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This article, published in a peer-reviewed academic journal, is based on a study of the three forms of assisted dying in use: euthanasia, assisted suicide, and capital punishment. All were found to have significant problems that result in what the authors call “inhumane” deaths, including very painful ones. They recommend the use of continuous medically-monitored anesthesia. … [Read more...] about Doctors Recommend Anesthesia for Assisted Death Pain Control

Defying the advice of its own ethics committee to continue calling assisted suicide what it really is and to continue opposing it, the full AMA House of Delegates, with a 56% majority, today asked the ethics committee to reconsider its decision, made after two years of study.  The ethics committee will issue another report before the 2019 meeting of the House of … [Read more...] about Full AMA House of Delegates Sends Assisted Suicide Back to Ethics Board for Further Review

A CA Superior Court Judge has declared CA’s assisted suicide law to be unconstitutional, on the narrow ground of its adoption during a special 2016 session called to address health care efficiency and funding rather than during the regular session, during which it had failed to pass … [Read more...] about CA Assisted Suicide Law Overturned

On May 4, 2018, ethicist Wesley Smith reported the good news that the American Medical Association’s Ethics Board, after a two year period of study, has rejected a proposal that the organization withdraw its opposition to assisted suicide through the mechanism of giving it the supposedly more acceptable name, “aid in dying”.  The committee pointed out that “aid in dying” is an … [Read more...] about AMA Ethics Board Maintains Opposition to Assisted Suicide, Refuses to Call It “Aid in Dying”

With the April 8 signing of Hawaii’s assisted suicide (AS) law, AS is now legal in 6 US states and the District of Columbia. Since Oregon first legalized AS in 1997, it has taken well-funded, determined, and persistent proponents 21 years of hard fighting to get 6 new legalizations.  We should not forget that, thanks to its less well funded but equally persistent and … [Read more...] about Bad News, Good News, and Some Thoughts About What We Must Keep Fighting