Daily Archives: April 25, 2017

Forum Zaghzagh Laburistihas come out in favour of legalising euthanasia and will be urging the party to include it in its electoral manifesto

ALS sufferer Joe Magro kick-started a debate on euthanasia, and has petitioned politicians to support the right to die

The FZLs decision comes in the wake of a public debate on euthanasia it organised that was addressed by ALS sufferers Joe Magro and Challie Agius both of whom have spoken publicly in favour of euthanasia.

Questions sent to the FZL on their moral rationale behind its new stance were left unanswered at the time the article went to print.

However, FZL president Alex Saliba later told MaltaToday that euthanasia should only be permitted for terminally ill people whose degenerative states have been medically proven to be irreversible. The youth group will also pressure for the introduction of living wills.

FZL gives utmost importance to the principle of individual choice, therefore our stance revolves around the introduction of voluntary euthanasiaOur stance is motivated by cases in which the patient can no longer live a dignified life. The legislator should also ascertain that the individuals wishes are being fully respected and that it leaves no room for abuse.

He warned that at present a Maltese person who seeks euthanasia has to go abroad, meaning that they will die in a foreign country instead of at peace surrounded by their loved ones. He also warned that terminally ill people who are denied access to euthanasia could be driven to commit suicide.

Sweeping the issue under the carpet for so long is not a solution for these situations. We do not believe that life is measured only by the number of years lived, but by the quality of life.

FZL president Alex Saliba (left) at a recent conference on euthanasia

Suicide is often a taboo word in Malta, but the reality is that it is the only choice some people have left. It hurts me to see a person resorting to this option, instead of being allowed to die with dignity surrounded by his loved ones.

He appealed for the debate on euthanasia to be a mature one, free from simplistic arguments such as that its legalisation will allow people to end their lives on a whim, or that it will represent another step towards the introduction of abortion.

FZLs intervention is notable in that it is the first time the branch of a major political party in Malta has publicly come out in favour of euthanasia.

Opposition leader Simon Busuttil in January ruled out the possibility of an internal debate on euthanasia, arguing that he is of the firm opinion that there is a fundamental right to life but no right to die.

In February 2016, Alternattiva Demokratika chairman Arnold Cassola told MaltaToday that while the Green Party has no position on euthanasia, it has no intention to discuss it.

There have been conflicting declarations regarding the Labour Partys stance towards the issue. MEP and former Prime Minister Alfred Sant has come out in favour of euthanasia, but during a recent parliamentary committee sitting, government Whip Godfrey Farrugia insisted that Labour was fully opposed to euthanasia.

Prime Minister Joseph Muscat has said he is personally against the introduction of euthanasia but has called for an honest and non-partisan debate after meeting Magro. He told me that if he is not allowed euthanasia by law, then when the time comes he will kill myself, he said.

Those words shocked me as a politician and as a person, and I was left at a loss as to how to respond.

When asked what feedback the FZL got from the Labour Party after it took its pro-euthanasia stance, Saliba said that the PL has always been supportive of discussing tricky issues that are not easy to delve into, including euthanasia.

FZL will always push forward the progressive agenda. We were the first voice within our party structures to speak in favour of the introduction of divorce legislation nine years ago and we will do the same today and lobby both within our party structures and also at national level to bring positive change in Malta.

Read more here:

Labour youths in push for euthanasia - MaltaToday

Anyone who has ever sat on an awards committee knows well that there are standards to be met. Make the award too easy to attain or provide it to someone who has not met the criteria and the currency of the award is diminished. Raise the bar too high and no-one applies.

At Exit International they must have ridiculously low standards. Exit boss and former medical doctor, Philip Nitschke recently awarded his so-called Peaceful Pill Prize to an elderly Australian couple essentially because the woman concerned recently cried a patronising bullshit at Professor Margaret Somerville on an Australian National current affairs program.

Nitschke claimed that Mr & Mrs Fellows comments were forthright and a significant contribution to the Australian Euthanasia debate. Crass and undignified more like it!

