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Legalizing doctor-assisted suicide does not lead to a "slippery slope" of excess deaths among the vulnerable poor, uninsured, elderly or other patients, according to a U.S. study in the October issue of the Journal of Medical Ethics. "Fears about the impact on vulnerable people have dominated debate about physician-assisted suicide. We find no evidence to support those fears where this practice already is legal," study lead author and bioethicist Margaret Battin, a distinguished professor of philosophy and adjunct professor of internal medicine at the University of Utah, said in a prepared statement. She and her colleagues analyzed data from The...

Lovelle Svart woke up Friday knowing it was the day she would die. There was much to do. Her family and closest friends would be gathering at 11 a.m. in her mother's apartment in the Southwest Portland assisted-living center where they both lived. She directed trips to the grocery store and even called AAA to jump-start the dead battery of her 2006 Scion. She double-checked delivery of food platters from Fred Meyer: turkey sandwiches, strawberries and grapes, pretzels, almonds and sparkling water. There would be pink roses on the dining table and a boombox in the corner to play music,...

LANSING, Michigan, August 3, 2007 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Dr. Jack Kevorkian may have plans to speak at the University of Florida about his life's work of "mercy killing", but the Michigan Parole Board has not yet agreed to the euthanasia movement's poster-boy's request to leave the state. Russ Marlan, spokesman for the Michigan Department of Corrections told LifeSiteNews.com that the Parole Board has not yet approved Kevorkian's request to leave Michigan and first "wanted to give time and see how he does." "He can't leave the state without written permission and the request is still pending," Marlan said.  "[The Parole Board]...

Grim truth about euthanasia Dr. Death is much sicker and 'terminal' than vast majority of the people he killed By LICIA CORBELLA, EDITOREuthanasia, according to many, should be an issue of "choice". Indeed, after a recent column I wrote about the June 1 release from jail of convicted murderer Jack Kevorkian (aka Dr. Death) I received many letters including one by a woman named Carol Anne from near London, Ont. who chastised me for opposing the legalization of euthanasia. "It is truly a sick society when people treat their beloved pets more compassionately than the human race," wrote Carol Anne....

It is estimated that Jack Kevorkian has played a role in 130 assisted suicides, yet, not once, has he shown remorse for his actions. He showed no remorse Sunday night during his interview with Mike Wallace of CBS’s 60 Minutes. Wallace, as bioethicist Wesley Smith notes, is a supporter of assisted suicide and actually hugged Kevorkian when the CBS crew met “Dr. Death” upon his release from prison (although this moment wasn’t shown by 60 Minutes). During the interview, Wallace threw softballs at Kevorkian until about two-thirds of the way through when Kevorkian asked Wallace to “strafe” him or get...

Sacramento, CA (LifeNews.com) -- Just one week after assisted suicide crusader Jack Kevorkian was released from prison, legislators in California will vote on whether or not to make the state the second to legalize the grisly practice of assisted suicide. A legislative panel approve the bill on Thursday and sent it to the full assembly. The measure would allow adults who are diagnosed with less than six months to live to ask a physician for the drugs to kill themselves.Last week the Assembly Appropriations Committee approved AB 374 with a pro forma vote. it was the second panel to back...

Prosecutors are calling for tougher regulations on Switzerland's assisted suicide clinics after uncovering evidence that some of the foreign clients they help to die are simply depressed rather than suffering incurable pain. The clinics, which attract hundreds of foreigners, including Britons, every year, have been accused of failing to carry out proper investigations into whether patients meet the requirements of Switzerland's right-to-die laws. In some cases, foreign clients are being given drugs to commit suicide within hours of their arrival, which critics say leaves doctors and psychologists unable to conduct a detailed assessment or to provide appropriate counselling. Andreas Brunner,...

Lansing, MI (LifeNews.com) -- There are just two days left until one of the most notorious killers in the medical profession gets out of prison. Jack Kevorkian may have been responsible for the deaths of 130 people but he will have very limited freedoms and abilities during his parole after he is released from prison on Friday. Kevorkian found himself behind bars after he taunted the judicial system in Michigan to put him away by showing a video of him euthanizing a patient on national television. Pro-life advocates have already said they're concerned that Kevorkian will go back to his...

