Swiss parliament refuses to regulate assisted suicide groups.

A vote in the Swiss parliament yesterday rejected a proposal to regulate the assisted suicide organizations and their suicide clinics. The two main assisted suicide organizations are Exit and Dignitas. Members of the lower house of parliament voted against changing the code, arguing self-regulation by right-to-die organizations such as Exit and Dignitas worked and the liberal rules protected individual freedoms.

A German assisted suicide group recently announced its intention of establishing a assisted suicide clinic in Zurich. The group Verein Sterbehilfe Deutschland (StHD), that is founded by Roger Kusch, opened an office in Zurich on September 14, 2012.

Last year, voters in the Zurich canton rejected similar proposals to restrict assisted suicide.

In July, I commented on an article that was published by Swissinfo.ch reporting that Zurich prosecutor Andreas Brunner told Swissinfo that legislation is required because there are no regulations for assisted suicide assistants. He stated:

“At first the argument was that it [assisted suicide] was intended for the terminally ill, then it was broadened to include the very ill facing extreme suffering,”

“Then the idea was that it should be open to the elderly who were suffering the effects of old age or a combination of illnesses, and finally it’s open to healthy people,”

Switzerland’s assisted suicide organisations are left to their own devices legally.

He then concluded his statement by saying:

 “The organisations are not required to be run on a not-for-profit basis and are not subject to accounting obligations. Neither are they required to keep comprehensive records of their cases.”

“I’m not saying the organisations are not already doing these things but it should be laid down in law,”

Last June, the Canton Vaud, voted in a referendum to allow assisted suicide groups, such as Exit and Dignitas, to operate in the nursing homes. This is clearly a recipe for elder abuse.

Soraya Wernli

At the same time there have been huge increases in assisted suicide deaths in Switzerland while the two main assisted suicide groups in Switzerland, Dignitas and Exit were responsible for 560 assisted suicide deaths in 2011.

In 2010, the Dignitas assisted suicide clinic made news when, Soraya Wernli, a former assisted suicide assistant, made allegations about abuses and financial concerns related to how Ludwig Minelli, the founder and leader of Dignitas, was operating Dignitas that were published in the Atlantic Monthly Magazine.

Another article that was published in the Telegraph newspaper in the UK in June 2010, indicated that Minelli was "making millions" from the Dignitas assisted suicide clinic. The article also brought up significant concerns related to the dumping of cremation urns and the fee structure at the Dignitas clinic.

The main reason why there have been no restrictions or "push-back" in Switzerland is that the group Exit reportedly has 75,000 members who have formidable political clout and their is currently no organized opposition to assisted suicide in Zurich.

German politician offers to assist the suicides of UK residents

Roger Kusch, a former politician was reported in the Sunday Mercury paper as stating that he has been contacted by people in the UK and he is willing to assist their suicides.

Kusch, said that he wanted Germany to replace Switzerland as the destination of choice for Death Tourism from the UK.

Speaking through an interpreter, Kusch said:

“In fact people from Britain have made most of all the inquiries we received from foreign countries.

“And I will go on in assisting people to commit suicide and talk about it.”

Kusch made world-wide headlines last April when he displayed his suicide machine which is a modified perfusor, which is a machine normally used to inject medication over a long period of time. He modified the perfusor by installing a button to allow his suicide victim to start the machine.

Dr. Peter Saunders from the Care Not Killing Alliance in the UK responded to Kusch by stating:

"This guy sounds like Dr Death.

He should be caring for people, not killing them.

In my experience a request for suicide is always a request for help.

Doctors working in palliative care for their whole career will tell you that they come across patients who want to commit suicide.

But once their basic needs are taken care of they could count the number of people who want to go through with it using the fingers on one hand.

In my career as a surgeon I only had two requests and both patients changed their minds once we responded to their own particular needs.

What people need to remember is that in the last five years just over 100 people have gone to Dignitas to die, but in that same time period over 3 million people have died of natural causes.

So no matter what people like Kusch argue, the demand is actually very small indeed.

For example take the case of Dan James. There are over 20,000 tetraplegics in Britain but the vast majority want the help to live, not to die.

I think he (Kusch) is profoundly misguided and is only increasing the risk that vulnerable people will be abused and exploited.

There is a reason assisted suicide is illegal in most of the world, and that is to protect people and increase public safety.

We at Care Not Killing believe that the answer does not lie in suicide but in improving the care for people in the first place.”

Kusch is very clear about his long term goals. He stated:

“We are fighting for the sovereign right of any person to die in dignity.”

Once again, euthanasia and assisted suicide is not about terminal illness, or physical suffering, but rather a univeral right to die for any person who is tired of living.

There have been a number of Private Members Bills related to this issue in recent years (including the Assisted Dying for the Terminally Ill Bill) and the Government’s stance has been to remain neutral and to listen to the debate.

Link to the article in the Sunday Mercury:
http://www.sundaymercury.net/news/midlands-news/2008/11/08/german-medic-wants-to-help-midlanders-die-66331-22212718/

Link to previous article about Roger Kusch:
http://alexschadenberg.blogspot.com/2008/04/suicide-machine-sparks-outrage.html

Giving them reasons to live

I have just read an excellent article written by Michelle Martin in MercatorNet published on August 7, 2008

The article recounts Martin's experience with her sister who had attempted to kill herself on several occasions based on the fact that she was suffering from schizo-affected disorder.

