Guest Work • Mar 06, 2017 •
By Andrew McGee, Queensland University of Technology The Victorian Parliament will consider a bill to legalise euthanasia in the second half of 2017. That follows the South Australian Parliament’s 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 … Read More
Guest Work • Oct 15, 2013 •
Euthanasia, or physician assisted suicide is illegal in New Zealand, but that’s not the case in the Netherlands. In this Sciblogs Podcast, Lindsey Horne talks to Professor Aad Tibben, a physician from the Netherlands who helps Huntington’s Disease suffers with their end of life directives and we also get an update on the current situation as it … Read More
Ken Perrott • Jul 08, 2012 •
Such titles always bring euthanasia to my mind, but I realise that is my perspective – I am just so much close to the problem of dying with dignity than I am to problems related to death and quality of … Continue reading → … Read More
Guest Work • Dec 05, 2011 •
By Richard Denniss, Crawford School at Australian National University We can choose so many of our life experiences, but it seems we can have no say in whether we die in pain or at peace. Today we consider why we don’t have a policy on physician-assisted suicide. It’s often said that the only certain … Read More
Jim McVeagh • Nov 30, 2011 •
In commenting on the case of Sean Davison - the man who has just been convicted of assisting the suicide of his terminally-ill mother – John Kleinsman (the director of the Nathaniel Centre, the New Zealand Catholic Bioethics Centre) makes the salient point that legalising euthanasia will leave the elderly vulnerable to pressure from family, health professionals [...] Related posts: … Read More
Darcy Cowan • Jul 26, 2010 •
Suicide is a sensitive subject, by it’s very nature it seems we are obliged to treat it with kid gloves. In public it is virtually taboo to even mention suicide, in news media euphemisms are employed in order to avoid explicit use of the “S” word. Attitudes are beginning to change, with more vocal discussion [...] … Read More
Jim McVeagh • Mar 25, 2010 •
I might have known that the case of Margaret Page, the woman who has decided to starve herself to death, has been taken up as a cause célèbre by the euthanasia lobby, notably Lesley Martin. It seems to me, however, that there is a substantial difference between actively participating in the ending of another person’s [...] Related posts: … Read More
Jim McVeagh • Feb 06, 2010 •
Scientists have shown that a patient in a persistent vegetative state can actually understand  and “answer” questions. Use of functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging has shown very specific brain activity in response to questioning. Activity that can be interpreted in no other way than as a response to a question. This would tend to indicate that [...] Related posts: … Read More
Jim McVeagh • Jan 26, 2010 •
The Herald carries a fairly level-headed article (from the Independent) on the differing verdicts in the case of two separate “mercy killings” in the UK. I say level-headed because it actually does explore the reasoning behind the difference in verdict and vaguely explore the problems associated with strong mandatory sentences. One woman killed her 31 [...] Related posts: … Read More
Jim McVeagh • Dec 26, 2009 •
Quality of Life Issues (voluntary euthanasia) In end-of-life euthanasia, there is, at least, some objective standards which we can use to determine whether a patient is truly dead. When the discussion moves to quality of life, the criteria are far more subjective. What, exactly, determines quality of life? Productivity? Mobility? Social Activity? Dignity? Any and all [...] Related posts: … Read More