When Your Doctor is a Muslim: Medical Terrorism Comes to America By Debbie Schlussel www.debbieschlussel.com May 17, 2007 Sometimes--so many times--diversity is not what it's cracked up to be. Just ask Joseph Applebaum. Well, you could ask him. But you won't get an answer. He's dead. And he's dead because he was a Jew, and his doctor is a Muslim and grad of "Ayman Al-Zawahiri" Medical School. But Applebaum wasn't denied treatment for being a Jew in Egypt. Or elsewhere in the Muslim world. It happened right here on U.S. soil. In Chicago. As Muslim doctors continue to flood into...

BOSTON (Reuters) - About two-thirds of cardiac arrest patients taken to hospitals by emergency medical technicians die anyway, and probably most could be declared dead at the scene, according to research published on Wednesday. The report in the New England Journal of Medicine suggests that certain emergency medical services -- not those staffed by paramedics -- could ease the distress of loved ones and dramatically reduce the number of hopeless but expensive hospital trips. The assessment of 1,240 cardiac arrest rescue runs over two years in Ontario, Canada, found that only 1 in 500 people survived to be discharged from...

A very sick 78-year-old doctor is dying in a Michigan prison, an anachronism left over from the 20th century. Should we let him die in prison, or do we have the decency to say, "Enough is enough. Release him and let him die at home"? The doctor is Jack Kevorkian, who was sentenced in 1999 to 10 to 25 years in Michigan's Lakeland Correctional Facility for Men. He traded his freedom for openly, shamelessly touting what he called our "right to die with dignity." He'd spent the 10 prior years brashly, illegally helping 130 terminally ill people end excruciatingly painful...

Today, on his 78th birthday, Jack Kevorkian, the man known as "Dr. Death," is slowly dying in prison. And, according to his lawyer, Kevorkian seems to have second thoughts about helping people die. For years, Kevorkian was the center of a national debate around the highly controversial questions surrounding physician-assisted suicide or "mercy killing:" Do the terminally ill have the right to choose when and how they die? Do doctors have the ability, even an obligation, to help them die as they choose? Now, as he sits in jail, Kevorkian may have had a change of heart — not about...

Lawyer: Kevorkian's Health Deteriorating 22 minutes ago An attorney for Jack Kevorkian said the assisted-suicide advocate will probably not survive another year if kept in prison, as he again asked the state to grant his client a pardon or commute his sentence. Lawyer Mayer Morganroth said he applied to the state Parole Board and Gov. Jennifer Granholm on Friday seeking a pardon, parole or commutation, citing the 77-year-old's deteriorating health. "Kevorkian has become increasingly frail and has fallen twice, injuring his wrist and fracturing two ribs," Morganroth said in a statement. His blood pressure has gone "through the roof," the...

ALLENTOWN, Pa. -- Charles Cullen is not going quietly to prison. The man who killed 29 patients in New Jersey and Pennsylvania disrupted his sentencing in the Keystone State Friday afternoon. The judge ordered court officers to gag Cullen. Cullen kept repeating, "Your honor, you need to step down." Court workers tried gagging him with cloth. When that didn't work, they tried duct tape. That didn't work either, so the judge went ahead with the proceeding as Cullen repeated the statement hundreds of times over the course of half an hour. Cullen was apparently angry about a newspaper article in...

Lausanne University hospital, Switzerland has decided to permit assisted suicides starting from January 1, 2006. Assisted suicide has always been considered a form of active euthanasia . In addition to Lausanne, other leading Swiss hospitals are now actively discussing permitting the procedure. Though Swiss law initially did not allow doctors to kill their patients the practice of euthanasia has been gradually extended from private groups into the public health systems. Extensive experience with euthanasia laws in other countries has revealed a consistent pattern. Assisted suicide is presented to the public as a last resort necessary to alleviate human suffering. Once...