A Canadian MAID doctor recalls her first time

 Yesterday's post was about medical aid in dying (MAID) in Switzerland, and the decision of a courageous scientist.  Below are some excerpts from a story in the Guardian about how MAID looks from a Canadian doctor's point of view.

‘We’re going to talk about death today – your death’: a doctor on what it’s like to end a life rather than extend one.  I used to focus on maternity and newborn care, but when Canada legalised assisted dying in 2016, I began helping people with a different transition  By Dr Stefanie Green 

"I get down to the essentials. “Why do you want to die?”

"Harvey smirks. “I don’t! I’d rather live. I’ve had a great life. But it seems I no longer have much say in the matter.”

...

“I’ve got great friends, great kids, we’re blessed with family all around us. I know I’m lucky. I’ve been married to this gal here for 52 years … ” He trails off, holds Norma’s hand, shakes it at me a bit and swallows some emotion before continuing. “I really wanted to make it to 52 years, and I did.” He’s quieter now, his energy already drained. “Now I’m ready.”

"Harvey is straightforward with me. He knows he is dying, that it will not be long, but he wants to control the how and the when.

“I want Norma and the kids with me at the end,” he says with a flash of spirit, “here, in my home, in my own bedroom … I want to do it my way. I want to have my friends over this weekend, have one last bash, maybe even sneak a sip of a beer.” He smiles at the thought. “I’ve seen friends linger on at the end … in bed … out of their minds. I’m not interested in putting myself or my family through that.”

"Harvey ticks every box of eligibility. He is capable of making his own decisions, he is making a voluntary request, and he has a grievous and irremediable condition. He will need to sign an official request form, and Norma assures me it will be completed by the end of the day, witnessed by two independent people. After that, a mandatory 10-day reflective period can begin. The law also requires a second clinical opinion, so I will call a local colleague to see if he is available.

"The next few days are busy. As is expected with his liver failure, Harvey continues to decline cognitively. If he declines too much, too quickly, he won’t be able to give his final consent immediately before the procedure, which is required. Because the second doctor and I agree this risk is imminent, we are allowed to shorten the waiting period. Harvey chooses a date three days out."

Danny Kahneman's final decision

Danny Kahneman spent his life thinking about how humans make decisions.  His final decision was to travel to Switzerland to avail himself of the medical aid in dying laws there. (A number of American states permit medical aid in dying, but only for those who have been diagnosed as very near death.)  Danny chose to depart on his own schedule.

 The WSJ has the story:

The Last Decision by the World’s Leading Thinker on Decisions
Shortly before Daniel Kahneman died last March, he emailed friends a message: He was choosing to end his own life in Switzerland. Some are still struggling with his choice.  By Jason Zweig, March 14, 2025 

"In mid-March 2024, Daniel Kahneman flew from New York to Paris with his partner, Barbara Tversky, to unite with his daughter and her family. They spent days walking around the city, going to museums and the ballet, and savoring soufflés and chocolate mousse. Around March 22, Kahneman, who had turned 90 that month, also started emailing a personal message to several dozen of the people he was closest to.

“On March 26, Kahneman left his family and flew to Switzerland. His email explained why:

“This is a goodbye letter I am sending friends to tell them that I am on my way to Switzerland, where my life will end on March 27.”

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I wasn't among the recipients of Danny's email, but I am not surprised.  Here is my blog post from a year ago, noting his passing:

Wednesday, March 27, 2024 Danny Kahneman (1934-2024)

"His death was confirmed by his stepdaughter Deborah Treisman, the fiction editor for the New Yorker. She did not say where or how he died."

Derek Humphry, Pivotal Figure in Right-to-Die Movement, (1930-2025)

 Here's the NYT obit:

Derek Humphry, Pivotal Figure in Right-to-Die Movement, Dies at 94
His own experience assisting his terminally ill wife in ending her life set him on a path to founding the Hemlock Society and writing a best-selling guide.  By Michael S. Rosenwald, NYT,  Jan. 24, 2025

"Derek Humphry, a British-born journalist whose experience helping his terminally ill wife end her life led him to become a crusading pioneer in the right-to-die movement and to publish “Final Exit,” a best-selling guide to suicide, died on Jan. 2 in Eugene, Ore. He was 94.

