Category Archives: Euthanasia

The National Election Office (NVB) has rejected the joint referendum initiative of the opposition party Momentum and Dniel Karsai on end-of-life decisions, reports Index and Magyar Nemzet.

Dniel Karsai himself was not allowed to participate in the vote on the first two questions after Tams Fazekas, a politician of the Prbeszd party and member of the NVB, declared bias on his part. Due to health problems, Karsai was unable to participate in the vote in person.

His brother Pter Karsai relayed that he believes Hungarian voters want to express their opinion on the euthanasia issue, saying

Rbert Sasvri, president of the NVB, refused to certify the questions proposed for the referendum, because in his opinion, they are really about the legal status of assisted suicide. The suggestions basically concern the legislative process and would violate the constitution.

Dniel Karsai. Photo: Facebook

The proposed referendum on euthanasia would have included the following questions:

Karsai, who is currently suffering from other health problems in addition to his underlying illness, thanked Momentum for its support on his social media page on Wednesday, the day before the vote.

Via Index and Magyar Nemzet; Featured Image:Pixabay

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Decision Made with Regard to a Proposed Referendum on Euthanasia - Hungary Today

On Thursday, January 25th, an inmate named Kenneth Smith was executed in Alabama using a new execution method: death by nitrogen hypoxia. And a notable euthanasia advocate has condemned it, but only because he claims the execution method is bad publicity for the assisted death movement.

Smith had previously undergone an attempted execution in November of 2022, but the attempts at lethal injection failed. Smiths legal team claimed that attempting to execute him for a second time would equal cruel and unusual punishment, but the day before the execution, the Supreme Court refused to intervene, denying an appeal. Three of the Supreme Court justices dissented, with Justice Sonia Sotomayor writing, Having failed to kill Smith on its first attempt, Alabama has selected him as its guinea pig to test a method of execution never attempted before. The world is watching.

The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Ravina Shamdasani, wrote ahead of the execution that it should be halted, as using a novel and untested method would equal torture or other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment under international human rights law.

Its not that nitrogen gas wont kill you, Dr. Joel Zivot, an associate professor of anesthesiology and surgery at Emory University, told CNN. But will it kill you in a way that would comport with the constitutional requirement that it not be cruel and it not be torture?

Now that Smiths execution has been committed, it appears that his death was, in fact, torturous. Witnesses present for the execution reported a horrific scene: Smith was fitted with a full face mask, and though the nitrogen was said to cause unconsciousness within seconds, Smith remained conscious for several minutes, with the execution overall taking 22 minutes. Smiths convulsions were reportedly so violent that the entire gurney was shaking, while Smiths spiritual advisor Rev. Jeff Hood told the Guardian that even the prison officials were visibly surprised at how bad this thing went.

Marty Roney, a reporter for the Montgomery Advertiser, wrote:

7:57 p.m.

A prisons staff member inside the death chamber approached Smith and checked the seal of the mask. The nitrogen apparently began flowing.

7:57 to 8:01 p.m.

Smith writhed and convulsed on the gurney. He appeared to be fully conscious when the gas began to flow. He took deep breaths, his body shaking violently with his eyes rolling in the back of his head. Hood, standing about 15 feet away, made the sign of the cross several times. Smith clenched his fists, his legs shook under the tightly tucked-in white sheet that covered him from his neck down. He seemed to be gasping for air. The gurney shook several times during this time. Hood removed his eyeglasses and wiped away tears.

8:02 p.m.

Smith appeared to lose consciousness. His chest remained still for about 20 seconds then he took several large gasps for air. There appeared to be saliva or tears on the inside of the facemask. A female witness for Smith sobbed.

8:06 p.m.

Smiths gasping appeared to slow down.

8:07 p.m.

Smith appeared to take his last breath.

8:15 p.m.

The curtains to the witness room were closed.

Though the curtains had been closed, Smith had not yet been pronounced dead, which happened ten minutes later.

Another reporter, Lee Hedgepeth, witnessed the execution firsthand, and said he was shocked at how violent it was. Ive been to four previous executions and Ive never seen a condemned inmate thrash in the way that Kenneth Smith reacted to the nitrogen gas, he told BBCs Newsday. Kenny just began to gasp for air repeatedly and the execution took about 25 minutes total.

Yet Alabama Department of Corrections Commissioner John Q. Hamm downplayed what happened, saying nothing was out of the ordinary from what we were expecting. Hamm also tried to claim the violent convulsions were due to Smith struggling against his restraints. The state of Alabama had claimed that death by nitrogen hypoxia would be painless and quick yet Smiths execution casts serious doubt on that claim.

