
In desperation, the family turned to the Scottsdale-based Alliance Defense Fund, which challenged the prudence of allowing Rebecca to arbitrate her husband’s fate, considering their recent marital strife.
“We've got to make sure the decision-maker is the very best and most capable one,” senior counsel Gary McCaleb told the Arizona Republic. “She said she was in fear of her life. Ten days later, she's going to say whether he lives or dies? Frankly, it's too much to ask of the wife.”
Maricopa County Superior Court judge Paul Katz agreed and ordered the tubes reconnected while an independent attorney mediated between Rebecca Ramirez and Jesse’s family and talked to Jesse's doctors. Then Tuesday Katz ruled that a court-appointed guardian would make decisions for Ramirez while the court continued to investigate his health.
“As we have discussed here previously, PVS is often misdiagnosed. More importantly, it can't be done accurately after only a few weeks post trauma. So, why the rush in this case to write the man off?” commented bioethics expert and author Wesley J. Smith on his blog. “This much is sure: But for parents willing to fight for his life, Ramirez would be dead today rather than entering the rehabilitation unit.” [28June07, Peter J. Smith, Arizona, LifeSiteNews.com]
40% OF PVS PATIENTS MISDIAGNOSED, HALF RECOVER. A new international study finds that about forty percent of patients like Terri Schiavo who are supposedly in a persistent vegetative state are misdiagnosed and another fifty percent of them recover from their situation. The study finds the patients in question were in a minimally conscious state and could improve.
The studies, conducted by researchers in Belgium, found that the level of misdiagnosis has not decreased in the last 15 years. The findings were presented at the European Neurological Society Meeting in Greece.
Dr. Steven Laureys, from the Coma Science Group at the University of Liиge, stressed during the meeting that the vegetative state in a significant proportion of patients admitted to intensive care may be transitory. "The study underlines the importance of extreme caution in any decision to limit the life chances of patients during the acute phase of a vegetative state," he said.
Laureys and his team studied whether the so-called PVS state is a long-term proposition for patients and he analyzed data collected over a five year period at the 26 bed intensive care unit at the university hospital. He and his colleagues examined 5900 patients and found that just over half of those who showed some degree of impaired consciousness on admission were diagnosed as in a vegetative state. Of these patients with serious brain damage, 28% died in the intensive care unit. 15% were classified as still in a vegetative state when they left intensive care.
However, just over half of those who had originally been considered to be in a vegetative state left the unit having recovered consciousness to some degree.
The largest group, 59 percent of those who recovered, got to the point that they could obey commands and instructions from doctors and family.
Laureys: "It is an extraordinarily difficult experience for any family to be confronted with a member suffering acute brain injury, alive but with their faculties so damaged that they may seem beyond awareness. The data emerging from this study clearly demonstrate however that around a quarter of patients in an acute vegetative state when they are first admitted to hospital have a good chance of recovering a significant proportion of their faculties, and up to a half will regain some level of consciousness."
Meanwhile, the research team found that around 40% of patients were wrongly diagnosed as in a vegetative state, when they in fact registered the awareness levels of minimal consciousness.
In those patients health workers had diagnosed as in a minimally conscious state, 10% were actually communicating functionally. Laureys said younger patients usually having a better prognosis. [21June07, Ertelt, LifeNews.com, Rhodes, Greece]
PERMANENT VEGETATIVE STATE (PVS) DIAGNOSIS OFTEN INACCURATE MORE DATA SHOWS By Hilary White
RHODES, June 21, 2007 (LifeSiteNews.com) - News-Medical.net is reporting on a series of studies that show a high rate of misdiagnosis and inaccuracy in patients deemed to be in a "permanent vegetative state" (PVS). The researchers say that the problem is grounds for "extreme caution" in decisions that might "limit the life chances" of patients. The pretext of a PVS diagnosis is commonly put forward by the euthanasia movement as a reason to allow euthanasia by dehydration, as in the case of Terri Schiavo.
Researchers at the University of Liège in Belgium examined data on over 5900 patients at the intensive care unit at the university hospital. The data showed that of 356 patients diagnosed on admission as being in a vegetative state, just over half left the hospital with some degree of restored consciousness. 59% had recovered enough to obey commands.
The Belgian study said that a quarter of such patients have a good chance of recovery of a "significant proportion of their faculties". Another showed that as many as 40% of PVS diagnosed patients were incorrectly diagnosed as having no cognitive function when in fact they had minimum consciousness.
Experts at the June 16 to 20 European Neurological Society Meeting in Rhodes said the findings showed that greater care had to be exercised with regard to end-of-life decisions. These findings match many other studies that show the PVS diagnosis is frequently inaccurate. As long ago as 1996, a study published in British Medical Journal showed that 43% of patients diagnosed with PVS do not qualify for the diagnosis.
Dr. Steven Laureys, the lead researcher in the Belgian study, said, "Our data shows that acute vegetative state is certainly not rare among patients admitted to intensive care."
"What is important to note is that it may be transient and that the prognosis for patients with impaired consciousness depends to a great extent on the nature of the brain damage."
The transitory nature of the PVS condition is attested by regular news features about patients that doctors had declared incurable 'waking' after significant time in a coma or reduced state of consciousness.
Legal expert and anti-euthanasia activist Wesley J. Smith writes that the research "should give great pause to those who advocate not supplying or quickly removing life support for people with traumatic head injury."