His death, at a hospice facility, was announced by his family

...

"In August 1980, he and his [second] wife rented the Los Angeles Press Club to announce the establishment of the Hemlock Society, which they ran out of the garage of their home in Santa Monica.

"The organization grew quickly. In 1981, it issued “Let Me Die Before I Wake,” a guide to medicines and dosages for inducing “peaceful self-deliverance.” The group also lobbied state legislatures to enact laws making assisted suicide legal. In 1990, the Hemlock Society moved to Eugene. By then it had more than 30,000 members, but the right-to-die conversation hadn’t yet reached most dinner tables in America. 

"That changed spectacularly in 1991, after Mr. Humphry published “Final Exit: The Practicalities of Self-Deliverance and Assisted Suicide for the Dying.” The book was a 192-page step-by-step guide that, in addition to explaining suicide methods, provided Miss Manners-like tips for exiting gracefully.

...

"“Final Exit” quickly shot to No. 1 in the hardcover advice category of The New York Times’s best-seller list.

“That is an indication of how large the issue of euthanasia looms in our society now,” the bioethicist Dr. Arthur Caplan told The Times in 1991. “It is frightening and disturbing, and that kind of sales figure is a shot across the bow. It is the loudest statement of protest of how medicine is dealing with terminal illness and dying.”

"Reactions to “Final Exit” were generally divided along ideological lines. Conservatives blasted it.

“What can one say about this new ‘book’? In one word: evil,” the University of Chicago bioethicist Leon R. Kass wrote in Commentary magazine, calling Mr. Humphry “the Lord High Executioner.”  

...

"But progressives embraced the book, even as public health experts expressed concern that the methods it laid out could be used by depressed people who weren’t terminally ill. "

Diane Coleman, Fierce Foe of the Right-to-Die Movement, (1953-2024)

 A courageous, long-lived disability-rights activist who made an eloquent case against medical aid in dying has died.

Diane Coleman, Fierce Foe of the Right-to-Die Movement, Dies at 71
Her fight for disability rights included founding a group called Not Dead Yet, which protested the work of Dr. Jack Kevorkian and others.   By Clay Risen

"At the core of her critique was the argument that the idea of a “right to die” was evidence of how little society valued people like her and a warning that the health care system was broken.

“It is already possible in some states for impoverished disabled, elderly and chronically ill people to get assistance to die,” she told the House Judiciary Committee in 1996, “but impossible for them to get shoes, eyeglasses and tooth repair.”

"Not Dead Yet showed up at Princeton University in 1999 after the university announced the hiring of Peter Singer, an Australian philosopher who had argued for voluntary euthanasia for people with disabilities.

...

“It’s the ultimate form of discrimination to offer people with disabilities help to die,” she told The New York Times in 2011, “without having offered real options to live.”

MAID in Canada,

 Medical Aid in Dying (MAID) in Canada is regulated more liberally than in many places, since it doesn't require the recipients to be terminally ill, but can be accessed by people whose diseases are incurable and intolerable.  Nevertheless, most patients who access it are terminally ill.

The Guardian has the story:

Canada’s rate of medically assisted deaths rises to record high. Roughly 96% of deaths by euthanasia in 2023 were for those with a terminal condition, as growth in overall cases slows 

"A growing share of deaths in Canada are from euthanasia, but the vast majority are for terminal illnesses, according to new government figures.

"More than 15,000 people received medical assistance in dying in Canada in 2023, the highest figure on record. But federal statistics show the growth in cases has slowed significantly, with assisted death making up 4.7% of deaths, compared to 4.1% the previous year.