And its for that exact reason that Philip Nitschke, a notorious euthanasia advocate, is angry.

Nitrogen hypoxia kills a person by depriving their body of the oxygen necessary to live, causing asphyxiation and death; the person is essentially suffocated. Its an assisted death method frequently championed by Nitschke which is why he was so adamantly opposed to Smiths execution; it would show the world firsthand what death by euthanasia is actually like.

In a statement, Nitschke complained that Smiths execution will set the right to die movement back 20 years.

READ: Cancer treatment backlog leads Canadian man to request euthanasia which he got in two days

Nitrogen hypoxia has been advocated for over 15 years by the right to die movement as an effective way to obtain a quick, peaceful and reliable Do It Yourself (DIY) death, he said. Elderly people around the world are now asking whether they should reconsider their plan to use this method and asking where the truth lies. They want to know why the Alabama experiment has prompted such negative reaction? What has been missed in the discussion is that there is a huge difference between when a person immerses him/herself in an oxygen-free environment using an open Exit bag because they want to die, and the planned closed system of the facemask that Alabama wants to use. In the Alabama experiment, the condemned prisoner has a mask forcibly strapped to their face and is then expected to cooperate in their own death!

So for Nitschke, it is only the use of a bag that makes a difference completely ignoring the fact that the person is still being suffocated until they die, regardless of how the nitrogen hypoxia is carried out. Nevertheless, Nitschkes statement insists that nitrogen hypoxia is a highly effective, peaceful and reliable method of elective death.

Many of the drugs used in assisted suicide and euthanasia are the same as the drugs used in executions, and they are much more violent than they seem; the patient is given a paralytic first, so they cannot respond as they die, giving the appearance of a peaceful death. Yet in actuality, the drugs often cause pulmonary edema, in which the patient essentially drowns in their own bodily fluids. With nitrogen hypoxia, the person is suffocated. Despite the quick and painless narrative, these methods of dying are far more gruesome than is let on.

The DOJ put a pro-life grandmother in jail this Christmas for protesting the killing of preborn children. Please take 30-seconds to TELL CONGRESS: STOP THE DOJ FROM TARGETING PRO-LIFE AMERICANS.

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Execution method used on Alabama inmate has pro-euthanasia activists worried - Live Action

Archbishop J. Michael Miller welcomed the federal governments decision to pause the introduction of assisted dying for individuals suffering from mental illness, but expressed dismay that it still intends to expand access in the future.

The Archbishop was reacting to an announcement by federal Health Minister Mark Holland that the government would extend the deadline for making euthanasia available for individuals whose sole medical condition is mental illness.

Holland said on Jan. 29 that more time is needed to prepare for the move but told media the implementation is only being delayed. Earlier in the day, Parliaments Special Joint Committee on Medical Assistance in Dying recommended delaying the expansion of euthanasia for mental disorders for a year.

The committee said Canada is unprepared for the measure and recommended postponing it until it can be safely and adequately provided.

On Feb. 1, the government introduced legislation to delay the expansion of MAiD for mental illness by three years, freeing the Liberal government from having to deal with the issue before the next federal election.

Archbishop Miller welcomed the Jan., 29 decision to delay the expansion but was disappointed by the ministers indication that he plans to proceed. He said the government had already delayed the measure last year to allow more time to prepare for it.

Now, its admitting there still hasnt been enough preparation, the Archbishop said. There will never be enough preparation for taking the lives of individuals suffering from mental illness, and Canadians have repeatedly said they want to see improved mental health care for mental illness, not death.

Echoing the Archbishops observation was Rebecca Vachon of think tank Cardus, who, although pleased that both the joint committee and the health minister were aligned on delaying the expansion of MAiD, said an indefinite pause is needed.

As Cardus indicated in its own brief to the committee, not only are there inherent problems with reporting and oversight in the current provision of euthanasia, further expansion would be irresponsible given the existing barriers and gaps in mental health care, she said.

A fall 2023 poll by the Angus Reid Institute and Cardus found only 28 per cent of Canadian supported the expansion, while 82 said any expansion should be conditional on improved mental health care.

Vachon said the government has to address current issues with euthanasia. The governments priority should be measures that help Canadians live with dignity, including ensuring universally available, high-quality palliative care, as well as addressing needs like housing and support for those with physical disabilities and mental disorders.

Phil Horgan, lawyer and special counsel to the Catholic Civil Rights League, questioned the governments language in announcing the delay.

