Review by Bill Murphy

Malcolm Gladwell, Talking to Strangers; What We Should Know About Talking to People We Don’t Know, Little, Brown and Company, 2019 

In 2016, in small town Texas, Officer Brian Encinia pulled over a young black woman, Sandra Bland, for a minor traffic infraction. The interaction becomes heated and Sandra is incarcerated. Three days later, she is dead in her jail-cell.

Malcolm Gladwell examines this case in light of ways we commonly mis-interpret strangers.

Alex Schadenberg
Executive Director, Euthanasia Prevention Coalition

Dr Mark Komrad

Two weeks I published an article titled: Is assisted suicide a suicide? based on the ongoing debate in the Psychiatric Times between Psychiatrist, Dr Mark Komrad and long-time euthanasia activist Margaret Battin PhD.

Komrad’s response to Battin’s assertion that there is no proof of a slippery slope in jurisdictions that have legalized euthanasia or assisted suicide was published in the Psychiatric Times, on August 27.

This article was published by National Review online on September 10, 2021

Wesley Smith

By Wesley J Smith 

Yesterday was World Suicide Prevention Day. You didn’t hear about it? If so, that’s pretty typical, which is why I call this annual event, “Invisible Suicide Prevention Day.”

Once again, the obligatory official proclamations didn’t mention that suicide is now promoted widely in the media, popular culture, and by political activists seeking to legalize so-called “death with dignity” or “aid in dying.”

These euphemisms seek to convince people that committing suicide because of serious illness or disability, is not really suicide.

“There is no right to assisted suicide, the court must reject euthanasia.”

Alex Schadenberg
Executive Director, Euthanaisa Prevention Coalition

On August 30 I published an article about a California court case that would permit euthanasia within the California assisted suicide regime.

The California court needs to reject this challenge to the state assisted suicide law based on:

1. There is no right to assisted suicide, therefore there is no legal requirement to amend the perceived inequality within the state assisted suicide law.

2. The Supreme Court, in Glucksberg, recognized that there is no right to assisted suicide and it recognized that one state interests in prohibiting assisted suicide was the prevention of euthanasia.

In the past few years the American assisted death lobby has pushed the limits of state assisted suicide laws. In 2019, Oregon eliminated the 15 day waiting period for assisted suicide and currently California is debating assisted suicide expansion bill SB 380 which, among other things, eliminates the requirement of a formal examination of the law.

The New Mexico assisted suicide law only requires a 48 hour waiting period, that can be waived, and it redefined who could approve assisted suicide to include nurses.

The California assisted death lobby is supporting a court case to expand assisted suicide to euthanasia in California. 

The Hawaii assisted suicide law came into effect on January 1, 2019. The 2019 Hawaii assisted suicide (“Our care, our choice act”) report indicated that in the first year of the assisted suicide law: 30 people were prescribed a lethal drug cocktail, 15 people died by assisted suicide, 8 people who received a lethal prescription died a natural death and 7 people who received a lethal prescription remained alive at the end of 2019.

The Hawaii 2020 assisted suicide report that was recently released indicated that:

• 37 people where prescribed a lethal drug cocktail, 
• 25 people died by assisted suicide, 
• 7 people who received a lethal prescription died a natural death, 
• and the status of four people who received a lethal presciption is unknown.

Article by: Randy Knol, the father of Ximena who died at the age of 19 from ingesting a suicide powder. Randy is the founder and chairman of Ximena’s Butterfly Foundation in the Netherlands.

The misunderstanding of suicide

Randy Knol with his wife

In my previous article I wrote about suicide as being the wish to escape the situation somebody is in, I stated that suicide is not the desire to die.

The Psychiatric Times has published several back and forth articles from Psychiatrist and ethicist Dr Mark Komrad (Article 1) (Article 2) and long-time euthanasia and assisted suicide activists, Margaret Battin PhD and associates (Article 1) (Article 2).

One of the key issues that separate psychiatrists and ethicists concerning assisted death is should psychiatrists prevent suicide or provide it? Komrad argues that assisted suicide constitutes a form of suicide and psychiatrists are trained to prevent suicide not provide it while Battin argues that assisted suicide does hasten death but it is not a suicide.

“I can’t live like this but I don’t want to die either”

Randy Knol with his wife.

Article by: Randy Knol, the father of Ximena, is the founder and chaiman of Ximena’s Butterfly Foundation

The title is in one sentence of what suicide is about, it’s not a wish to die it’s an escape from the life you have at that moment.

The following article was published by National Review online on July 16, 2021.

Article: Assisted suicide lobby researchers promote suicide devices for people with dementia (Link).

By Wesley Smith

Bioethicists are looking for ways to eliminate people diagnosed with dementia when they become incapacitated. Belgium and the Netherlands permit advance orders to be euthanized. Another proposal gaining traction in bioethics would force caregivers to starve patients to death.

And here’s a new idea: Writing in the Hastings Center Report — the world’s most prominent bioethics journal — two prominent bioethicists propose the implantation of a time-release suicide device that will cause future death at the time of the patient’s choosing.

Alex Schadenberg
Executive Director, Euthanasia Prevention Coalition

Baroness Ilora Finlay

Baroness Ilora Finlay, who is a doctor, a professor of palliative medicine and a British House of Lords cross bench member, wrote an excellent article that was published by The House on May 20. Finlay, who for many years has promoted palliative care and opposed assisted suicide responded to a new push, in the UK, to legalize assisted suicide.

Finlay wrote:

The House of Lords is once again being asked to look at a Private Member’s Bill proposing so-called ‘assisted dying’. Words matter. They can inform or they can mislead. In this case it’s the latter.