Category Archives: Euthanasia

Not surprisingly, the issue of legalising euthanasia or mercy killing triggered high feelings among MPs on either side of the debate. The contentious initiative was launched back in November and attracted the required 50,000 signatures needed for MPs to debate it just four weeks later.

The divisive nature of the citizens initiative calling for legal euthanasia was obvious from the get-go.

"A fatal injection is a tool for veterinarians not for human care," declared Pivi Rsnen, ex-Christian Democratic Party chair.

National coalition Party MP Timo Heinonen countered her view, saying, "If I were in that kind of situation and these criteria were filled, then I would personally be ready for my death to be as easy and as good as possible."

Finnish government ministers generally avoid engaging in debates on issues that fall outside their purview, but this was not the case on Thursday, as Finns Party chair and Foreign Minister Timo Soini weighed in on the discussion.

"We are talking about legalising the murder of another person. [It's] not a little thing. Not a matter to be decided in a marketplace by 'ayes'. We are creating a Finnish culture of death. We should not do that," Soini charged.

Although there seemed to be little room for consensus on the substantive issue of euthanasia, MPs in the chamber all agreed that it is time for the authorities to ensure that people have access to proper end of life care, wherever they are in the country.

"This would already be a big thank you to the sponsors of the citizens initiative, if their work didnt go to waste," said Greens MP Heli Jrvinen.

Support for the idea of universal palliative care bridged party lines and was so powerful, that the government and the Social Affairs and Health Minister couldn't avoid paying attention.

"The best part of the initiative is that it has forced the Parliament to discuss this subject and also that palliative care is seen as genuinely being part of everyones right to a good life and death," noted Centre Party MP Annika Saarikko.

Parliaments Social Affairs and Health Committee will now have its hands full with the governments ambitious overhaul of social and health care services as well as decisions on access to euthanasia and expanding end of life care.

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MPs still divided on euthanasia, united on need for universal end of life care - YLE News

The Victorian Parliament will consider a bill to legalise euthanasia in the second half of 2017. That follows the South Australian Parliaments decision to knock back a voluntary euthanasia bill late last year, and the issue has also cropped up in the run-up to the March 11 Western Australian election.

With the issue back in the headlines, federal Labors justice spokesperson, Clare O'Neil, told Q&A that in countries where the practice is legal, very, very small numbers of people use the laws.

Whether or not you agree with O'Neils statement depends largely on your interpretation of the subjective term very, very small, but there is a growing body of data available on how many people are using euthanasia or assisted dying laws in places such as the Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, Colombia, Canada and some US states.

Many people use the terms assisted dying, assisted suicide and euthanasia interchangeably. But, technically, these phrases can have different meanings.

Assisted dying (sometimes also assisted death) is where the patient himself or herself ultimately takes the medication. Euthanasia, by contrast, is usually where the doctor administers the medication to the patient.

Assisted suicide includes people who are not terminally ill, but who are being helped to commit suicide, whereas assisted dying refers to people who are already dying. Some reports do not, however, distinguish between assisted dying and assisted suicide, and I will not distinguish them here.

In some jurisdictions, the word euthanasia is used to refer to both assisted dying/suicide (where the patient himself or herself takes the medication) and to euthanasia (where the doctor administers the medication to the patient). So euthanasia can sometimes be used as a broad term to cover a range of actions.

According to a peer-reviewed paper published last year in the respected journal JAMA:

Between 0.3% to 4.6% of all deaths are reported as euthanasia or physician-assisted suicide in jurisdictions where they are legal. The frequency of these deaths increased after legalization Euthanasia and physician-assisted suicide are increasingly being legalized, remain relatively rare, and primarily involve patients with cancer. Existing data do not indicate widespread abuse of these practices.

The authors of that paper said that 35,598 people died in Oregon in 2015. Of these deaths, 132, or 0.39%, were reported as physician-assisted suicides. The same paper said that in Washington in 2015 there were 166 reported cases of physician-assisted suicide (equating to 0.32% of all deaths in Washington in that year).

