Two threads by me.
LONDON, July 28, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Euthanasia activist and disgraced medical practitioner, Michael Irwin, 77, has issued an open letter to local police challenging them to arrest him for his involvement in the February 2007 assisted suicide of 58-year-old Raymond Cutkelvin. He has said he wants to be a "martyr" on behalf of those U.K. residents who help their relatives commit suicide and who could thereby face up to 14 years in jail.
According to Irwin, at least 115 Britons have sought assisted suicide through the group called Dignitas in Zurich in the last 10 years.
On his trip, Cutkelvin was accompanied by his homosexual partner Alan Cutkelvin Rees, Irwin, a close friend, and a relative. Cutkelvin suffered from an inoperable tumor of the pancreas.
Irwin has also admitted to helping Cutkelvin with payment for his suicide by sending £1500 to Dignitas on his behalf.
According to the U.K.'s 1961 Suicide Act, it is illegal to "aid, abet, counsel or procure the suicide of another." To violate the law carries a penalty of up to 14 years in prison. The law applies to helping someone go abroad for suicide as well, though it has hardly been enforced against those travelling to Zurich. According to Irwin, while some have been questioned upon their return to the U.K., previously only one person had been arrested, in 2006. . .
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LONDON, July 31, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) - In a case that is being hailed as a victory for proponents of assisted suicide, Britain's Law Lords have ruled that the public prosecutors must "clarify" current law on the issue. The House of Lords judicial committee ruled yesterday that the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) for England and Wales must issue "guidance" on when and in what circumstances the law making it a criminal offense to assist suicide will be prosecuted.
The DPP Keir Starmer has responded that his office will be publishing a new policy by the end of September. Starmer also announced a public consultation to gauge public opinion on the issue.
The case against the DPP was brought by Debbie Purdy, a woman with multiple sclerosis who wants the courts to guarantee that her husband would not be prosecuted were he to help her commit suicide overseas. Despite the law making assisting suicide a criminal offense liable to 14 years in prison, the DPP's office had repeatedly asserted that relatives accompanying their loved ones to the Swiss suicide facility Dignitas would not be prosecuted.
In June this year, Sir Ken Macdonald, the former Director of Public Prosecutions for England and Wales, had confirmed his office did not intend to prosecute in such cases, but warned against making assisted suicide legal. Macdonald reaffirmed his position that there is "no public interest" in such prosecutions. . .
Thread by me.
Rome, Italy (LifeNews.com) -- The world may never know how many thousands of women have been injured, or even killed, by the dangerous RU 486 abortion drug. The best worldwide guess is that 13 women have been killed as a result of the mifepristone abortion pill, but the maker of the drug in Europe is saying 29 women have died.
If the information given to the Italian Pharmaceuticals Agency (AIFA) by European abortion drug maker Exelgyn is correct, then twice as many women have died from the abortion drug globally than the pro-life community has thought.
Currently, eight women have died from using the RU 486 abortion drug in the United States, two in England, and one each in Canada, Sweden and France.
But, according to a report by the Italian news agency ASCA, Exelgyn provided the figure of 29 women dying from the abortion pill to the Italy Ministry of Health, which, in turn, gave the information to the AIFA drug regulatory agency. . .