The joint committee and the minister commented on the system not being ready for the proposed expansion. We hope that after 57,000 deaths in seven years this legislation be recognized as an unbearable and grisly expansion. The system has gone far beyond anything contemplated by our Supreme Court. Perhaps some humility is in order.

Groups battling the federal governments expansion of assisted suicide to the mentally ill say the delay announced Jan. 29 is no cause to claim victory, and a top health law expert warns grimly its the unelected Senate that might force Canadians to accept medical killing of the mentally ill.

Trudo Lemmens, a professor in health law at the University of Toronto and one of the legal experts invited to present to Parliaments special joint committee on MAiD, cautioned that zealous individual senators could act even if the Trudeau government loses its political appetite for the fight over MAiD expansion.

We will have to see how the Senate reacts since some senators have shown a remarkably zealous commitment to expansion, and may try to block at the Senate level a law implementing the (joint committees) recommendations, said Lemmens.

An advocate for Indigenous people opposed to pushing MAiD further emphasizes the fight is far from won just because of a pause in the legislative action.

Its not like a win or anything, Neil Belanger, director of the British Columbia Aboriginal Network on Disability Society (BCANDS), said. If its shut down for two years, youll have those pro-MAID groups working for two years.

Belanger warned that advocates for doctor-delivered death can be counted on to unleash a full-court public relations press aimed at pressuring Ottawa to proceed with the now-paused legal expansion.

These guys will take whatever time they get, and theyll be planning a better strategy, he predicted. Theyll do their PR work, and theyll hope that its out of sight, out of mind for people. And largely it will be.

Hundreds of briefs submitted to the committee reveal strong arguments for a permanent pause to the inclusion of mental illness as grounds for MAiD.

Lemmens, along with two other legal experts, noted in their brief that there is no positive right to MAiD pursuant to permissive federal criminal law. The National Association of Catholic Nurses Canada wrote that no attempts at readiness can overcome basic problems with the concept.

A new Toronto Star investigation says Canada is outpacing every other country in the world in the speed at which euthanasia is growing. In the past two years, more people have died through Canadas MAiD regime than in any other nation in the world, the Toronto Star research found.

With files from Anna Farrow, Canadian Catholic News

By Quinton Amundson

Christian lawyer Lia Milousis hopes a votable resolution she and colleague Kerri Froc have submitted to the Canadian Bar Association will deliver an influential signal that further expansion of MAiD should be abandoned entirely.

Milousis and Frocs motion calls on the bar association, which represents over 38,000 lawyers, judges, notaries, law teachers and students, to execute three actions: withdraw prior statements supporting MAiD for those whose only underlying medical condition is a psychiatric condition; urge the federal government not to proceed with MAiD for people solely living with a mental illness unless and until there is a reliable method to determine if such conditions are irremediable; and implore federal, provincial and territorial organizations to prioritize advancing, developing and funding mental health support.

Milousis said the motion, to be presented at the bar associations annual general meeting on Feb. 8, would essentially correct a misinterpretation of a position adopted at the 2016 annual general meeting in the aftermath of theSupreme Court decision that shaped Canadas original MAiD law Bill C-14.At that time, members agreed that a person who otherwise qualified for euthanasia having a grievous, irremediable medical condition and reasonable foreseeability of natural death should not be barred from MAiD because they also had a psychiatric condition.

I struggle to think that members who voted in 2016 were voting with individuals whose only underlying medical condition was mental illness in mind, said Milousis. Really, this was about saying if you have terminal cancer and you would otherwise qualify for medical assistance in dying and you also happen to have an anxiety order or depression, that depression should not prevent you from proceeding with this decision...

Milousis said the way the resolution has since been interpreted has been a source of deep concern for me and many of my colleagues.

She said MAiD advocates in the bar association have increasingly made submissions in support of including mental illness to qualify for euthanasia. Some of my colleagues and I both believe this is contrary to the Carter decision and outside the scope of the resolution.

The Carter decision is the 2015 Supreme Court of Canada judgment that Criminal Code prohibitions against physician-assisted suicide were unconstitutional.

The authors of the 2024 resolution support their position by citing a 2018 Council of Canadian Academies report that found there is no medical consensus regarding the irremediability of psychiatric conditions.

Another finding in the Council of Canadian Academies document cited by Milousis and Froc is that marginalized populations, including women, Indigenous communities, LGBT individuals, and youth, experience or are at risk of experiencing mental disorders at disproportionate rates.

