Paul Russell is the Director of HOPE: Preventing Euthanasia & Assisted Suicide and is based in South Auustralia. He is also Vice Chair, International Euthanasia Prevention Coalition.
Anyone who understand the problem of elder abuse in our community and across the Western World right now and who hasn't made the connection to euthanasia and assisted suicide simply hasn't been paying attention.
Date posted: 2017-09-02
After reading the report to the government of Victoria, you realise that there can be no safe suicide.
Date posted: 2017-07-31
A citizen's initiative to raise the issue of euthanasia in the Finnish Parliament (Eduskunta) has passed the requisite 50,000 signatories required to trigger a parliamentary debate.
Date posted: 2017-01-20
For those tempted to think that a euthanasia or assisted suicide law, once passed, is cast in stone, recent events in Belgium will make you think again.
Date posted: 2016-03-19
Since the Canadian Supreme Court overturned the protections in law that prohibited both assisted suicide and euthanasia in February 2015, the nation has been in something like free fall.
Date posted: 2016-03-04
Should people be denied choices at the end of life? It's a loaded question: the suggestion that someone is being "denied choices" naturally gives rise to a sense of outrage and indignation.
Date posted: 2016-02-06
Last February Canada's Supreme Court declared that denying patients access to assisted suicide and euthanasia is a violation of their human rights. The federal, provincial and territory governments were given a year - until February 6, 2016 - to enact legislation consistent with its decision.
Date posted: 2016-01-10
The name and the story of Belgian chemist Dr Tom Mortier (a MercatorNet contributor) has become known throughout the world. His physically well mother was clinically depressed. Yet in 2012 she was euthanased without his knowledge in Belgium. He and his sister were left to pick up the pieces.
Date posted: 2015-07-08
Never far from the news it seems, the ABC Alice Springs reports today that the Northern Territory Branch of the Australian Medical Association has expelled Philip Nitschke from its ranks.
Date posted: 2015-04-05
Here in Australia another World Suicide Prevention Day has passed uneventfully. Suicide Prevention Australia made some touching TV advertisements which made me cringe at the pain felt by those left behind. Their anguish is something we too often forget.
Date posted: 2014-09-14
It's official. Like Belgium, The Netherlands has completely lost any sense of respect for the law and has leapt, lemming-like, off the moral cliff. Dutch news is reporting on the euthanasia death of an elderly woman who sought euthanasia because she did not want to live in a nursing home.
Date posted: 2014-08-30
Under the new law, an adult who is terminally ill, of sound mind, and in constant and unbearable physical and psychological pain may request a lethal injection. Quebec now joins the Netherlands, Belgium, and Luxembourg as the fourth jurisdiction in which euthanasia is legal. Assisted suicide is legal in across the border in Washington state and Oregon, but not euthanasia.
Date posted: 2014-06-08
The pro-euthanasia lobby often promotes media reports of people facing difficult prognoses who wish to end their lives rather than face inevitable deterioration. Such persons often become, for a short while, celebrities for a macabre cause. The media attention can even become addictive and provide, a distraction from their suffering or a raison d'etre.
Date posted: 2014-04-21
The Belgian Parliament amended its euthanasia law on February 14, making it available to children. One commentator incorrectly, but poignantly, called it a 'Valentine's Day Massacre'. Most, however, questioned whether children were capable of making such serious decisions.
Date posted: 2014-03-03
After little more than a day of debate, the Belgian Chamber of Representatives passed a child euthanasia law on Thursday. The bill now awaits Royal assent from King Philippe.
Date posted: 2014-03-03
If Belgium continues on its reckless path towards child euthanasia, as seems likely, what will the conversations look like that precedes the killing of a child?
Date posted: 2014-03-03
I don't feel at all qualified to speak on behalf of people living with disability even though I have shared in the lives of many people over the years and I have a son with Down Syndrome.
Date posted: 2014-02-23
The Welsh newspaper Wales Online recently reported the tragic story of a 44-year-old Welsh academic who chose suicide in the face of her deteriorating health due to the lethal degenerative disease multiple sclerosis.
Date posted: 2014-01-20
It has often been said the French do it differently; though what exactly it is that they do differently is often left undefined.
Date posted: 2013-12-22
Australia's leading euthanasia activist argues that legalisation will keep health budgets from blowing out.
Date posted: 2013-08-27
Why isn't elder suicide seen as a shameful failure of our care networks?
Date posted: 2013-02-05
We must continue to protect all people equally. Risks to vulnerable people cannot be eliminated by weasel-worded legislation premised on a "right to die". By all means, let's discuss end-of-life issues openly and forge the way for better care and real choices, but let's make informed decisions cognisant of our human nature and mindful of the risk to others.
Date posted: 2012-11-23
A Dutch MP thinks mobile euthanasia units are worth considering.
Date posted: 2011-12-24