Smith suggested that it should also prevent doctors from dismissing the assertions of family members that a patient has some consciousness. In their fight to save their daughter's life, the family of Terri Schindler-Schiavo were persistently told by doctors that they were only imagining their daughter's reactions to stimuli.
Smith writes, "What really needs to be done is to reject the notion that people with severe brain injuries are somehow less 'human' or are not 'persons.' Unless and until we do that, people in these devastated states will not be safe."
Association of American Physicians and Surgeons, Inc.
7/15/2007
Persistent vegetative state misdiagnosed 40% of time; patient slated for Schiavo-style death awakens
According to a study by the Coma Science Group of the University of Liège, Belgium, up to half the patients in an acute vegetative state regain some level of consciousness. Results of the study are also consistent with previous studies showing that at least 40% of patients deemed to be in a persistent vegetative state are misdiagnosed.
“The study showed how very hard it is to disentangle the minimally conscious state from the vegetative state,” says Dr. Steven Laureys. And in cases that health workers diagnosed as minimally conscious, 10% were actually communicating functionally.
Comparing past studies on this issue shows that the level of misdiagnosis has not decreased in the past 15 years.
The results “should give great pause to those who advocate not supplying or quickly removing life support for people with traumatic head injury,” writes Wesley J. Smith, an attorney for the International Task Force on Euthanasia and Assisted Suicide.
Moreover “when family members claim that they detect signs of consciousness in their ‘unconscious’ loved ones, doctors should be less quick to assert that they are merely seeing ‘what they want to see.’”
Finally, “people ought to consider this problem when determining in an advance medical directive to have themselves dehydrated to death if they become permanently incapacitated” (North Country Gazette 6/21/07).
Researchers are seeking “markers that tell us whether we should increase our therapeutic efforts.” Patients who pass the initial functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) could be followed up with electroencephalography (EEG) (Nature 2007:446:355).
“Of course, what really needs to be done is to reject the notion that people with severe brain injuries are somehow less ‘human’ or are not ‘persons.’ Unless and until we do that, people in these devastated states will not be safe,” Smith continues. www.wesleyjsmith.com/blog
In Arizona, Jesse Ramirez, Jr., became responsive about a month after a car crash that left him in a coma, and a week after food and water were restored. He had been five days without hydration or nutrition when his wife made the decision to disconnect his feeding tube. His parents and siblings filed a lawsuit to have the tube re-connected, and a guardian appointed by the court.
Ramirez was nearly dehydrated to death without lawful authority. Arizona statute reads that “a surrogate who is not the patient’s agent or guardian shall not make decisions to withdraw the artificial administration of food or fluid.” Ramirez’s wife, with whom he had a “tumultuous” relationship, did not have power of attorney.
Ramirez is now able to answer yes-or-no questions, nod his head, give a thumbs-up sign, and sit in a chair (Arizona Republic 6/27/07).
Additional information:
“Man Regains Speech After 19 Years in a Minimally Conscious State,” AAPS News of the Day 7/7/06.
“More Hope for Patients in Unresponsive States: Three Cases,” AAPS News of the Day 10/18/06.
NEIGHBORS' COMPLAINTS SUCCEED IN EVICTING DIGNITAS FROM RESIDENCE. The Swiss assisted-suicide group Dignitas has been evicted from its operation site in a suburban area due to growing complaints from neighbors.
For nine years the assisted-suicide clinic at Gertrudstrasse 84 received people three or four times a week -- waiting to die. The organization took up two apartments of the apartment block; but recently the owner cancelled their lease because residents were horrified by the stream of body bags that were carried out on the elevator and are frustrated by the police and ambulances that constantly come to the door.
The landlady has given Dignitas until September to find a new residence. The eviction is especially significant, reports Spiegel, because the landlady is a cousin of Ludwig Minelli, the head and primary launcher of Dignitas.
Residents started the eviction movement, gathering signatures to petition against Dignitas. Gloria told Germany's Süddeutsche Zeitung that the place had become a "house of death." Last year Gloria was also quoted in UK's Telegraph, "We call it the 'House of Horrors'. This is meant to be a residential flat but some days you'd think it was a morgue."
She also noted that not all of the people who came with a one-way ticket were old. She said, "The look in their eyes haunts me, particularly if they are young."
Other residents complained that their children were constantly exposed to the dying and dead bodies. One woman was quoted in the Guardian Unlimited, saying that she changed her household chores in order not to "bump into a corpse while I'm taking out the rubbish."
Earlier this year, the Swiss High Court ruled in a suit filed by Dignitas that the mentally ill also have a "right" to assisted suicide.
According to Spiegel, since Dignitas was launched in 1998 it has been responsible for 700 deaths. More than half of those using the Dignitas service to end their lives are from Germany, where the organization now has an office, and the second biggest group is from Britain. At present, euthanasia is also legal in Belgium, the Netherlands, and Oregon.
In Switzerland, all that is needed is for a doctor to confirm that the person in question wishes to die and then write a prescription for a lethal dose of the barbiturate sodium pentobarbital. People wishing to die are accompanied by a "suicide assistant," but patients administer the dose themselves. Critics argue the Dignitas makes it all too easy.
This June the Swiss senate called on the government to draft a law aimed at improving controls of organizations offering assisted suicide and the National Commission on Biomedic Ethics, a government advisory panel, has also recommended increased state supervision of organizations such as Dignitas.
End of Life / Euthanasia 
