Elderly people in the Netherlands are so afraid of being killed by doctors that they carry cards saying they do not want euthanasia.

Elderly people in the Netherlands are so afraid of being killed by doctors that they carry cards saying they do not want euthanasia. Kevin Fitzpatrick, a researcher with the activist group Not Dead Yet, claimed that relaxing the law in Britain would pose a threat to old and disabled people as it would allow for “moral judgments” that their lives were not worth living. He said it is “nonsensical” to say that we all have a right to die, when what is really being sought is the right to a premature death that not all people in society seek.

A court victory in Britain last year forced the Director of Public Prosecutions to admit that individuals would not be prosecuted for assisting the suicide of terminally ill loved ones in most cases. Supporters of the disabled and the elderly worry that this will make them feel pressured to end their lives. Mr Fitzpatrick wrote on BMJ.com last week: “Disabled people, like others, and often with more reason, need to feel safe. Thus eroding what may already be a shaky sense of safety in medical care poses a further threat to disabled people’s wellbeing, continuing care, and life itself.” ~ London Telegraph, Apr 21

Fearful elderly people carry “anti-euthanasia cards”, campaigner says
Jared Yee

After a long, complex series of legal battles, US government funding for research on human embryonic stem cells can resume, at least for the time being. A federal appeals court ruled on the issue last week, in an important victory for the Obama administration. The 2-to-1 ruling, by a panel of judges from the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, blocks a lower-court decision last August holding that such research is illegal under a law banning public spending on research in which human embryos are damaged or destroyed. 

Two judges on the appellate court said last week that because the law is written in the present tense, “it does not extend to past actions.” In her dissenting opinion, Judge Karen Henderson accused the majority of committing “linguistic jujitsu”: “The majority opinion has taken a straightforward case of statutory construction and produced a result that would make Rube Goldberg tip his hat.” 

Samuel B. Casey, a lawyer for two scientists who sued the government to stop funding human embryonic stem cell research, said that he was disappointed but also pleased that the appeals court kept his suit alive, and that he was considering an appeal. ~ New York Times, Apr 29

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