"In both 2023 and 2022, roughly 96% of cases were those with a terminal condition, with cancer cited as the most common reason for accessing assisted death. The median age of someone requesting euthanasia is 78.

"Canada is among a few countries that have introduced assisted dying laws in recent years, alongside Austria, Australia and Spain. The United Kingdom recently passed legislation on the issue."

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Fifth Annual Report on Medical Assistance in Dying in Canada, 2023
 

Britain moves towards legalizing medical aid in dying

 The Guardian has the story:

MPs vote for bill to legalise assisted dying in England and Wales
Terminally ill adults with less than six months to live will be given right to die under proposed legislation, by Jessica Elgot, Eleni Courea and Rowena Mason 

"MPs have taken a historic step toward legalising assisted dying in England and Wales after backing a bill that would give some terminally ill people the right to end their lives.

"The Commons backed the bill by 330 votes in favour to 275 against, a majority of 55. Keir Starmer and Rachel Reeves both voted in favour, Labour MPs told the Guardian.

"The private member’s bill, brought by the Labour MP Kim Leadbeater, gives terminally ill adults with less than six months to live the right to die once the request has been signed off by two doctors and a high court judge.

"The change is unlikely to occur for three years as the bill must pass several more hurdles in parliament and will not be brought before MPs again until April. The government is likely to assign a minister to help work on the bill, without formally giving its support.

...

" Peter Prinsley, a Labour MP and surgeon, said he had changed his mind over his years in medicine after witnessing the “terrifying loss of dignity and control in the last days of life”.

“When I was a young doctor I thought it unconscionable. But now I’m an old doctor and I feel sure it’s the right change. I have seen uncontrollable pain, choking, and I’m sorry to say the frightful sight of a man bleeding to death whilst conscious as a cancer has eaten away at a carotid artery.”

"Opponents of the bill said it would fundamentally change the relationship between the state and its citizens, and between doctors and patients. They argued the bill was rushed and the safeguards for vulnerable people were insufficient."

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Earlier:

October 15, 2024 Medical aid in dying comes up for a vote in England

A medically aided death in New Jersey: Pat Koch Thaler

 Following a full life, a peaceful end.

Pat Koch Thaler, Sister to a Famed Mayor, Chose to Die on a Saturday
Ms. Thaler, a former dean at N.Y.U., used her last interview to reminisce about her brother, Ed, and to publicize the alternatives to prolonging pain and suffering. By Sam Roberts

"After 22 years of fending off cancer, Ms. Thaler had run out of miracles. Twice the disease had gone into remission, only to return. One kidney had been removed. She had been bombarded by radiation, chemotherapy and ablation. Finally, the tumors had been declared inoperable.

“My mother died in agony,” Ms. Thaler recalled. Her mother was 62, misdiagnosed and undergoing an operation to remove her gall bladder when surgeons found her body was riddled with cancer.

"Of her own experience, Ms. Thaler said she had been offered a drug that “would slow things down, but would have some serious side effects.”

“And I decided, I’m 92 and a half years old, I have lived a very, very rich life, a very happy life, and I didn’t want to torture myself anymore,” she said. “I did what I could, and knowing that the law is on my side, I decided to take advantage.”

"A New Jersey law that took effect in 2019 allows a mentally alert adult — whose prognosis of having less than six months to live has been certified by two doctors — to self-administer a lethal prescription. The powdery medication is mixed with three ounces of juice, must be consumed within two minutes, immediately induces sleep and, within hours, causes death.

...

"Ms. Thaler spent her last few days paying bills, disposing of her furniture, distributing her artwork to her children and grandchildren, and confirming the funeral arrangements

...

"She chose Saturday, she said, because her children worked, and she wanted a time that would be most convenient. Wearing a white long-sleeved shirt and loose black pants in her apartment, surrounded by her family, she took the powdered medication mixed in apple juice under a doctor’s supervision at 11 a.m.

"At 4:58 p.m., she was pronounced dead."

