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'The Devices' Snippet
Wed, 3 Nov - Register Now
The 3 November Snippet focuses on 'the Devices' as documented in the Peaceful Pill eHandbook. Included for examination are:
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- The Sarco
- The DeBreather (with special guest: Inventor Richard Avocet)
- The Cogen
- The Korean Collar
Each of these devices offers the possibility of a drug-free option for a peaceful & reliable death.
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WHEN: Wednesday 3 November @ 21.00 London GMT
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Exit Snippets are exclusive for Exit Members & PPeH Subscribers
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House of Lords Debate Assisted Dying
This week the House of Lords in the UK debated assisted dying.
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The bill, tabled by cross-bench peer Baroness Meacher, proposes that only terminally ill patients with full mental capacity, and who are not expected to live more than six months would be eligible to apply.
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Compared to the Netherlands, where euthanasia laws have been amended constantly over the past 20 years to allow, for example, children and people with dementia to be able to request euthanasia, and even to be able to request euthanasia in your advanced health directive, the UK seems still at kindergarten stage.
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Of course, all debates must start somewhere but to turn a blind eye to jurisdictions of experience and expertise is surely self-defeating.
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Yes, Exit can sound like a broken record but the unwillingness of humanity to learn from history never ceases to amaze us (and not in a positive way).
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October 2021 News
New Podcast & PPeH Update
The OCTOBER PODCAST features reflections on the 30 year anniversary of the Letter to the Editor of former Dutch Supreme Court Judge, Huib Drion.
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In his letter to the NRC Newspaper, Drion called for older people to have access to the means for a peaceful death, regardless of their state of health.
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He argued that a good death for older people is a wholly separate issue to euthanasia for the terminally ill.
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Also included in the October Update:
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- Update to the USA Mixtures Chapter
- Correction to the Insulin Chapter
- News on Nembutal
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Austria & Assisted Dying
Government Sidesteps Court Ruling
Despite Austria's Constitutional Court asserting that assisted suicide is a fundamental human right (with universal applicability), Agence France Presse have reported today that plans are afoot to legislate only for the seriously ill and suffering.
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It is unfortunate to say that the medicalisation of the right to die is alive and well as the medical profession uses its privileged position within society to extend its (over)reach into the field of universal human rights.
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According to a summary of the proposed legislation from the justice ministry, the following criteria will apply:
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- over 18
- terminally ill or suffering from a permanent and debilitating condition will be able to access help with ending their own lives.
- approval of two doctors (one of whom will be a palliative medicine specialist)
- Cooling off period of at least 12 weeks between request and permission
What is particularly interesting in the Austrian approach is that this is a neighbouring country to Switzerland. One might argue that the neighbours have a somewhat shared culture, and certainly the same language.
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Yet in the published plans, Austria is clearly following countries such as the US, NZ, Canada and Australia in ignoring the Swiss model.
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The Austrian Constitutional Court's ruling decriminalised assisted suicide in the same way that the practice is de-criminalised in Switzerland.
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Despite this, the fundamentality of the human rights framework set out by the Court that 'a peaceful death is everybody's right' (the approach that is openly practiced in Switzerland), the published plans by the Austrian government show something much different.
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Watch this space for how this tautology (and tension) is played out in the coming months and years.
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Aus 1300 10 3948 (EXIT) || US +1 360 961 1333 || UK +44 7883 509 765 || NZ +64 09 889 1137 || NL +31 6 23 82 95 82
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