They argue, permitting medical assistance in dying for those whose sole underlying medical condition is a psychiatric condition would have a disproportionate, gendered impact and risks violating section 15 of the (Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedom). Section 15 of the Charter declares, Every individual is equal before and under the law and has the right to the equal protection and equal benefit of the law without discrimination and, in particular, without discrimination based on race, national or ethnic origin, colour, religion, sex, age or mental or physical disability.

The solution that these (marginalized) communities have repeatedly asked for are increased mental health supports and additional funding to help these individuals, Milousis said, but in the midst of that cry and desire, the government is saying, well, we dont have those supports available, but we will allow you to access medical assistance in dying.

I find that deeply concerning and disrespectful of what folks in these communities have asked for.

Milousis and Froc are on the CBAs Constitutional and Human Rights Sections executive team, which already voted to endorse the resolution.

The CBA has gone too far in their advocacy, and we need to rein things back in on this issue and focus on what the Supreme Court said in (the Carter decision), Milousis said.

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MAiD for mental illness must be stopped, not paused, Catholic and legal experts say - The B.C. Catholic

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Figures released by the South Australian Government yesterday revealed 110 terminally ill patients accessed voluntary euthanasia in the schemes first 12 months. Source: InDaily.

The voluntary assisted dying (VAD) legislation came into effect on January 31, 2023. In the year since, 195 terminally ill people have been issued with a VAD permit, and 110 have died after administration of a VAD substance. A further 30 people died without taking up the option.

According to government statistics released yesterday, 75 per cent of those who applied for VAD in South Australia were aged 65 years and over, and 77 per cent were receiving palliative care.

Sixty-eight per cent were from metropolitan Adelaide and 32 per cent from regional SA.

South Australian Health Minister Chris Picton said the Malinauskas Government has no plans to expand the eligibility criteria for euthanasia services.

Currently, VAD can only be accessed by patients with an incurable, advanced and progressive disease expected to cause death within six months, or 12 months for a neurodegenerative condition.

Mr Picton said the state government is also pushing the Albanese Government to address a Federal Court ruling that effectively criminalises doctors for doing telehealth consultations about VAD.

The November 2023 ruling found that the definition of VAD is the same as suicide under the Commonwealths criminal code meaning doctors who consult about VAD over the phone or email risk criminal prosecution.

FULL STORY

Were really grateful: Familys thanks for South Australias VAD laws(By Thomas Kelsall, InDaily)

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South Australian figures show 110 people used euthanasia to end their lives - CathNews

Worrying data from the Shelter Animals Count (SAC) reveals that thousands of homeless dogs are currently at risk of euthanasia. The reason? Dog adoptions have declined across the country, leading to most shelters nationwide grappling with an overcrowding crisis.

Sadly, euthanasia seems like the only way out for animal shelters and local surrenders already running at full capacity.

Referring to new data from the Shelter Animals Count, the MSPCA-Angell stated that euthanasia rates in 2023 are 22% higher.

According to the organization, the number of homeless dogs currently at risk of euthanasia is 96,000 more than last year. Without serious interventions in place, this figure may continue to rise into 2024.

The director of adoption centers and programs at MSPCA-Angell and Shelter of Animals Counts board chair, Mike Keily, noted that the increasing lack of adopters for the ever-rising number of homeless dogs in U.S. shelters is to blame for the euthanasia risk.

We saw this coming and have been working for months to try to reduce the risk for homeless dogs across the country, Keily said. Were at capacity right now with dozens of dogs in our care who need and deserve to find great new homes.

Weve actually been operating at capacity basically all year to maximize as many opportunities as possible to save dogs.

The Coronavirus pandemic may have worsened the dog adoption crisis. Things havent been this bad for dogs in years, stated Keily. We started making progress before the pandemic, and we were even able to continue that through 2021. He further commented, But theres been a major backslide since then, and now we are in a really bad place.

Lockdowns during the COVID-19 era pushed millions of Americans to adopt a furry member for companionships sake.But when life returned to normal, cases of post-Covid pet regret rose. Most people opted to abandon or surrender their pooches, causing many animal shelters to fill up at an alarming rate.

Besides the end of the COVID-19 era, other factors, such as tough economic times, have led to a drop in dog adoption.With too many canines coming into shelters way more than the number of available adopters shelters are struggling to offer adequate care to all the dogs under their roof.

The post Euthanasia Rates on the Rise as Dog Adoptions Slow Down appeared first on DogTime.