Medical aid in dying comes up for a vote in England

 The upcoming vote on legalizing medical aid in dying in England and Wales has attracted controversy along lines that will be familiar to readers of this blog, concerning both fundamental values and slippery slopes.  But a comment by British Cardinal Vincent Nichols introduces an argument that I hadn't heard stated so clearly before, about the religious significance of suffering.  But first, here's the background, from the BMJ.

MPs set for historic vote on bill to legalise assisted dying in England and Wales,  by Clare Dyer, 07 October 2024  BMJ 2024;387:q2191

"A bill to legalise assisted dying for terminally ill people in England and Wales is expected to be introduced in the House of Commons on 16 October.

...

"Hundreds of terminally ill people from the UK have travelled to the Swiss clinic Dignitas to end their lives. But friends and relatives who help them are at risk of prosecution for assisting a suicide, which carries a maximum prison sentence of 14 years.

...

"Surveys of public opinion show that about two thirds of the public support allowing assisted dying. The BMA dropped its opposition in 2021 to take a neutral position on a change in the law."

##########

And here is a story about objections from a religious point of view, from the senior Catholic official in England.

UK’s top Catholic bishop urges faithful to lobby MPs to oppose assisted dying  by Hayden Vernon Sat 12 Oct 2024 

"The archbishop of Westminster continued: “The suffering of a human being is not meaningless. It does not destroy that dignity. It is an intrinsic part of our human journey, a journey embraced by the eternal word of God, Christ Jesus himself. He brings our humanity to its full glory precisely through the gateway of suffering and death.”

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Earlier:

Friday, March 1, 2024

Medical aid in dying--the ongoing debate in Britain

Medical Aid in Dying Laws in the U.S.

 JAMA has a review of the current state of medical aid in dying in the 12 U.S. jurisdictions (if Delaware proceeds) that now allow it.

Medical Aid in Dying Laws: More Accessible in More States by Thaddeus Mason Pope, JD, PhD, JAMA. 2024;332(14):1139-1140. doi:10.1001/jama.2024.15925

"Delaware may soon become the 12th US jurisdiction to authorize medical aid in dying. The Ron Silverio/Heather Block End-of-Life Options Law1 becomes a statute as soon as the governor acts and takes effect once the Delaware Department of Health and Social Services promulgates regulations to implement the statute. Delaware could follow 11 other US jurisdictions that have authorized medical aid in dying; more than 15 000 patients have received prescriptions for medical aid in dying since 1998 in California, Colorado, Hawaiʻi, Maine, Montana, New Jersey, New Mexico, Oregon, Vermont, Washington, and Washington, DC.

...

"Medical aid in dying has become an increasingly prominent end-of-life option. More than 20 states considered new medical aid in dying legislation in 2024, and most of the 11 jurisdictions that previously authorized medical aid in dying have amended their original statutes during the past 5 years (eTable in the Supplement).2-6 When enacting or amending medical aid in dying statutes, state policymakers have been carefully recalibrating the balance between safety and access

...

"Medical aid in dying is only available to terminally ill adults with decision-making capacity. They must have an “incurable and irreversible illness” with a prognosis of 6 months or less. If patients can navigate the other eligibility requirements and safeguards, they can get a prescription for lethal medications that they might later self-ingest to hasten their death.6

"Hospice and palliative care are often sufficient to address the suffering of patients, and one-third of those who receive medical aid in dying prescriptions never obtain them from the pharmacy or ingest them.3,4 Most of the remaining patients administer the prescriptions by mixing the powdered drugs with 2 oz to 3 oz of apple juice or push a plunger on a feeding or rectal tube. The patients fall asleep within minutes and usually die within an hour. There is never intravenous administration of the prescriptions or clinician- or third-party administration of the prescriptions.

...

"The Delaware end-of-life options law would require the patient to make 3 requests, 2 of which must be separated by at least 15 days.1 A waiting period has been a requirement in all jurisdictions that have authorized medical aid in dying. However, significant evidence showed that many patients either died or lost decision-making capacity before expiration of the waiting period.4 Many states (California, Colorado, Hawaiʻi, New Mexico, Oregon, and Washington) have either shortened their waiting periods or permit the waiting period to be waived when the patient is likely to die or lose decision-making capacity.