Now that her sister is effectively medicated she has now been able to earn a diploma in psychosocial rehabilitation and is employed by a local mental health agency.

Martin then comments on her concerns related to the loosening of euthanasia and assisted suicide laws on a world-wide basis.

She comments on:
- The 79 year old woman in Germany who requested and received assisted suicide because she was lonely and feared ending up in a nursing home. Roger Kusch took advantage of her emotional state by filming and promoting her assisted suicide death.
- The Australian mother of 4, who was suffering from post-natal depression, obtained a suicide book from a library and followed the instructions and killed herself.
- The fact that a Swiss court allowed a man with bi-polar disorder to obtain an assisted suicide death.
- The fact that of the 49 people who died from assisted suicide in Oregon in 2007, none of them received a psychiatric or psychological assessment before being prescribed death.

Martin explains that if her sister had died that much would have been lost. Her sister's life always had intrinsic worth, and now she is giving back to the community.

We need to care for people, not kill them.

Link to the article:
http://www.mercatornet.com/articles/giving_them_reasons_to_live/

Germany's new doctor of Death

I have just returned from meetings in Washington and then one week of camping with my family.

Jane St. Clair has written an excellent commentary on Roger Kusch, the German politician who has now become a euthanasia activist.

The article is called Germany's new doctor of death. The article can be found at:
http://janestclair.net/articles/germanys-new-doctor-of-death-roger-kusch/

Jane St. Clair is the author of several books including the book about euthanasia and assisted suicide called: "Walk me to midnight".

German Chancellor Merkel Remains Strongly Opposed to Assisted Suicide

Comments from http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,2144,3456813,00.html states:
German Chancellor Angela Merkel has spoken out in the strongest terms against euthanasia as the heated debate over a former Hamburg government official's involvement in the assisted suicide of a pensioner gathers pace.

Merkel, said that she was against "every form of assisted suicide" regardless of the circumstances.

Merkel’s stance was echoed by Germany's Health Minister Ulla Schmidt. "I reject this path categorically," she said. "The correct path is to offer assistance to those who are dying instead of helping those free from terminal illness to commit suicide.”

The debate was prompted by the revelation this week that a 79-year-old Wurzburg woman chose to end her own life on Saturday despite not having any life-threatening diseases or suffering great physical pain. What added an extra angle to the story was that former Hamburg justice senator Roger Kusch, a proponent for the right to die, advised her of the best way to do it.

Merkel’s (CDU) party wants to introduce a bill in CDU controlled states that would make the involvement in an assisted suicide a new criminal offense which carries a prison term of up to three years for the commercial or otherwise organized offering of suicide assistance. The CDU is expected to put the bill to the Bundestag, the lower house of parliament, on Friday.

It is likely that the German government understands the threat euthanasia is for people with disabilities, better than other European nations, due to their past which included the Euthanasia deaths of at least 70,000 people with disabilities or mental conditions.

Assisted Suicide Advocate Shows Ugly Truth of the Movement's Ideology

Now Germany is surprised at the crassness of assisted suicide advocate - Roger Kusch. A German official assisted the suicide of an elderly woman--and a la Kevorkian, filmed it and then showed it on television.

Not only is Roger Kusch following the same play-book as Jack Kevorkian, but also Dr. Philip Nitschke in Australia has been promoting euthanasia, assisted suicide and suicide via the internet by producing video's and offering counseling services.

For more information go to: http://www.wesleyjsmith.com/blog/2008/07/assisted-suicide-adcocate-shows-ugly.html

Suicide machine sparks outrage

This is a very sad and yet important article.

I ask the question: how does the public react to people who take the law into their own hands, such as Roger Kusch with his suicide machine. Some suggest that it leads people to become concerned, while others say that it forces the question into the political arena.

Some people argue that since assisted suicide happens already, therefore it should be legalized and regulated by the government. This is a false arguement. Many things happen already that threat individuals in society, and it would threaten the common good to simply regulate certain acts that must be prohibited.

Their is a gap in our western culture between radical individual autonomy and the need for the common good. Their is another gap in society based on the view of the nature of the human person - whether human life has inherent dignity, or humans are simply a higher animal.

The question that people fail to consider is: "Why is homicide(euthanasia), and assisted suicide illegal in the first place?" Some people say that it is just connected to a religious intolerant past.

The reality is that society must not allow one person to have the legal right to take the life of another person. The protection of the individual and the basis of equality of all human lives depends on a prohibition of euthanasia and assisted suicide.

To allow the killing of people, even for the most difficult circumstances leads to the direct threat to the lives of vulnerable persons, whose lives are already considered by many to be not worth living. The sad reality is that many of these people have been so abandoned by the attitude of radical individual autonomy that they themselves have even been made to feel that they are better off dead and they can succomb to the false ideology of compassion and choice which is neither compassionate or truly a choice.

Society needs to protect the lives of vulnerable persons, people with disabilities, the frail elderly, people who live with chronic conditions or depression. The common good for all in society demands that we care for people and not kill them.

April 4, 2008

Suicide machine sparks outrage

By CNN's Berlin Bureau Chief Frederik Pleitgen

Find this article at:
http://edition.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/europe/04/04/germany.euthanasia/index.html