It seems compassionate to support a woman dying of a progressive illness who doesn't want to leave it too late to commit suicide. In fact, it is compassionate to no-one but ourselves to promote her death instead of the good care which helpless people deserve. We are not really doing ourselves a kindness, either, by deciding that a human life has no value. If Debbie Purdy, and others like her, can be put on the list of people society can do without, so can we all.

From the International Task Force on Euthanasia and Assisted Suicide comes a special report on 10 years under Oregon's assisted-suicide law.

By. Wesley J. Smith

I have reported on the Canadian futile care lawsuit involving Samuel Golubchuck here at SHS previously. For those who may not recall, Golubchuck is a terminally ill elderly patient being treated in a Winnipeg hospital's ICU. Doctors want to refuse life-sustaining treatment. The family--citing religious reasons (they are Orthodox Jews) and believing that Mr. Golubchuck would want treatment to continue--sued and won a temporary injunction requiring his life to be maintained.

Now, the doctor who wanted to impose his values on the patient and family by forcing Golubchuck off of a respirator and feeding tube has resigned rather than continue treatment. I have no trouble with that so long as there is continuity of care. But the following comment by the head of an ICU should alarm everyone. From the story:

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By Wesley J. Smith:

When a story about worrying suicide rates in Oregon crossed my computer, I bet myself that the expert being interviewed and the reporter would ignore the obvious: Oregon officially sanctions some suicides and calls them "choice" if the suicidal person has a terminal illness--even if he or she is not experiencing significant symptoms--and moreover, permits doctors to intentionally assist in the self destruction. Needless to say, I was right. From the story:

Suicide is one of our more enduring public health problems. Because it accounts for only 1.3 percent of deaths, it still is often looked on as a rare problem. But there were nearly 33,000 suicides in 2005. More people kill themselves than are killed by others.

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Advance directives have fatal flaws. As Cicely Saunders said ‘The one thing we cannot do is speak to the dissatisfied dead’.

Organ Donor cards inform relatives and medical staff of our desire to bring life to others after our death. In contrast, Advance Directives state that under certain circumstances, we would prefer death to life.

There lies the fatal flaw. Written in health, what if, your plea “I don’t want to be kept alive on a life support machine” led to your not having life support for an illness from which you may recover?

Think about it – “That’s not what you meant”. Perhaps what you really wanted to say is, ‘If my death is inevitable and all efforts at intensive care are unsuccessful, I would not like you to continue life support.”

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From Wesley J. Smith

Now Germany is surprised at the crassness of assisted suicide advocates. A German official assisted the suicide of an elderly woman--and a la Kevorkian, filmed it and then showed it on television. From the story:

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From Alex Schadenberg:

The recent Australian guidelines on withdrawing medical treatment from people in a "unresponsive" state will not only encourage families to withdraw medical treatment from their family members but also to deny them basic care provisions. http://www.news.com.au/couriermail/story/0,23739,23755540-952,00.html

The guidelines will encourage families to withdraw basic care such as tube feeding from their "unresponsive" loved one’s. When tube feeding is withdrawn from a person who is cognitively disabled and appears unresponsive, but who is not otherwise dying or nearing death, then the cause of death will be death by dehydration, or in other-words death by euthanasia by omission.

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