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Euthanasia Rates on the Rise as Dog Adoptions Slow Down - Yahoo Life

On Nov. 9, 2023, Mouse Trap News published an article positing that Disney had confirmed it would be building a "euthanasia" ride meant to "'peacefully' kill people, in a fun and exciting way." The article began:

Confirmed: Disney is Building a Euthanasia Roller Coaster

Disney World is home to some world-class roller coasters. One example is Space Mountain, which you can soon sleep in as we reported here. Also, Disney has plans to build a new roller coaster that actually jumps the track. This is a very exciting proposal. However, the next roller coaster to be built at Disney World is a euthanasia roller coaster, designed to kill you.

The article claims that the concept is based on Lithuanian artist Julijonas Urbonas' design, which we've previously reported as being real, albeit only as a conceptual art project. However, Disney will not be building such a roller coaster, and this article was not a factual recounting of real-life events. Mouse Trap News describes its output as being humorous or satirical in nature, as follows:

A day later, the TikTok account of Mouse Trap News posted a video showing what it would look like to ride such a rollercoaster from a first-person perspective. "Fittingly, as guests ride the euthanasia roller coaster they'll be treated to the song 'Remember Me' from 'Coco.' Also their family members will get to enjoy the song too as they watch you take your final ride," the narrator said. The video notes that the ride will only be available for terminally ill patients with a doctor's note, but that there are ethical concerns.

On Urbonas' website, he describes the Euthanasia Coaster as being:

...a hypothetic death machine in the form of a roller coaster, engineered to humanely with elegance and euphoria take the life of a human being.

Riding the coaster's track, the rider is subjected to a series of intensive motion elements that induce various unique experiences: from euphoria to thrill, and from tunnel vision to loss of consciousness, and, eventually, death. Thanks to the marriage of the advanced cross-disciplinary research in aeronautics/space medicine, mechanical engineering, material technologies and, of course, gravity, the fatal journey is made pleasing, elegant and meaningful.

For background, here is why we sometimes write about satire/humor.

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Is Disney Building a New Roller Coaster Designed To Kill You? - Snopes.com

Paw it Forward

In our actions toward people, animals and the planet, everything is connected.

What we do to the web, we do to ourselves. (Chief Seattle)

Harm done to one is harm done to all. (Restorative Justice principle)

We are connected not only in body, but in spirit. (Rudolfo Anaya, Shaman Winter).

Nothing exists in a vacuum. Everything we do has a consequence, a trickle-down effect thats so big most people dont realize it, or if they do, they dont want to think about it.

So, what does that have to do with euthanizing animals? In the August article, Adopt versus Shop, we learned the euthanasia rate at the Valencia County Shelter has hovered around 50 percent every month for the past year. The number of animals being brought into the shelter is averaging 500-700 every month. That means that every month, 250-350 animals are put to death, one by one, in the small euthanasia room at the shelter, by people who are your neighbors, family members and friends.

Sit with that for a moment, because its easy to turn away. Nobody wants to do it, but those who want to help animals in their community, take them in when theyre lost or unwanted, hopefully find them homes, or if theyre suffering from injuries or illness to ease their pain, know that in most cases euthanizing the overflow is part of the job.

Its no secret that the trauma, depression and suicide rates of animal welfare workers are very high. Years ago, I myself lost one shelter coworker to suicide and another to addiction-all within six months. Thats certainly not something most people think about. The fact that they dont think about it is the real problem because it allows the community to keep doing what its doing, even though people and animals are suffering.

Believing that an animal (or a person) has no feelings or that their feelings dont matter, and that our own needs outweigh those of another living being even if it means that being is going to suffer or die, is a dangerous mindset. We see it played out in our world every single day. Its not only toxic, its contagious.

It starts with the person whos just dropped off the family dog because the family is moving or surrendered another litter from their unspayed dog or cat, knowing but ignoring the fact that those beings may die before theyve even driven back home.

Then it hits the shelter workers for whom overcrowded conditions, the constant drone of peoples excuses for surrendering up to 30 or more animals a day, and having to decide by days end which 15 of those will not live to see tomorrow, is a brutal, soul crushing reality.

You see, in order to behave in these ways we have to lose our capacity for empathy. Were not supposed to lose that its what makes us able to live amongst each other, create things and support life. Its what makes us feel guilty when weve hurt someone and apologize, or better yet, not do something to hurt someone in the first place, but our brains are pretty amazing things.

Through a variety of cognitive tricks and thinking errors, we can justify almost any behavior, and sweep all kinds of uncomfortable facts and feelings right under the rug. Problem is, they dont go away just because theyre out of sight. They come back to haunt us, and our continuous efforts to keep them hidden leak out in all sorts of nasty ways including violence, abuse, righteous indignation, passive aggression, apathy, inaction and, yes, even depression and anxiety.