There was a time when everyone understood that to raise ones voice or to swear in the context of a debate was to lose the argument. Maybe not so much nowadays; after all, the shows presenter, Tony Jones said that the bullshit comment was refreshing which seemed to me, at the time, to be a ringing endorsement of Mrs Fellows sentiment.

Nitschkes endowment upon the Fellows, it seems, was no accident either. He admits that the couple are members of his Exit organisation and exemplars, one suspects, of Exits new militant wing, Exit Action. Is it just me or does anyone else reason that Exit is synonymous with militancy; so why the need for tautology? If the Fellows have set the standard perhaps we can expect more of this revolting behaviour as other card-carrying Nitschke-ites vie for the same prize.

So, what do the Fellows gain for their inglorious moment? Steak Knives? Champaign perhaps? No. Two redeemable vouchers for 12mg packages of pure sodium pentobarbital (nembutal). I suppose an alternative might have been a lifetime membership, but I digress.

The award ceremony will surely raise the interest of Border Protection & Customs Police. But, of course, Nitschkes not stupid: As possession of this drug in Australia is illegal, the details of the delivery of the prize will be kept confidential. Delivery will be by unconventional means said Nitschke. He added that the prize would amount to a safety net for the Fellows how bizzarre.

The Fellows, by their own admission are not unwell but simply dont want to live in a nursing facility in their decrepitude. None of us does, really, lets be honest. Thats an issue that many of us will face; but few, I suspect would want to try to foister upon society a euthanasia regime with all its attendant and irretrievable risks simply for the sake of getting our own way. Thats tyranny clothed as autonomy.

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The Fellows may not have thought that through. Maybe they are unaware of the trail of grief created by Nitschkes collateral damage in the deaths of young people via Exit methods; young men like Lucas Taylor, for example.

But people who are used to getting their own way dont necessarily consider much else in the drive for autonomy. The well, well-off but worried have a very blinkered view re-enforced by the Nitschke mantra of rationality.

Such was the assurance given by Exits youngest member-now-statistic, Adam Maier-Clayton who died by suicide recently in Canada. 27 year old Maier-Clayton had some significant mental health issues yet claimed to be entirely rational.

According to one report, he suffered anxiety, mood disorder and obsessive compulsive disorder and tried all sorts of remedies and relief to no avail; difficulties that should not be discounted. He spent the last few months campaigning for the inclusion of mental illness within the scope of Canadas new death legislation, arguing that it is not only those who are near death suffer refractory symptoms.

In January he posted a picture of himself wearing an Exit T Shirt with an image of Nitschke emblazened across it, saying that he was, rocking his Exit International Official membership adding that he felt that he was absurdly rational and should not be excluded from Canadas death laws.

Notwithstanding Mrs Fellows expletive, just because someone can engage in a process of thought does not necessarily make them truly rational. It is not necessarily thought processes that suffer through depression, unremitting pain and the like; it is, in my own experience, the connection with others that diminishes the threads that bind us to each other. In other words, the context of ones life can seem strangely distant. Blurred by pain, remove the context of care, of family of future from the equation and thought even seemingly rational thoughts and logic becomes an untrustworth guide.

So explained columnist, Andrew Lawton recently in the Canadian Global News:

This idea that suicide is dignified and painless is a dangerous one. Take it from someone who tried and failed.

Nearly seven years ago I overdosed on dozens of pills causing multiple cardiac arrests and weeks in hospital on life support.

I survived, but only narrowly so.

Everything from the method to the date and time was meticulously thought out.

I picked the day because I didnt have any other appointments scheduled as though missing a meeting would have been the only problem with my plan any other day.

Suicidal people are irrational. This is true even when decisions appear to be made through logic and reason.

I saw suicide as the answer to pain I was convinced wouldnt abate.

It wasnt just about picking the easy way out of an unpleasant situation it was the only way. I saw no way my life would improve.

Spoiler alert: it did.

Like Maier-Clayton, I had tried myriad therapies, medications, and treatment throughout my years-long battle with depression. By the time I tried to pull the plug on my own existence, none had made an impact.

But after the attempt, that changed. Healing didnt happen overnight, but things that hadnt worked previously showed positive results.