Interestingly, the same paper noted that US data show that:

pain is not the main motivation for PAS (physician-assisted suicide) The dominant motives are loss of autonomy and dignity and being less able to enjoy lifes activities.

The authors said that in officially reported Belgian cases, pain was the reason for euthanasia in about half of cases. Loss of dignity is mentioned as a reason for 61% of cases in the Netherlands and 52% in Belgium.

A 2016 Victorian parliamentary report has quoted from the UK Commission on Assisted Dying, which in turn referenced the work of John Griffiths, Heleen Weyers and Maurice Adams in their book Euthanasia and Law in Europe. The commission said:

There are no official data in Switzerland on the numbers of assisted suicides that take place each year, as the rate of assisted suicide is not collected centrally. Griffiths et al observe that there are approximately 62,000 deaths in Switzerland each year and academic studies suggest that between 0.3% and 0.4% of these are assisted suicides. This figure increases to 0.5% of all deaths if suicide tourism is included (assisted suicides that involve nonSwiss nationals).

Around 3.7% of deaths in the Netherlands in 2015 were due to euthanasia. The Netherlands regional euthanasia review committees reported that there were 5,516 deaths due to euthanasia in 2015. That is out of a total of around 147,000 - 148,000 deaths in the Netherlands that year.

This figure represents an increase of 4% of deaths due to euthanasia compared to 2014.

A 2012 paper published in The Lancet reported on the results of nationwide surveys on euthanasia in the Netherlands in 1995, 2001, 2005 and 2010. The researchers said:

In 2002, the euthanasia act came into effect in the Netherlands, which was followed by a slight decrease in the euthanasia frequency In 2010, of all deaths in the Netherlands, 2.8% were the result of euthanasia. This rate is higher than the 1.7% in 2005, but comparable with those in 2001 and 1995.

Another Netherlands-based study published in the journal JAMA Internal Medicine reported in 2015 that:

Certainly, not all requests are granted; studies conducted between 1990 and 2011 report rates of granting requests between 32% and 45%.

A 2015 paper in the New England Journal of Medicine about euthanasia rates in the Flanders region of Belgium (the northern half of the country) noted:

The rate of euthanasia increased significantly between 2007 and 2013, from 1.9% to 4.6% of deaths.

It can be hard to put these rates in context, but what is clear is that euthanasia is by no means a leading cause of death in countries where it is legal. For example, Statistics Belgium said that for the year 2012, cardiovascular disease was the most common cause of death (28.8%), and cancer was the second most common cause of death (26%).

And in the Netherlands where 5,516 of deaths were due to euthanasia in 2015 more than 12,000 Dutch people died from the effects of dementia in 2014, approximately 10,000 Dutch people died from lung cancer and nearly 9,000 died from a heart attack. In 2013, 30% (about 42,000) of Dutch deaths were from cancer and 27% (about 38,000) of Dutch deaths were from cardiovascular disease.

If this article has raised issues for you or if youre concerned about someone you know, call Lifeline on 13 11 44.

Andrew McGee, Senior Lecturer, Faculty of Law, Queensland University of Technology

This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original article.

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In places where it's legal, how many people are ending their lives using euthanasia? - Catch News

I am so pleased to share the latest great news.

I recently met Shane at an training event that we organized in Washington DC. Shane attended the event to share with us his gratitude concerning his grandmother, who had been a member of the Hemlock society, a group that is now known as Compassion and Choices, but has now changed her mind.

Shane and his grandmother watched the Euthanasia Deception documentary together. While watching the documentary, Shanes grandmother flipped 180 degrees and changed her mind about euthanasia. Shane is so grateful that his grandmother saw the Euthanasia Deception documentary since she had been an active supporter of euthanasia and assisted suicide most of her life.

SUPPORT LIFENEWS! If you like this pro-life article, please help LifeNews.com with a donation!

Watch the interview with Shane Johnson:

Order the Euthanasia Deception documentary today for $30 for 1 copy or $100 for 4 copies (+ tax)(further bulk orders are available) from the Euthanasia Prevention Coalition by calling: 1-877-439-3348 or by email: info@epcc.ca or at: http://www.vulnerablefilm.com.