It can happen to anyone. I recently learned that one in five Americans is on some type of psychotropic medication for anxiety, depression or PTSD. Some of those are animal welfare workers, some are all the rest of us. Its all connected.

Valencia County faces many issues preventing a sustainable let alone regenerative animal welfare system, but clearly the current state of affairs is not only disheartening, its unhealthy, and not sustainable. In mental health we refer to something called radical acceptance. Thats when you stop pretending a problem doesnt exist or being angry that it does, and instead of fighting with it, you turn all that energy into fuel to create real solutions.

Valencia County needs a new paradigm, not more Euthasol. Thatll take effort and cooperation from everyone citizens, community leaders, animal health care practitioners, shelter personnel and rescue organizations. Because everything is connected, those efforts will help not only the animals, but the entire community.

(Colleen Doughertys history in animal welfare includes work in a veterinary clinic, shelters in Santa Fe and Albuquerque, and as a volunteer for the Valencia County Animal Shelter. She has been a speaker at the N.M. State Humane Conference on three occasions, presenting talks on caring for small mammals in the shelter setting, and compassion fatigue in animal welfare. She holds degrees in art and counseling therapy, and certificates in eco-psychology and feline massage therapy.)

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Euthanasias effect on culture and society - Valencia County News Bulletin

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On this episode of Daily Paws Presents: Warm Fuzzies, host Karman Hotchkiss talks with Tyler Van Leer, a fire marshall with the Millville (New Jersey) Fire Department, about his partner Hansel, the country's first-ever pit bull certified in arson detection.

Equipped with his all-star sniffer, Hansel searches fire scenes for accelerants, letting Van Leer know if he finds anything by taking a seat. But early in his life, there was no indication Hansel would help solve crimes. In fact, there was no indication he would live any kind of life.

"He essentially broke this case wide open and we were able to connect all these dots because he literally just came in out of nowhere and said, 'Hey, there's something here.'"Fire Marshal Tyler Van Leer

Daily Paws Presents: Warm Fuzzies is a new six-episode podcast featuring heartwarming stories that highlight special furry family members. Well share tales of unlikely friendships, hero pets, miracle rescues, and more make-you-smile stories that celebrate the joy animal companions bring to our lives. Hosted by Karman Hotchkiss, certified cat lady (dont tell her dog).

Editors note: This transcript does not go through our standard editorial process and may contain inaccuracies and grammatical errors.

You can find a transcript of this Warm Fuzzies episode here.

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Arson Detection Pit Bull Hansel Escaped Euthanasia - Daily Paws

How Then Should We Die?: Two Opposing Responses to the Challenges of Suffering and Death by s. kay toombscolloquium press, 170 pages, $10

In 1936, C. S. Lewiss friend and physician R. E. Havard penned a letter reflecting on the newly-introduced Voluntary Euthanasia Bill, a proposal rejected by the House of Lords later that year. Viewing attempts to legalize medically-sanctioned suicide as the logical sequel to the secularization of society, he mused that its legalization would add to, not reduce, the distress . . . surrounding death.1 Permitting euthanasia, Havard argued, would not only defy the medico-ethical tradition expressed in the Hippocratic oath and thereby harm the patient-physician relationship, but also worsen the suffering of the severely ill themselves, causing patients to feel that it was their duty to spare others the burden of witnessing their suffering.

Nearly ninety years later, physician-assisted suicide (PAS) has become legal in over ten countries and a growing number of states in the U.S.: Oregon, Vermont, Washington, Colorado, California, Hawaii, New Mexico, New Jersey, and Maine. (It remains illegal in the United Kingdom.) The Western social imaginary surrounding medicineand deathhas clearly shifted. Have Dr. Havards predictions come to pass?

Invoking Francis Schaeffers 1976 classic, How Should We Then Live?, S. Kay Toombss How Then Should We Die? dissects prevailing cultural attitudes toward illness, disability, and death. She draws two distinct portraits: 1) disability and illness as understood in a culture that considers autonomy a cardinal value and embraces physician-assisted suicide as death with dignity, and 2) how disability and terminal illness are accommodated in covenantal Christian community. Each likeness reflects its own predominant methodology. Parts one and two, Cultural Values and a Loss of Dignity and Dying with Dignity: A Cultural Perspective, draw on bioethics, popular media, survey data, and the legal landscape surrounding physician-assisted suicide, while the final part, A Culture of Healing: Living and Dying with Dignity in the Context of Christian Community, is pastoral and personal in tone. Throughout, Toombs draws from her own multi-faceted experiences: as a Christian living in a nondenominational Christian community for more than twenty years, as an associate professor emerita of philosophy, as an individual who has lived with disabilityin the form of Multiple Sclerosisfor decades, and as a wife who supported her husband, Dee, through the terminal stages of cancer.