My circumstances didnt change, but my outlook did.

It must surely be amongst the very last things that a society would want to have to someone like Nitschke telling suicidal people that their desire for death is rational. Its an endorsement. Like euthanasia & assisted suicide, it runs counter to suicide prevention.

Likewise, telling those who understandably fear their demise that they have a way out, that, effectively, they dont need to address their fears nor find a path through them to a fulfilling life inspite of them, is reckless.

But these are precisely the messages that euthanasia and assisted suicide laws send with the added weight of government approval. We need to learn not to reward bad behaviours and bad ideas.

LifeNews Note: Based in Australia, Paul Russell is a leading campaigner against euthanasia.

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Euthanasia Activist Philip Nitschke Hands of Lethal Assisted Suicide Drugs as Awards - LifeNews.com

NewsBusters (blog)

Lifetime's New Euthanasia Drama Showcases Liberal Obsession ... NewsBusters (blog) In the wake of pro-assisted-suicide films like Me Before You and the media's applauding of Brittany Maynard's choice to die, Lifetime's new euthanasia drama, ... 'Mary Kills People': Lifetime Celebrates Sexy, Soapy EuthanasiaPatheos (blog) Is 'Mary Kills People' Based On A True Story? The Lifetime Drama Is ...Bustle Mary Kills People: An agile drama about the risky business of ...Salon all 8 news articles »

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Lifetime's New Euthanasia Drama Showcases Liberal Obsession ... - NewsBusters (blog)

Linda Patelski said its hardest with the healthy ones.

When she has to look into the eyes of a puppy or kitten and take its life only because the animal remains unclaimed, thats when the emotional toll reaches its peak, Patelski said.

We have no problem putting down aggressive dogs that will hurt somebody or hurt other animals, said Patelski, the director of Lowndes County Animal Services. Its puppies and kittens that people havent taken care of before they got here.

In 2016, close to 2,500 cats and dogs were euthanized at the Lowndes County Animal Shelter alone.

Animal control workers such as Patelski often receive tsunami levels of rage and hatred for what they do everyday in shelters across the country: euthanasia, the prescribed and systematic killing of unwanted animals.

They are called puppy killers and even angels of death.

But euthanasia is regarded by many as the necessary response to widespread problems found in local animal populations, problems created and perpetuated not by animal control workers but by irresponsible pet owners or even hoarders.

Pet owners fail to spay or neuter their animals, leading to an abundance of stray dogs and feral cats. Shelters only have so much room and animals are put down when space runs out.

Many animals fall prey to poor care and cruelty at the hands of humans, leading to aggression, sickness or injury, and euthanasia is considered by its proponents to be the only humane or safe option.

In the SunLight Project coverage area Valdosta, Thomasville, Tifton, Dalton, Moultrie and Milledgeville, Ga., along with Live Oak, Jasper and Mayo, Fla., and the surrounding counties a small army of rescue agencies and no-kill shelters work to save animals by caring for them until they find their forever home through adoption or die of natural causes.

But resources are limited, and such organizations can only rescue so many. The rest go to the shelter where, if not adopted or reclaimed, its only a matter of days or weeks before they face a lethal injection that kills them instantly and painlessly.

Still, not everyone is in favor of the common practice, and animal rights activists often push for no-kill shelters.

Euthanasia: Both Last Resort and First Action

When animal control brings in stray dogs or cats that are healthy and well-behaved, the animals are held for a few days or a few weeks depending on local regulations. During that time, owners can reclaim the pets or others can express interest in adoption.

After the holding period, the animal shelter may place the animals in an in-house adoption program or reach out to local rescue agencies to see if they can care for the animals.

Euthanasia becomes the last resort for such animals. The remains are buried in the local landfill.

In Milledgeville, animals are mostly euthanized because of lack of space, said Rebecca Lanier-Weeks, the Baldwin County Animal Shelter administrator.

The Baldwin County Animal Shelter is a small cinderblock building that has 17 dog units, three puppy units and 10 cat units. The shelter operates on a $170,000 yearly budget.

