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Legal Assisted Suicide?

What is this world coming to?
The following article I received in my inbox from The Pro-Life Infonet. Basically they provide the latest info on 'moral' issues. Feel free to sign up if you wish. I do not think I did, the emails just started appearing in my inbox and I have not filtered them.

From:  The Pro-Life Infonet
Reply-To:  Steven Ertelt
Subject:   Irish Trio Planning Suicide Trip to Switzerland
Source:   The Irish Examiner; October 10, 2002

Irish Trio Planning Suicide Trip to Switzerland

Dublin, Ireland -- Three Irish people are planning to travel to Switzerland
where an organization called Dignitas will help them to commit suicide,
according to the head of the group. They have sought information on how to
end their lives from the controversial assisted suicide group which has
assisted 128 people to commit suicide since it was established in 1998 by
Swiss lawyer Ludwig Minelli.

Next week they will travel to the US to seek the extradition of an American
assisted suicide activist who helped a Dublin woman kill herself last January.

In 2001, Dignitas assisted 50 people, including 39 foreign nationals who
travelled to Switzerland to take their own life, in what critics have
labelled "death tourism".

Most people commit suicide by taking a 15mg of barbiturate prescribed by a
Swiss doctor following a medical consultation, as well as an initial
assessment by Dignitas.

Assisted suicide is legalised in the Netherlands and Belgium, although under
strict conditions which are not available to non-nationals. The Channel
Island of Guernsey has moved recently to enact legislation to permit assisted
suicide.

Dignitas does not limit its services to people suffering from terminal,
physical illnesses. In one case, it helped a 34-year-old multiple sclerosis
patient to take his own life.

"Mental conditions also create very heavy pain," said Mr Minelli, who has
received the queries from Irish people.

However, he said nobody involved in Dignitas had ever faced prosecution in
relation to the assistance provided to people who commit suicide.

"The person who wants to die always has control over the last act. A third
person is never involved in their death," said Mr Minelli. "However, most
members of Dignitas die naturally but it eases their condition if they know
they have a green light to take their own life if they want."

The London-based pro-assisted suicide group Voluntary Euthanasia Society
(VES), has criticised Dignitas and warned British citizens they could face
14-year jail sentences if they pass on details about the Swiss group to
others.

"Not only is such assistance unlawful, some people may be assisted to die who
are depressed rather than terminally ill," said VES chief executive Deborah
Annetts.

Meanwhile, a grand jury hearing in West Virginia next Wednesday will hear a
preliminary application by gardaí for the extradition of US preacher, Rev
George Exoo, over his role in the death of Dublin woman Rita Gilhooly, ,49,
whose body was found in her home in Donnybrook last January.

Rev Exoo admitted receiving $2,500 after he travelled to Dublin to be present
with Ms Gilhooly at her death.

The latest controversy over euthanasia comes just days after a report by the
National Parasuicide Registry which claims an average of 10,000 people try to
commit suicide in Ireland each year.

Catholic bishops, who launched a pastoral letter entitled Living with Dying,
this week described assisted suicide as morally unacceptable.

"The Catholic church absolutely rejects euthanasia as a response to chronic
or serious illness," they said

--
Pregnancy Centers Online
https://www.pregnancycenters.org

Suicide Assisted Legal

Oh please....what's wrong with this people?. Even though I'm not in the place of people who suffer so much pain and want to die, I know God is not please with this at all....and people who help others to commit suicide will be accountable for their sins. It's sad that life is being took so lightly these days....

Legal Assisted Suicide? History & Civil Business Politics

I was able to use this whole thing by permission.

From: The Pro-Life Infonet
Reply-To: Steven Ertelt
Subject: Mom Sentenced in Michigan Assisted Suicide Bid
Source: Associated Press; October 14, 2002

Mom Sentenced in Michigan Assisted Suicide Bid

St. Johns, MI -- A woman who drove her 19-year-old son and daughter-in-law
to an abandoned farmhouse and supplied the young people with drugs so they
could commit suicide was sentenced Monday to 15 to 30 months in prison.