"The Delaware end-of-life options law would be limited to residents of Delaware1; however, for nonresidents, Delaware residency can be established by renting an apartment in Delaware.4 Residency requirements remain an additional hurdle in a long list of obstacles that terminally ill patients must navigate to become eligible. Within the past 2 years, both Oregon and Vermont removed their residency requirements.2,4,6 And the constitutionality of New Jersey’s residency requirement is being challenged in federal court.6 Nationwide, many bills proposed in 2024 omitted residency preconditions.

...

"Commentators regularly express concerns about the use of medical aid in dying in Canada7 and in Europe. It is important to protect vulnerable populations from coercion, duress, and inadequately considered choices; patients should not be steered toward choosing to request medical aid in dying. In addition, the adverse effects of orally ingested medications must be mitigated.4 In California, SB 1196 would have probably solved that problem by permitting (self-administered) intravenous administration of the end-of-life prescriptions. However, any change that would allow intravenous administration and other new and imminent expansions for medical aid in dying raise their own set of novel challenges for US clinicians.

"Given the number of bills and other indicators of interest, medical aid in dying is likely to be authorized in more states over the next few years, and the use medical aid in dying is likely to increase with more accessible terms and conditions. Although medical aid in dying continues to be used by less than 1% of dying patients,2 it is becoming a more integral part of end-of-life care."

Travel for medical aid in dying

 CBS has the story:

Why Americans are traveling to Vermont and Oregon to die

""Dying with medical assistance wasn't an option when Milano learned in early 2023 that her disease was incurable. At that point, she would have had to travel to Switzerland — or live in the District of Columbia or one of the 10 states where medical aid in dying was legal.

"But Vermont lifted its residency requirement in May 2023, followed by Oregon two months later. (Montana effectively allows aid in dying through a 2009 court decision, but that ruling doesn't spell out rules around residency. And though New York and California recently considered legislation that would allow out-of-staters to secure aid in dying, neither provision passed.)

...

"At least 26 people have traveled to Vermont to die, representing nearly 25% of the reported assisted deaths in the state from May 2023 through this June, according to the Vermont Department of Health. In Oregon, 23 out-of-state residents died using medical assistance in 2023, just over 6% of the state total, according to the Oregon Health Authority."

Medical aid in dying debated in NY, extended in the Netherlands

 Here are two related stories, one from the NYT about a debate on whether to allow medical aid in dying in New York State. The other is from Fox News, about the medically assisted death of a physically healthy young woman afflicted with a frightful psychiatric disorder.

In New York, there's a debate about whether to become the 11th state to legalize medical aid in dying.  Some of the opponents worry about a slippery slope, leading to the Netherlands, where mental illnesses can qualify candidates for such aid.

Here's the NYT on the debate in NY:

Doctor-Assisted Death Is Legal in 10 States. Could New York Be No. 11? Activists have renewed attention on legislation related to the emotional issue of so-called medical aid in dying that has long languished in Albany.

"New York is one of 19 states where lawmakers are considering bills that would legalize medical aid in dying, a practice that is legal in 10 states and Washington, D.C.

"The bill in New York would allow mentally competent, terminally ill adults with no more than six months to live to request prescriptions from their doctors for life-ending medication. The patients would have to be able to ingest the medication on their own, and only the person seeking to die could request the prescription.

...

"Opponents worry that some patients might choose to end their lives based on an inaccurate prognosis or after being pressured to do so. And while the current bill is restricted to terminally ill people, they worry that lawmakers could expand eligibility for medical aid in dying after any initial legislation is passed."