I am also pleased to announce that a bilingual version (french subtitles) is now available for ordering.

The Euthanasia Prevention Coalition has distributed almost 2800 copies of the Euthanasia Deception documentary on DVD and there have also been many downloads on Vimeo.

Link to more information about the Euthanasia Deception documentary.

LifeNews.com Note: Alex Schadenberg is the executive director of the Euthanasia Prevention Coalition and you can read his blog here.

Go here to see the original:

Euthanasia Advocate Changes Her Mind After Watching the Euthanasia Deception Documentary - LifeNews.com

Illinois pet food maker Evangers Cat and Dog Food is expanding their voluntarily recall of products potentially contaminated with the euthanasia drugpentobarbital.

In February, the company announced five dogs became sick and one died after eating Evangersbest-sellingHunk of Beef dog food due to the potential contaminant pentobarbital. The drug was traced to one lot of food, which the company believed contained tainted meat from a supplier, leading them to recall that lot and four others packaged at the same time.

The original recall is on Hunk of Beef dog food with lot numbers that start with 1816E03HB, 1816E04HB, 1816E06HB, 1816E07HB, 1816E13HB and have an expiration date of June 2020, products all made during the same week of June 6 to 13, 2016. The products were sold online and in retail locations in 15 states:Washington, California, Minnesota, Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Wisconsin, Ohio, Pennsylvania, New York, Massachusetts, Maryland, South Carolina, Georgia and Florida.

Now, Evangers and the FDA is worried more of the companys food may contain traces of the barbiturate used in animal euthanasia and human executions. The recall has now been expanded to include:

Evangers Hunk of Beef: 20109 Evangers Braised Beef: 20107 Against the Grain Pulled Beef: 80001

The numbers listed are the second half of the barcode, which can be found on the back of the label. The products affected by the recall were packagedDecember 2015 and January 2017, and have expiration dates of December 2019 through January 2021. These products were sold nationwide in pet stores and online.

How this lethal contaminant got into Evangers pet food is still unknown, but the company believes their meat supplier is to blame, also claiming the supplier is using horse meat in their shipments. In response to these accusations, the Food and Drug Administration inspected the supplier, but found nothing to suggest they are the source of the problem.

The FDA did find that the quality of Evangers meat is not what the company has promised consumers. The meat found in Hunk of Beef dog food was not human grade as the company claimed and did not come from Department of Agriculture approved supplier, according to The Seattle Times. Additionally, the FDA also noted that Evangers Wheeling, Illinois, plant had peeling paint, mold on the walls, poor refrigeration and close proximity to an a open sewer. The vice president of Evangers has contested these claims.

Continue reading here:

Pet Food Company Expands Recall for Products Contaminated with Deadly Euthanasia Drug - PEOPLE.com

BBC News

Corgi pit bull with lopsided jaw saved from euthanasia BBC News A dog, abandoned by an amateur breeder because of his lopsided face, has been saved from euthanasia. The corgi pit bull mix, named Picasso, was saved alongside his brother Pablo in Oregon, USA. The pair were dumped at an animal shelter after their ... Picasso the dog finally gets a happy ending after being saved from ...Metro Picasso the rescue dog is stealing hearts all over the internet (and ...Mashable Pup Dumped by Breeder Because of His Looks Now Has Hundreds ...One Green Planet AZFamily -Yahoo News all 12 news articles »

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Corgi pit bull with lopsided jaw saved from euthanasia - BBC News

In places where it's legal, how many people are ending their lives using euthanasia?

The Victorian Parliament will consider a bill to legalise euthanasia in the second half of 2017. That follows the South Australian Parliaments decision to knock back a voluntary euthanasia bill late last year, and the issue has also cropped up in the run-up to the March 11 Western Australian election.

With the issue back in the headlines, federal Labors justice spokesperson, Clare O'Neil, told Q&A that in countries where the practice is legal, very, very small numbers of people use the laws.