If a new animal is brought in and there is no space, any animal already in the shelter with aggression issues is selected to be euthanized.

In 2016, the shelter euthanized 98 dogs and 275 cats.

Milledgeville/Baldwin County does not have a humane society. The closest one is about 30 miles away in Greensboro near Lake Oconee.

However, Animal Rescue Foundation has acted as Milledgevilles local Humane Society for almost 35 years, taking in unwanted cats and dogs.

Like most rescue agencies, ARF does not receive any government support and operates solely on donations and small grants.

The overcrowding found in Milledgeville is a problem that plagues shelters throughout the region.

We take in 5,000 animals a year and the shelter only holds so many animals, Lowndes Countys Patelski said. If an owner does not come in to reclaim their animal and their animal stays here and youve brought 200 animals into the building, and then next month, you have to bring 200 more animals into the building, they dont all fit.

They fight, theres disease outbreaks, so we have to keep animals moving through the shelter. Unfortunately, if we dont have a rescue for them or if nobody comes in to adopt or to reclaim their animal, we have to take the recourse of euthanizing them.

Lowndes County Clerk Paige Dukes said animals at the shelter arent put down due to overcrowding now as often as they used to be and the numbers reflect that. The 2,000 animals euthanized in Lowndes County in 2016 is a sharp drop from the number of dogs and cats put to death in recent years (6,700 were put down in 2009 and 4,000 in 2012).

But overcrowding isnt the only issue that triggers euthanasia. It could be disease (such as rabies), injury or aggression (such as hurting a person).

In those cases, euthanasia is usually the first action rather than the last resort. When an animal is severely hurt, sick or dangerous, euthanasia is actually the humane choice, the Florida Animal Control Situation suggests.

And killing a single animal often means giving a multitude of others a fighting chance.

Dukes said the Lowndes County Shelter is forbidden by state law from housing sick or injured animals. The disease could spread, compromising all the animals housed in the shelters 215 kennels.

One small puppy with parvovirus, a contagious disease found in dogs, could kill the entire shelter if it were allowed to live, Dukes said.

Parvo is something that could shut this entire shelter down. If we had a parvo outbreak here, the Department of Agriculture could come in and say, Everything is euthanized, the shelter has to be totally cleaned from top to bottom professionally, and then we will do some testing and look at when you can start housing animals again, Dukes said.

In Whitfield County, the sheriffs office handles animal control in the county and the city of Dalton.Last year, the office handled 2,500 animal-control calls.

"They work pretty much non-stop, all day long picking up dogs, said Lt. Clay Pangle, who supervises the animal-control deputies.

In 2016, Whitfield County euthanized 365 cats and 332 dogs.

But in his many years working animal control, cats and dogs werent the only animals Pangle got calls about.

Fifteen or 16 years ago, I got a call about an emu out on Georgia 2 (in the northern part of Whitfield County). Recently, we've been getting a lot of wild hog calls, Pangle said.

When we deal with wild animals, we refer them to the Georgia Department of Natural Resources. When it comes to equines or bovines, we will find a place to house them, people that we know or that the animal shelter recommends, until the Department of Agriculture can come get them."

Many of Whitfields animal-control calls concern aggressive dogs, but Pangle said many dogs may not be as dangerous as they appear to be.

"We get a lot of calls about aggressive dogs, and I'm sure they do look aggressive to the person that calls, but when we get there, the dog is wagging its tail and barking because it wants attention, he said. I used to work animal control myself and I've seen that.

But many dogs are just as vicious as they look, a fact that one Moultrie woman knows all too well.

A Horrific Attack

April 1, 2016, started out as had thousands of other days in Elizabeth "Beth" Ellison's 83 years. She walked outside to get her Moultrie Observer newspaper and looked over the yard of the Beaty Road residence where she has lived for more than half a century.

But within minutes nothing would ever be the same for the strong-willed woman, as a pack of dogs would nearly take her life that morning, leaving her with permanent health issues.

Police officers at the scene of the attack at about 9:30 a.m. assumed they were working a homicide case due to the severity of injuries inflicted on Ellison by the trio of pit bulldogs.

