assisted suicide

A Dutch doctor who was being investigated for euthanizing an old woman against her will has been acquitted of all charges.

New Jersey is the ninth state to legalize physician-assisted suicide. According to the state’s Medical Aid in Dying for the Terminally Ill Act, attending physicians can “write a prescription for medication that would enable a qualified terminally ill patient to end his or her life.” And what happens if the doctor’s conscience prevents him from writing the prescription?

The Ontario Office of the Chief Coroner recently released updated data and statistics on euthanasia and assisted suicide in the province. Since being legalized on June 17, 2016, there have been 3,302 euthanasia deaths and 1 from assisted suicide.

Last week, international news outlets reported that a 17-year-old Dutch girl named Noa Pothoven legally secured a physician’s help in killing herself after years of battling trauma from childhood sexual assault and rape.

The story is not always the story. National and international news outlets are focusing this morning on the way a Dutch teenager’s death was erroneously reported this week. Noa Pothoven’s death was described as the result of legal euthanasia in the Netherlands. Her family then had to clarify that her death was actually caused by starvation.

Maine’s state Senate passed a bill with a 19-16 vote on Tuesday, legalizing assisted suicide.

Officially, the Netherlands is a safer country to live in than the United States. Its gun homicide rate is about 4 percent that of the United States, and its official murder rate is less than one-fourth that of the United States.

Another week… another example of how physician-assisted suicide targets the vulnerable. This time: Asperger’s patients.

A 38-year-old Belgian woman was euthanized in 2010, and her family is seeking justice.

No matter what advocates claim, in the end, assisted suicide will eventually lead to the most vulnerable among us being pressured to die.