Whether or not you agree with O'Neils statement depends largely on your interpretation of the subjective term very, very small, but there is a growing body of data available on how many people are using euthanasia or assisted dying laws in places such as the Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, Colombia, Canada and some US states.

Assisted dying, assisted suicide and euthanasia

Many people use the terms assisted dying, assisted suicide and euthanasia interchangeably. But, technically, these phrases can have different meanings.

Assisted dying (sometimes also assisted death) is where the patient himself or herself ultimately takes the medication. Euthanasia, by contrast, is usually where the doctor administers the medication to the patient.

Assisted suicide includes people who are not terminally ill, but who are being helped to commit suicide, whereas assisted dying refers to people who are already dying. Some reports do not, however, distinguish between assisted dying and assisted suicide, and I will not distinguish them here.

In some jurisdictions, the word euthanasia is used to refer to both assisted dying/suicide (where the patient himself or herself takes the medication) and to euthanasia (where the doctor administers the medication to the patient). So euthanasia can sometimes be used as a broad term to cover a range of actions.

Euthanasia and assisted suicide rates around the world

According to a peer-reviewed paper published last year in the respected journal JAMA:

Between 0.3% to 4.6% of all deaths are reported as euthanasia or physician-assisted suicide in jurisdictions where they are legal. The frequency of these deaths increased after legalization Euthanasia and physician-assisted suicide are increasingly being legalized, remain relatively rare, and primarily involve patients with cancer. Existing data do not indicate widespread abuse of these practices.

The authors of that paper said that 35,598 people died in Oregon in 2015. Of these deaths, 132, or 0.39%, were reported as physician-assisted suicides. The same paper said that in Washington in 2015 there were 166 reported cases of physician-assisted suicide (equating to 0.32% of all deaths in Washington in that year).

Interestingly, the same paper noted that US data show that:

pain is not the main motivation for PAS (physician-assisted suicide) The dominant motives are loss of autonomy and dignity and being less able to enjoy lifes activities.

The authors said that in officially reported Belgian cases, pain was the reason for euthanasia in about half of cases. Loss of dignity is mentioned as a reason for 61% of cases in the Netherlands and 52% in Belgium.

A 2016 Victorian parliamentary report has quoted from the UK Commission on Assisted Dying, which in turn referenced the work of John Griffiths, Heleen Weyers and Maurice Adams in their book Euthanasia and Law in Europe. The commission said:

There are no official data in Switzerland on the numbers of assisted suicides that take place each year, as the rate of assisted suicide is not collected centrally. Griffiths et al observe that there are approximately 62,000 deaths in Switzerland each year and academic studies suggest that between 0.3% and 0.4% of these are assisted suicides. This figure increases to 0.5% of all deaths if suicide tourism is included (assisted suicides that involve nonSwiss nationals).

Around 3.7% of deaths in the Netherlands in 2015 were due to euthanasia. The Netherlands regional euthanasia review committees reported that there were 5,516 deaths due to euthanasia in 2015. That is out of a total of around 147,000 - 148,000 deaths in the Netherlands that year.

This figure represents an increase of 4% of deaths due to euthanasia compared to 2014.

A 2012 paper published in The Lancet reported on the results of nationwide surveys on euthanasia in the Netherlands in 1995, 2001, 2005 and 2010. The researchers said:

In 2002, the euthanasia act came into effect in the Netherlands, which was followed by a slight decrease in the euthanasia frequency In 2010, of all deaths in the Netherlands, 2.8% were the result of euthanasia. This rate is higher than the 1.7% in 2005, but comparable with those in 2001 and 1995.

Another Netherlands-based study published in the journal JAMA Internal Medicine reported in 2015 that:

Certainly, not all requests are granted; studies conducted between 1990 and 2011 report rates of granting requests between 32% and 45%.

A 2015 paper in the New England Journal of Medicine about euthanasia rates in the Flanders region of Belgium (the northern half of the country) noted:

The rate of euthanasia increased significantly between 2007 and 2013, from 1.9% to 4.6% of deaths.