Her goal is not to provide a comprehensive history of physician-assisted suicide but a primer for a Christian audience that examines the patterns of thought surrounding the practiceincluding the role of media and the rhetorical undertones of the right to die movement. Language is important here: Is it physician-assisted suicide, or something that avoids the connotations of suicide, a word whose meaning has remained stable since its English appearance in Thomas Brownes Religio Medici (1643)? What happens when we shorten physician-assisted suicide to PAS or roll down the slope of euphemism? In Canada, for example, where medical assistance in dying has become MAID, persons suffering exclusively from mental illness will be eligible to end their lives next year.

Toombs understands this shifting language as symptomatic of a new culture of death, a social imaginary that shapes not only the lived realities of those experiencing illness and disability, but also our societys attitudes toward medicine and personhood writ large. Her judgment of physician-assisted suicide is harsh, yet her approach is sympathetic; she feels a certain uncomfortable kinship with patients who seek medically-furnished deaths.

The first two sections of How Then Should We Live? rehearse a story familiar to those acquainted with the controversies tied to physician-assisted suicide. Toombs quotes the usual spectrum of bioethicists and discusses several notable cases, including that of Brittany Maynard, a twenty-nine-year-old American woman who ended her life in 2014 following a battle with brain cancer. Toombss book, however, is distinct for its implicitly phenomenological focus, reflecting her previous scholarship on the experience of living with illness and disability (including her 1992 The Meaning of Illness: A Phenomenological Account of the Different Perspectives of Physician and Patient). She stresses how contemporary discussions of death emphasize autonomy in a way that diminishes the mutuality of caregiving relationships, generating both caregiver resentment and self-recrimination on the part of the cared-for. When physician-assisted suicide is normalized, she argues, a natural death becomes unnatural, unimaginable, and abject. Confirming Havard's predictions, Toombs links the increasing push for physician-assisted death with our collective desire not to bear witness to suffering, suggesting that we self-kill out of obligation to spare others. She fears that while physician-assisted suicide is now elective, a sense of duty will transform it into an expected, even compulsory, path.

The final portion of Toombss book rejects the almost magical confidence our culture places in medicine and describes how covenantal Christian living transforms illness, disability, and death. In a community characterized by self-sacrificial love, she argues, the incurably ill and dying are not separated from the community of living, but . . . remain at the center of a web of intimate and supportive relationships that continue to affirm the value of their existence. She draws evidence from the experience of her community: Stevie, a child who suffered a rare form of muscular dystrophy; Perry, a young father with Lou Gehrigs disease; Dee, who was cared for by church members for the final three months of his life. When he became too weak for Toombs to care for him alone, fifteen women from their community volunteered for round-the-clock shifts. In a context of radical self-giving, Dees growing physical limitations were not perceived as a burden but as an opportunity to enact love, transforming even his own perception of his illness. Toombs recounts a day in which Dee recast physical distress itself as a healing experience, an apparent paradox furnished by the experience of supernatural love . . . expressed through the self-sacrificial service of others.

Such accounts of suffering-unto-death may sound aspirational to jaded ears; in claiming witness to supernatural grace, Toombs states that friends who faced terminal illness died with grace and peace, without exception. Yet Toombss willingness to bear witness to the realities of human suffering and deathand contextualize them in the Christian Storychallenges her reader to see differently, to understand terminal disability through the reality of the cross, the ultimate symbol of dislocation and shared vulnerability described by Michael Mayne. In affirming the centrality of the cross, Toombs does not romanticize the rigors of dying or turn away from the grim realities of physical suffering. If the Crucifixionand the command of Matthew 16:2426radically changes the significance of human suffering, it also demands that we imagine death differently: not as an intolerable defeat or the violation of our cherished idols of self-determination, but as an opportunity to affirm and deepen our relationships with God and each other.

In providing a Christian response to euthanasia, R. E. Havard wrote of the courage to face suffering, a courage that only Christianity can give. In re-imagining death in the context of Christian covenantal community, Toombss courage is more than evident.

Sarah ODell is an MD/PhD candidate and medical humanities scholar in Southern California.