Ellison, who underwent multiple surgeries during a period of nearly two months, said her morning routine was always the same.

"I go to the paper box, get my paper and pick up in my yard. I'd seen the dogs there before. When I turned around to go inside the house, they all three attacked me from the back, she said.

According to police, the dogs basically scalped the elderly woman.

Ellison remembers being thrown to the ground face-first and using one of her hands to try to protect her head. The largest of the three dogs was on her back tearing at her head. She also suffered severe wounds to both arms and legs.

"I knew they were going to kill me," she said. "They thought I was going to die. I lost two pints of blood in my yard.

Two neighbors rushed to Ellison's defense and medical workers rushed her to Colquitt Regional Medical Center in Moultrie then to Tallahassee Memorial Hospital. Doctors stabilized her, and she then had a lengthy period of recuperation and surgeries before returning home.

Within hours of the attack, the Humane Society of Moultrie and Colquitt County removed the three dogs and housed them until a judge issued a ruling allowing the organization to euthanize the vicious animals.

Prior to the 2016 attack, the issue of nuisance and violently dangerous dogs is one that county officials frequently had discussed in recent years, but before the end of that month, they made sure of their legal ability to deal with violent animals.

Two years to the day of Ellison's attack, Colquitt County Commission created a board to hear appeals when owners dispute the designation of a dog as a vicious or dangerous one.

The local Humane Society makes the determination of whether a dog is vicious or dangerous, and if that decision is upheld, euthanizes the canine.

The states Georgia Responsible Dog Ownership statute combines dangerous and vicious animals in a single piece of legislation.

It defines a dangerous dog as one that causes a substantial puncture wound with its teeth, launches aggressive attacks that pose threat of serious injury to a person, or kills another pet while off the owners property.

A vicious dog is defined as one that inflicts serious injury on a person.

Dogs deemed dangerous or vicious must be registered, secured in locked confinement on the owners property and may not be taken away from the owners property unless caged or leashed and under the immediate physical control of someone capable of preventing the dog from engaging people or other animals.

They also must show the county that they have liability insurance of at least $50,000," County Attorney Lester Castellow said.

During the two years before Castellow's appointment to the board, there had been no cases where owners requested an appeals hearing, he said. The board consists of Castellow, the county's zoning and safety officer and a designee from the Colquitt County Health Department.

Dog attacks, which had been on the upswing, have not dropped in frequency, but the rate of increase seems to have slowed, said Dawn Blanton, director of the Humane Society, which contracts with the city of Moultrie and Colquitt County to pick up nuisance and dangerous animals.

"(Our) animal control officer is the one that will deem a dog vicious/dangerous according to the nature of the bite/aggression," she said. "I believe education and progressive disciplinary actions has leveled out the amount of aggressive cases, but it has not significantly decreased them.

There will always be aggressive dogs, but educating the public will reduce the amount of people bitten.

As for Ellison who returned home on her birthday, May 20, 2016, to find her children had fenced in her yard to give her peace of mind her caregivers in Tallahassee have invited her to come back May 17 and address those who helped save and put her back together again.

She still faces difficulties related to the injuries and from the loss of bone in her leg used to help repair her scalp. And for someone turning 85 in about a month, healing takes longer, but she is seeing some improvement in her arms.

Fortunately, the dogs did not bite her face during the attack, and she is trying to regain the weight she lost.

Ellison, along with her doctors, attribute her survival and resiliency to a long life of hard work.

"I was strong," she said. "I could get up and do the roof on my house. I plowed a mule; I carried two five-gallon buckets when I was 12. I was brought up the old way.

Despite the scars on her arms and legs and pain that sometimes limits her activity, she is determined to keep doing what she's always done.

"I'm the kind of person (that) if I can get around, I get around," she said. "I still pick up in my yard. I'm just able to be here and do what I do. That's what I'm thankful for."

To find out what local rescue agencies are doing to save animal lives and what community members can do to help, pick up Tuesday's edition of The Valdosta Daily Times.