Filling in the bigger picture

It can be hard to put these rates in context, but what is clear is that euthanasia is by no means a leading cause of death in countries where it is legal. For example, Statistics Belgium said that for the year 2012, cardiovascular disease was the most common cause of death (28.8%), and cancer was the second most common cause of death (26%).

And in the Netherlands where 5,516 of deaths were due to euthanasia in 2015 more than 12,000 Dutch people died from the effects of dementia in 2014, approximately 10,000 Dutch people died from lung cancer and nearly 9,000 died from a heart attack. In 2013, 30% (about 42,000) of Dutch deaths were from cancer and 27% (about 38,000) of Dutch deaths were from cardiovascular disease.

Andrew McGee does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond the academic appointment above.

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In places where it's legal, how many people are ending their lives ... - EconoTimes

DJ's assisted suicide fuels Italy's euthanasia debate MercatorNet It is an event which deserves compassion and should never be exploited for any reason, neither for advancing pro-euthanasia ideas, nor even for countering them. After his accident Fabo, a well-known DJ, was blind and unable to move. Returning from ...

Excerpt from:

DJ's assisted suicide fuels Italy's euthanasia debate - MercatorNet

Gina Coy , KPNX 6:30 PM. MST March 02, 2017

Dog at a salon. (Photo: ThinkStock)

PHOENIX - You and your family can enjoy some pampering this Sunday and help raise money for RESCUE(Reducing Euthanasia at Shelters through Commitment and Underlying Education).

Mane Attraction Salon is teaming up with RESCUE for its17th Annual Beauty to the RESCUE event this Sunday. This local nonprofit animal rescue organization helps find loving homes for euthanasia-listed dogs and cats at county shelters.

We have a special place in our hearts for the pets RESCUE helps, says Beat Ong, who owns and operates Mane Attraction with husband and stylist Kendall Ong. Healthy animals are being euthanized because they arent adopted and placed in loving homes. The real beneficiaries of this event will be the huggable animals that are adopted at this outstanding and important event.

The event will feature DJ Blake Ascension, chair massages, professional psychic readings for both you and your pet. Boutique vendor booths that offer everything from baked goods to artisan jewelry -- all to support these furry friends in need.

Minimum Donation Information Haircuts - $30 Blow Dry Style - $20 Deep Conditioning Masque - $10

Location Mane Attraction Salon 3156 E. Camelback Rd. Phoenix, AZ 85016

Date & Time Sunday, March 5, 2017 10 a.m. 2 p.m.

( 2017 KPNX)

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Mane Attraction hosts Beauty to the RESCUE to fight animal euthanasia - 12news.com

2nd March 2017, 0 comments

Finland's parliament on Thursday debated a citizens' initiative to make euthanasia legal, a widely supported cause in the Nordic country.

"A law on euthanasia is needed to add an alternative at life's end for those who cannot get sufficient relief to their unbearable agonies even from the finest of palliative treatment," the initiative read.

In Finland, citizens can require parliament to debate an issue by gathering a minimum of 50,000 signatures.

Thursday's debate was just the first step in the parliamentary process. A special committee will draft a more detailed memorandum for lawmakers to consider at a later, undisclosed date.

It is not yet known how much support the idea has in parliament.

But a poll conducted by public broadcaster YLE in 2015 suggests that nearly 60 percent of the current lawmakers are favourable to the possibility of an assisted death for a terminally ill patient.

And several polls in recent years have shown Finns to be largely supportive of the idea.

A survey conducted in December by pollster Taloustutkimus for YLE showed that 73 percent were in favour, 14 percent were opposed and 13 percent remained uncertain.

The Netherlands and Belgium became the first countries in the world to legalise euthanasia in 2002.

During Thursday's debate, opposing MPs called for better palliative treatment of dying patients instead of euthanasia.

"What kind of agony would be considered sufficient to trigger a (doctor's) decision to allow euthanasia? Statistics from the Netherlands prove that the most important reason for requesting euthanasia has not been pain but rather loneliness and fear of ending up dependent on help from others," MP Paivi Rasanen of the Christian Democrats said.