*************

Here's Fox News on the Netherlands:

Physically healthy Dutch woman dies by assisted suicide at age 29. Zoraya ter Beek died by assisted suicide in the Netherlands last week.  By Kendall Tietz Fox News,  June 1, 2024

"29-year-old Zoraya ter Beek's life was terminated last week after waiting three years for final approval for her euthanasia, which is legal in the Netherlands if the patient is deemed to be experiencing "unbearable suffering with no prospect of improvement."

...

"she tried various things to treat her mental illness, including 33 rounds of electroconvulsive therapy, in which electric currents jolt the brain. But, after her last treatment in August 2020, her psychiatrist told her, "There’s nothing more we can do for you. It’s never going to get any better."

...

"My whole friends and my support system, we really did it together," she had told The Free Press. Ter Beek reportedly saw herself as an ambassador for the Dutch euthanasia program and believed there is proper protocol in place to prevent abuse of the system. 

"We’ve had this law for more than 20 years," she had told the outlet. "There are really strict rules, and it’s really safe."

Vatican statement on gender-affirming surgery and human dignity

 A new statement from the Vatican has been widely covered in the press.

Here's the story from the National Catholic Reporter:

Vatican condemns surrogacy, gender-affirming surgery, gender theory in new doctrinal note. Vatican doctrinal chief calls it 'painful' that some Catholics support gay criminalization  BY CHRISTOPHER WHITE, April 8, 2024

"Sex change operations, gender theory and surrogate motherhood pose grave threats to human dignity, according to a major new Vatican document released on April 8. 

While the highly anticipated treatise, "Dignitas Infinita: on Human Dignity," which has been the source of much speculation for months, offers a broadside against the creation of new rights motivated by sex and gender, it is largely a reiteration of long-held Catholic teaching on a number of social and moral concerns. 

The new document, however, seeks to elevate a number of social themes emphasized by Pope Francis during his decadelong papacy — such as poverty, migration and human trafficking — as being equally a part of the full panoply of potential threats to human dignity as bioethical concerns, such as abortion and euthanasia.   

...

"Among the newly identified threats to human dignity are poverty; war; the travail of migrants; human trafficking; sexual abuse; violence against women; abortion; child surrogacy; euthanasia and assisted suicide; the marginalization of people with disabilities; gender theory; sex change; and digital violence.

Gender theory, according to the document, is a subject of considerable debate among scientific experts, and risks denying "the greatest possible difference that exists between living beings: sexual difference."  

The document repeats a frequent warning of Francis against "ideological colonization," where the pope has sharply criticized western governments for allegedly imposing their sexual values on the developing world. All efforts to eliminate sexual differences between men and women must be rejected, says the document. 

At the same time, the document also begins with a caveat that all persons, regardless of their sexual orientation, must be respected, and "every sign of unjust discrimination is to be carefully avoided, particularly any form of aggression and violence."

"For this reason," the document continues, "it should be denounced as contrary to human dignity the fact that, in some places, not a few people are imprisoned, tortured, and even deprived of the good of life solely because of their sexual orientation."  

Last year, Francis became the first pope to specifically condemn the criminalization of homosexuality and said that the Catholic Church must work towards an end to what he described as "unjust" laws that criminalize being gay. At present, at least 67 countries have laws criminalizing same-sex relations. 

In its brief section on gender-affirming surgeries, the document avoids using the term "transgender" and instead offers a muted prohibition against medical interventions for such purposes.

...

"Catholic LGBTQ groups criticized the new Vatican document within hours of its publication, saying it failed to acknowledge the concrete experience of transgender and nonbinary individuals.

New Ways Ministry, an advocacy group that had an historic meeting with Francis at the Vatican last October, said in a statement that the text "fails terribly" and shows the limits of the church's understand of human dignity.

...

"The new document also goes on to repeat the pope's recent call for an international ban on the rising practice of surrogate motherhood, declaring that the "legitimate desire to have a child cannot be transformed into a 'right to a child' that fails to respect the dignity of that child as the recipient of the gift of life."  

In January, Francis used his annual "State of the World" address to ambassadors accredited to the Holy See to push for a global ban on surrogacy. 

