"Love me & help me Die" Dignitas returns to UK news
international |
rights, freedoms and repression |
other press 
Wednesday January 25, 2006 15:53
by belladonna
Dignitas was set up in 1998 by Swiss lawyer, Ludwig Minelli, who runs it as a non-profit organisation to assist people whose paliative care is felt to be too ardous and who rather favour euthnasia as an option.
["Dr Michael Irwin said he had provided "advice and encouragement" to five Britons about visiting the Dignitas clinic in Zurich during the past two years. The 74-year-old, who was struck off the medical register last year for obtaining drugs to help a friend die on the Isle of Man, also insisted he was willing to face jail over the issue.
Dr Irwin told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: "In the past two years I have given advice and counsel and encouragement to five terminally ill people to go from England over to Dignitas."]
The "right to die with dignity" is one of the most interesting of the new rights being articulated in Europe and beyond in the last years. It has found its way into the recent Catalan estatut, yet without any supporting qualifying laws. Its a right, but we can't decide how to protect or enshrine it or how far that right may be allowed to supercede other rights - the right to refuse medical treatment &c...
The possibility that Dr (non licensed) M. Irwin
may face criminal proceedings in the UK has meant the return of the "Dignitas" debate.
news links
http://news.scotsman.com/latest.cfm?id=122552006
http://www.guardian.co.uk/medicine/story/0,11381,1694235,00.html?gusrc=rss
http://news.scotsman.com/uk.cfm?id=121112006
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/4645650.stm
http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/health_medical/article340822.ece
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2006/01/25/neuth25.xml&sSheet=/news/2006/01/25/ixnewstop.html
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2006/01/25/neuth125.xml&sSheet=/news/2006/01/25/ixnewstop.html
other links-
UK support group
http://www.dignityindying.org.uk/
the original Swiss group
Dignitas
Postfach 9 - CH 8127 Forch
Telefon national: 044-980 44 59
Telefon international: +41 44 980 44 59
Telefax national: 044-980 14 21
Telefax international: +41 44 980 14 21
http://www.dignitas.ch/
[ Of course, all you have to do is buy a few grammes of smack now, and keep them carefully for that final day. ]
Comments (2 of 2)
Jump To Comment: 1 2ASSISTED SUICIDE
"Assisting a suicide carris a maximum sentence of 14 years imprisonment in England and Wales
None of the UK cases handled by Dignitas has so far involved any criminal charges, but many have resulted in police investigations
Eight European countries have no crime of assiting a suicide: Switzerland, Scotland, Netherlands, Belgium, France, Germany, Sweden and Finland"
Swiss Suicide law :-
"Whoever lures someone into suicide or provides assistance to commit suicide out of a self-interested motivation will, on completion of the suicide, be punished with up to five years' imprisonment".
How it works :-
The patient is given an anti-sickness drug 30 minutes before the lethal dose of barbiturate.
A camera is set up to record the patient take the drug themselves - firm evidence that it was not administered by clinic staff.
The barbiturate is a colourless solution, bitter tasting, and comes in a portion like a small glass of sherry.
The dose is three times the normal lethal amount required, based on the patient's weight.
The patient drinks it and then may take a sip of orange juice.
Within five minutes they lapse into a coma, and the heart stops soon afterwards, apparently leading to a peaceful and painless death.
The police are then called, a coroner comes, they question the witnesses and look at the video.
"What we are doing is a friendly act... we have never had a problem with police," said Mr Minelli.
"The patient always makes the last act - swallowing the drug or opening a valve of a drip himself."
Nurse Erica Lully, who prepares the doses, told the BBC News website how she deals with patients in the last few minutes of their life.
"I bring [the drink] to the patient and once again ask, 'Is this your last day because this will be your last drink.
"Afterwards it's over, you will sleep two to five minutes and afterwards you will die'."
Chantal Sebire suffered from a rare cancer which turned her face into a massive tumor. She appealed to end her life and her appeals went even as far as the president of France, Nicolas Sarkozy - who rejected it.
She was found dead in her home at the beginning of last week & now her story is beginning to transfer to English language news sites.
all links in english
Background
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/7301566.stm
The report of her death at 52 http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/7305970.stm
The inquest
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/7308746.stm
http://edition.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/europe/03/21/euthanas...yview
The debate :-
"The demand to calm suffering is a legitimate demand," Justice Minister Rachida Dati said Thursday."............Not all European countries ban euthanasia. In neighboring Belgium, 78-year-old Belgian writer Hugo Claus, who suffered from Alzheimer's disease, ended his life in an Antwerp hospital by euthanasia — on the day Sebire died. "He himself picked the moment of his death and asked for euthanasia," not wanting to extend his suffering, his wife, Veerle De Wit, said in a statement. Euthanasia is also legal in the Netherlands. In Switzerland, counselors or physicians can prepare the lethal dose, but patients must take it on their own. Luxembourg is in the process of passing a law to allow euthanasia................"
http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5gkm1RDVqrQg-oYEJtus-...C4S80
Further information -
Dignity in Dying (UK based)
http://www.dignityindying.org.uk/
Dignitas Switzerland
http://www.dignitas.ch/
their english pages
http://www.dignitas.ch/index.php?option=com_content&tas...d=166
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