The citizens' initiative was undertaken by two retired politicians, former finance minister Iiro Viinanen and former MP Esko Seppanen, who both suffer from Parkinson's disease.

"I would have wished that my son, who died from cancer after atrocious pain, would have had this opportunity. He could have had a dignified and painless death," Seppanen told news agency STT when the initiative was published in November.

2017 AFP

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Finnish parliament debates legalising euthanasia - Expatica Netherlands

There were 75 dogs waiting in the hallway to die. All were supposed to be euthanized at the City Veterinary Office dog pound in the town of Bacolod in the Philippines. Local law states that all dogs whose owner has not come to claim them in the 10 days following their capture will automatically be considered abandoned and euthanized.

Thankfully, fate had it that Cher Herrera, a 37-year-old Philippine woman, decided to visit the establishment just before the date where they were scheduled to be killed. The young woman had come to feed an abandoned dog something she had been doing for several weeks when she heard about the tragic destiny that awaited the others.

After learning the news, she decided she couldnt sit around and do nothing, so she decided to adopt no less than 13 dogs, who she left with that same day. Knowing they were facing certain death from a bullet in the head Cher wanted to save as many as possible.

That night, it was impossible for Cher to sleep. She kept hearing the desperate cries of the other dogs in the shelter resonating in her head. Thats why, when she received her monthly salary a few days later, she made the crazy decision to adopt the 62 dogs who were left. To stop them, at all costs, from being killed: that became her unique objective.

Source: Facebook/Cher Herrera

With the help of some friends, Cher was able to place some of the dogs in temporary foster homes. Then she posted on Facebook calling on her friends generosity to help find all of the dogs a family. Her message was shared more than 14,000 times, after which many people offered their help.

Again, I am calling all the attention of all dog lovers. 58 dogs will be put down this week here in Bacolod City Dog Pound and they need our help. As much na gusto ko lahat sila e save lahat, hindi ko po kakayanin pag ako lang mag isa kailangan ko po ang inyong tulong lalo na ang inyong time. Maraming maraming salamat po. May nag donate na po sakin para sa adoption fee sa City hall pero ang problema ay wala malagyan sa kanila temporary habang nag aantay ng mag adopt talaga sa kanila. Kung sino po sana ang merong area na pwede sila ilagay na safe at kami na po ang bahala sa pagkain nila at pag linis. Sa mga pwede po maka help sakin ng kahit ano, Dogfood, vitamins, gamot, sabon etc are welcome po talaga at kailangan talaga ng mga dogs po ito. Lalo na po sa pwede maka pag assist sa akin facilitate in saving these furbabies, sobra ko po pasasalamatan.

#ADOPTNOTSHOP

Theresa Antaran Japsay Kim Obryan Jaja Llena-Ibarreta Ritika-Pooja Dowlani Ina Limcangco Kris Kring JT Einnoc Hcab Blin Evelyn Jules Trinidad Glenda Mae Puentevella Caleb Lopez Jannelle Antolo Jamandre Pam DC Montoya Casey Joy Mateo Cheyserr de la Cruz Ody Bulanadi

#Thirteen_Sixtytwo

Publi par Cher Herrera sur dimanche 5 fvrier 2017

Certain social media users offered to adopt the dogs, while other donated food. Even better, an American animal protection organization offered to help construct a sanctuary where the animals can be rehabilitated, with the goal of being adopted later.

Source:Facebook/Cher Herrera

At this time, only a dozen of the dogs are still in the temporary shelter, and theyre the ones who have been traumatized by the abuse and mistreatment they experienced in the past, which made it necessary for them to wait longer to be adopted. As soon as theyre ready, they will also be adopted by loving families.

H/t: ABC-CBN

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At Holidog, we aim to improve the lives of your furry friends. Enjoy your holidays with peace of mind, knowing your pet is in great hands (find a petsitter near you) and spoil them with our monthly subscription box filled with yummy treats and toys (get your free box here). You can count on us!

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This Woman Just Saved 75 Dogs From Euthanasia When She Decided To Adopt Them All - The Holidog Times