The SunLight Project team of journalists who contributed to this report includes Thomas Lynn, Eve Guevara, Patti Dozier, Gil Pound and Charles Oliver, along with the writers, Alan Mauldin and team leader John Stephen.

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Kill or No Kill? Exploring the practice of animal euthanasia - The Union-Recorder

MATT STEWART

Last updated13:44, April 24 2017

FAIRFAX NZ

Supporters of Susan Dale Austen outside Wellington District Court in February.

A crowdfunding drive has been launched as part of a global support campaign to defend Exit Wellington co-ordinator Susan Austen in the wake of a new charge of aiding asuicide.

Austen, 66, is a Lower Hutt teacher, who was charged in October2016 with having twice imported the controlled euthanasia drug pentobarbitone.

Austen appeared in the Wellington District Court on Friday facing thenew charge of aidingthe suicide ofAnnemarie Treadwell.

FAIRFAX NZ

Supporters of Susan Austen outside Wellington District Court in February.

The charge of alleged aid wasfrom between December 12, 2015, and June 7, 2016.

READ MORE: *Hutt woman Susan Austen faces new charge of aiding a suicide *Wellington womanAnnemarieTreadwell'sdeath trigger for Police euthanasia furore *Susan Austen appears in court facing charges relating to importation of euthanasia drugs *Police admit using checkpoint to target euthanasia meeting attendees *We know where you've been, police tell 76-year-old who attended euthanasia meeting *Police door-knock elderly women who attended euthanasia meeting

Director of pro-voluntary euthanasia group Exit International Philip Nitschke said the move was prompted by the seriousness of the new charge of aiding a suicide, whichhas a maximum penalty of 14 years' jail.

GLENN CAMPBELL

Euthanasia campaigner Philip Nitschke has labelled New Zealand police's Operation Painter a "grubby witch hunt".

With an initial target of $50,000 the campaign had raised more than$6000 for legal fees on Monday morning through a crowdfunding site.

In tandem with fundraising, Nitschke said the World Federation of Right To Die Societies had been approached to help focus attention on New Zealand.

The Independent Police Conduct Commission launched an investigation into complaintspolice useda vehicle checkpoint operation - part of what was codenamed Operation Painter to identify people who had been to an Exit Wellingtonmeeting in early October, 2016.

Nitschke accused this investigation of being a "grubby little anti-Exit witch-hunt."

Nitschke said the seriousness of the new charge made the drug importing charges seem trivial by comparison.

Austen's case was likely to gain international traction as it was a stark example of the endemic harassment of pro-euthanasia supporters by the authorities,Nitschke said.

Pleas are expectedto be entered to all three charges at Austen's next court appearance on May 12.

-Stuff

Read more:

Wellington euthanasia lobbyist, accused of aiding suicide, seeks ... - The Dominion Post

The head of an anti-euthanasia group says one of the unsatisfactory results of the euthanasia movement is creating pressure for people to make that choice as if it's a good thing.

An article in theJournal of the American Medical Associationtakes a look at euthanasia in Belgium and the Netherlands from the standpoint of organ donations. But although the practice has only been legal in Canada for a year, organ donations from patients who have been euthanized are already occurring.

Alex Schadenberg of the Euthanasia Prevention Coalition tells OneNewsNow his concern is the culture shift.

"What happens is people start saying to you, 'Well, why aren't you giving your organs for organ donation?' But then the other big change that occurs after that is that you then soon have organ donation by euthanasia," he warns. "So that is the next thing that happens, because why should you wait for the person to die to take their organs?"

And over time, the ethics of the culture even changes.

"We have a situation where people are viewing everything in an upside-down fashion, so now euthanasia's become a good thing rather than a sad situation," says Schadenberg. "And we're creating more and more pressure, and they're saying, 'This is all about choice and autonomy,' but in fact this is about pressuring people who are going through a difficult time in their life to have their life ended by lethal injection."

The idea is to convince society that euthanasia is a blessing. Moreover, a recent study in Canada suggests the country will save over $135 million a year by euthanasia deaths, again suggesting euthanasia is a plus for society.

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How euthanasia turns culture upside-down - OneNewsNow