Footnotes

1 Letter from R. E. Havard to Miss G. Cobb, November 30,1939. Robert Havard Papers, Folder 6, Wheaton College, Wheaton, IL. Used with permission.

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Imagining Death | Sarah O'Dell - First Things

Editor's note: The article has been updated with comments from Shelter Director Rene Vasquez and Kaila Williams, director of communications for Fort Bend County Health & Human Services, clarifying comments made Nov. 15 regarding Fort Bend County Animal Services' policy on euthanizing animals for space.

Updated 12:15 p.m. Nov. 16

Fort Bend County officials said they are not considering euthanizing animals at the animal shelter for space, despite being more than 250% full.

What you need to know

A Nov. 15 Facebook post from the Fort Bend County Animal Services Facebook account stated that "to meet the demand for shelter space that we do not currently have, we will be making the very difficult decision to euthanize animals in our shelter for those who need to come in."

However, Shelter Director Rene Vasquez and Kaila Williams, communications director for Fort Bend County Health & Human Services, said the post is inaccurate, and the county does not euthanize animals to save space at the shelter.

"We dont do that, and we havent done that in probably seven years. We have not had to euthanize for space, but weve also not ever encountered .... what we are right now," Vasquez said. "We're trying to use our tactics ... to show the community we need help."

A closer look

Vasquez said euthanasia is possible for animals who are sick, injured or aggressive, but the shelter has implemented a number of strategies to get animals adopted to avoid euthanizing animals for space.

A Nov. 9 news release from FBCAS introduced the department's Pets Urgently Seeking Homes initiative, or PUSH list. The 10 dogs on the list have been with the shelter for over a year, Williams said. Two have been adopted as of Nov. 16.

"Being in a shelter that longit's not healthy for the animals in a sense. Numerous medical issues, behavioral issues can arise," she said.

Although she said those dogs may be "more susceptible" to euthanasia because of their time in the shelter, Williams said in email that FBCAS "has not made any decisions nor is considering euthanizing any animals on our recently shared PUSH list."

In addition to the PUSH list, Vasquez and Williams said the department is using other methods to get pets adopted, including:

Posted 6:22 p.m. Nov. 15

Fort Bend Countys animal shelter is more than 255% fullleading shelter officials to consider euthanizing dogs to make room for others.

We have had an abundance of animals just continue to come through our doors, ... and unfortunately we just can't find a way or source to get the animals out, said Rene Vasquez, shelter director of Fort Bend County Animal Services.

By the numbers

The shelter has enough room to house about 90 dogs, but as of Nov. 15 the shelter held 230 dogs. Dog cages cover the shelters hallways, and theres now no more room for the cages, Vasquez said.

Weve been full maybe for a year or a little under, but not like this," he said. "Right now, we dont know where to put dogs. Do we line up black crates outside in the courtyard where they're exposed to the weather? ... Yesterday we [took in] 23 dogs, so what do we do if tomorrow it's another 15?"

If things don't improve by the end of November, Vasquez said staff may have to make the difficult decision to euthanize dogs to create more space. Before this, he said the shelter has maintained a 90% save rate for the last five years, meaning 90% of the animals who enter the shelter leave alive.

How we got here

The Rosenberg facility provides animal services for unincorporated Fort Bend County, which Vasquez said equals about 875 square miles. Vasquez said the animal services industry has gotten worse since the COVID-19 pandemic began and has exacerbated shelter crowding issues.

Vasquez said he believes inflation has contributed to the overcrowding, as it's harder for residents to afford care for their animals.

If a person comes and says that [cost is] the reason that they want to relinquish an animal, we will help them; like we'll find a kennel for them or we'll find dog food for them. We will help vaccinate animals for free, he said.

The countys shelter isnt the only local facility that has faced capacity issues. In August, the Sugar Land Animal Shelter was also over capacity, with officials planning adoption events in October and considering stopping animal intake to combat the issue.

Long term, Vasquez said county staff have discussed opening other shelters across the county to help alleviate overcrowding.

The takeaway

The main way community members can help the shelter is to adopt dogs, Vasquez said. To encourage adoptions, the shelter has waived its adoption fees. Additionally, all animals are spayed or neutered, up to date on vaccinations and microchipped.

For those unable to adopt, Vasquez encouraged residents to share adoption information with friends and family. However, the shelter will also accept donations of blankets and dog food.

"We're not even asking for donationswe just need help. We don't want to do the alternative," he said. "I'd rather get animals adopted and rescued instead of having to do something different."

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UPDATE: Fort Bend County animal shelter over 250% of capacity ... - Community Impact