This report was published by the Australian Care Alliance. Euthanasia and assistance to suicide became legal in Queensland on 1 January 2023 under the Voluntary Assisted Dying Act 2021. Numbers A report on the first six months of legalisation states that there were 245 deaths under the Act - 139 deaths (56.73%) by “practitioner administration”, that is euthanasia and 106 by “self-administration”, that is assisted suicide. 245 deaths in six months represents about 1.31% of all deaths - higher than WA after one year and twice Victoria's rate after 4 years. A second report, covering 1 July 2023 ..read more

The Care Not Killing Alliance UK sent out an alert urging more people to send a submission to the UK parliament concerning their assisted suicide bill. Care Not Killing Alliance Five-and-a-half weeks after the second reading debate on Kim Leadbeater’s assisted suicide bill and barely two weeks until Committee stage is due to commence, the call for evidence that was authorised in November has finally been issued. To quote a former director of legislative affairs at 10 Downing Street: “We shouldn’t have to fight for the process to be taken seriously.” No formal deadline has been declared which ..read more

Petition: Euthanasia Prevention Coalition petition to The Honourable Josie Osborne, the BC Minister of Health, and the College of Physicians and Surgeons of BC Link to the Euthanasia Prevention Coalition Petition (Petition Link). Dear Honourable Josie Osborne, We demand a complete review by the British Columbia Ministry of Health and the College of Physicians and Surgeons of BC into Dr Ellen Wiebe’s euthanasia practice. There have been many controversial euthanasia deaths associated with Dr Wiebe and we believe that there may be many more concerning deaths that were carried out by Dr Wiebe ..read more

Alex Schadenberg Executive Director, Euthanasia Prevention Coalition Dr Ramona Coelho Dr Ramona Coelho is a Family Physician; Senior Fellow of Domestic and Health Policy at the Macdonald-Laurier Institute; Member of Medical Assistance in Dying (MAiD) Death Review Committee Dr Coelho has written an excellent commentary on Canada's experience with euthanasia (MAiD) that was published by the Macdonald-Laurier Institute on January 8, 2025.  Dr Coelho is commenting on Health Canada's Fifth Annual Report on Medical Assistance in Dying. Coelho writes: Health Canada’s recently released ..read more

Alex Schadenberg Executive Director, Euthanasia Prevention Coalition The MercoPress reported on January 7, 2025 that Uruguay's future President Yamandú Orsi, the leader of the Broad Front party, who is taking office on March 1, 2025 supports the passing of a euthanasia bill. Congressman-elect Federico Preve intends to introduce a bill that is similar to a previous euthanasia bill. The MercoPress reported: According to Preve, the plan is to introduce a new bill that is as similar as possible to the previous one, in a move to speed up its approval. “I have great expectations that by the end o ..read more

An ethicist asks: Is the dead donor rule even relevant? Alex Schadenberg Executive Director, Euthanasia Prevention Coalition Logan Washburn reported in the Federalist on January 8, 2025 that Canadian doctors are pushing for euthanasia by organ donation. Currently euthanasia is linked to organ donation in Canada, whereby, people who are approved for being killed by euthanasia are also encouraged to donate their healthy organs. Some Canadian doctors and "ethicists" are pushing for a change in the law to permit euthanasia by organ donation. Washburn reports: Canadian doctors have suggested kill ..read more

Alex Schadenberg Alex Schadenberg Executive Director, Euthanasia Prevention Coalition I have good news. Slovenia's STA news reported that euthanasia has been removed from the current assisted dying bill. I am waiting for a comment from my contacts in Slovenia, nonetheless it appears promising. The STA news reported: The coalition has drafted a new bill on assisted dying that no longer includes an option for doctors to administer lethal drugs, after last year's version of the bill was met with stiff resistance from the medical profession. Slovenian legislature In January 2024 ..read more

The following commentary was written by Gordon Friesen and published by the Psychiatric Times on January 3, 2025. By Gordon Friesen President, Euthanasia Prevention Coalition It has been argued1 that no slippery slope of assisted death (AD) exists in America. In particular, it has been remarked that the principal eligibility criterion of “terminal condition” has remained constant over time. Eligibility, however, is not the most important factor in predicting the scale of AD use. As shown in Table 1, Canada has 580% of the incidence of AD observed in Oregon (when expressed as a fraction of all ..read more

Alex Schadenberg Executive Director, Euthanasia Prevention Coalition A murder investigation has been opened in an Hawaii woman's death who had been approved for "assisted suicide." Allegedly the doctor "completed the death" after the woman began choking on the assisted suicide poison cocktail. The Honolulu Star reported that: Honolulu police said they have opened a second-degree murder investigation after a doctor allegedly administer a lethal prescription dose to an 88-year-old woman in violation of Hawaii’s assisted death law.  (Island News report) The Hawaii assisted suicide law requ ..read more

The following is a contribution to our EPC "Story Contest" collection.  Please visit our "contributor info" link, "recent stories" link and "story index" link. To send your own story (fact or creative fiction) please use e-mail: story@epcc.ca Liz and Jim My husband (for the sake of privacy I’ll call him Jim) has Secondary Progressive MS that has progressed to the stage where he uses a power chair. In 2021 he used a manual chair part of the time and the power chair part of the time, especially outside the house. Jim caught Covid from me in the spring of 2021. The virus was so bad that it ..read more