While the pope had previously condemned the practice, the pope's sweeping remarks on the topic — where he called it a "grave violation of the dignity of the woman and the child" — marked the first time he had made such a specific policy proposal. Last month, the Vatican's ambassador to the United Nations, Archbishop Gabriele Caccia, also pressed for an international prohibition against the practice. "

Medical aid in dying--the ongoing debate in Britain

 The Guardian has this opinion piece, connected to the current debate in England about medically assisted dying, and the slippery slope:

I’m glad the debate on assisted dying is forging ahead. But few understand why it frightens so many  by Frances Ryan

"On Thursday, MPs published the findings of a 14-month inquiry into assisted dying. The inquiry – which attracted more than 68,000 responses from the public – made no conclusive statement but instead collected evidence as a “significant and useful resource” for future debates.

That debate is no longer abstract. Legislation is making its way through the parliaments of Scotland, Jersey and the Isle of Man that, if passed, would enable competent adults who are terminally ill to be provided at their request with assistance to end their life.

...

"And yet it also feels a disservice to pretend that any of this is simple or that giving autonomy to some would not potentially harm others. It is deeply telling that among the many voices calling for a new assisted dying law, I have heard no human rights groups, celebrity or politician mention concerns – as advocated by many disability activists – that a law change could lead to disabled people being coerced into euthanasia, or feeling they had no other option.

We only need look to the countries that have legalised assisted dying in recent years to see these fears realised. One study reported the euthanasia of a number of Dutch people who were said simply to have felt unable to live with having a learning disability or autism. Many included being lonely as a key cause of unbearable suffering.

...

"This is not to say that the UK shouldn’t go down the path of legalising assisted dying, but we must at least do so with eyes wide open. The right to die does not exist in a vacuum: it fundamentally alters the doctor-patient relationship, and risks making members of society who are already vulnerable that little bit more insecure. Perhaps that is a price worth paying to end some terminally ill people’s suffering. Perhaps it is too much to ask. There are no black and white boxes to tick labelled “right” and “wrong” – just the messy, painful grey of being human.

In the coming months, politicians will correctly dedicate hours to discussing the right to a good death. Imagine, though, if they were to give equal attention to the right to a good life: from building social housing, exploring a basic income, investing in mental and physical health services, to – as the inquiry recommends – funding universal coverage of palliative care and more specialists in end-of-life pain."

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Earlier:

Friday, January 12, 2024

Medical aid in dying, and slippery slopes--the debate in Britain

Medical aid in dying, together, in the Netherlands

The Guardian has the story:

Duo euthanasia: former Dutch prime minister dies hand in hand with his wife. Dries and Eugenie van Agt, both 93, died as number of couples in Netherlands choosing joint end to life grows. by Senay Boztas  

"A Catholic former Dutch prime minister, Dries van Agt, has died by euthanasia, hand in hand with his wife Eugenie. They were both 93.

"Their deaths last Monday are seen as part of a growing trend in the Netherlands for “duo euthanasia”.

"Although still rare, euthanasia of couples was first noted in a review of all cases in 2020, when 26 people were granted euthanasia at the same time as their partners. The numbers grew to 32 the following year and 58 in 2022.

...

"Elke Swart, spokesperson for the Expertisecentrum Euthanasie, which grants the euthanasia wish of about 1,000 people a year in the Netherlands, said any couple’s requests for assisted death were tested against strict requirements individually rather than together.

“Interest in this is growing, but it is still rare,” she said. “It is pure chance that two people are suffering unbearably with no prospect of relief at the same time … and that they both wish for euthanasia.”

Netherlands to broaden euthanasia rules to cover children of all ages

Read more

"Euthanasia and assisted suicide have been legal in the Netherlands since 2002 for six conditions, including unbearable suffering, no prospect of relief and a long-held, independent wish for death.

"A second specialist must confirm the wish, and most cases are carried out by the family doctor at home."