Kathleen Holey, 43, pleaded guilty to a reduced charge of attempted
assisted suicide in August as part of a deal with prosecutors.

Holey's attorney pleaded for her release, arguing she has already served
182 days, but a prosecutor told the judge she should remain behind bars for
at least a year.

Holey's son, Patrick Holey, died in the suicide pact but his wife,
Jennifer, survived. Jennifer Holey has since been sent to prison on a
no-contest plea in the rape of a 14-year-old girl.

Before sentencing, Kathleen Holey told Circuit Judge Randy Tahvonen that
she tried to get help for the two 19-year-olds when they first discussed
suicide. But she said she decided to help them end their lives because they
thought they were facing life in prison in the rape investigation.

``That's when all of us lost our sense of thinking entirely,'' Kathleen
Holey said. ``All I can say is that I ask for mercy, and I am truly sorry.''

She initially faced a charge of assisted suicide. Prosecutors said she
supplied painkillers to the two and helped them find the abandoned Clinton
County farmhouse where they tried to carry out their suicide pact on April
9.

At the time, the couple was being investigated in the rape case and state
welfare workers had removed their infant daughter from their care.

Jennifer Holey now is serving a four- to 15-year sentence for her role in
the rape of a minor. She gave birth to a second child in August.

Kathleen's sister-in-law, Mary Joetta Wendland, also pleaded guilty to
attempted assisted suicide and was sentenced to six months in jail. She
went with the group to the farmhouse and also provided drugs.

Clinton County Prosecutor Charles Sherman believes Kathleen Holey and
Wendland are the first people to plead guilty to violating Michigan's
four-year-old assisted suicide law, which was passed to stop Jack Kevorkian.

Kevorkian eventually was imprisoned on second-degree murder charges.

Suicide Assisted Legal

Breaking News

The Supreme Court on Tuesday upheld Oregon's one-of-a-kind physician-assisted suicide law, rejecting a Bush administration attempt to punish doctors who help terminally ill patients die.
Ref. USAToday.com

Suicide Assisted Legal

It is hard to judge... people are living much longer than before...Iknow people that are just sitting waiting to die...they do not see a future because they are too old...They will say to you they are just waiting for their time...In the older days most likely they would have died already...So how can you judge...

Legal Assisted Suicide?

Personally I believe anybody over 18 has the right to take their own life.

This may seem barbaric but you have got to put yourself in their shoes. If they are in such a state that they wish to die aren't we the ones who are being evil by keeping them alive, punishing them for trying to escape from their problems.

What business is it of ours anyway.

Legal Assisted Suicide

Sorry Armstrong, but I don't follow this line of thinking, and definitely don't agree with it. In the same perspective, one could say they wish to be rich, and decide to rob a bank, and by arresting them or foiling their robbery attempt, we are keeping them poor. Are we then evil for keeping them from attaining wealth?
Your counter argument could be that the money belongs to the bank, but one's life belongs to them. That is where the crux of this argument stems, and it all boils down to a moral issue. Does an individual have the right to take their own life? In my opinion, we don't own our lives, we are given it by a higher power. Even if we want to eliminate the religious aspect of life, and who gives it, can we at least agree that we didn't create our own life? Someone else did. If you want to claim that someone else is God, or your mother and father, or a scientist in a lab, the fact is you didn't create your own life. Then why should you have the right to take it away?

Legal Assisted Suicide Politics Business Civil & History

If we don't own ourselves how can we control ourselves? We are not material items created for a purpose we just exist. If what you say is true whos pulling the strings so to speak because as far as I know I've made every decision in my life no one else. To get involved in someone elses problems or going to extreme circumstances to prove a point isn't always the best way to deal with things. Just for you malexander here is an extreme that is completely opposite to yours.

A middle aged man, who loved his family more than you can imagine, just found out that his wife and child were killed in a plane crash. The man is absolutely devastated and mentally scared for life, everyday is torture, he can barely look after himself. One day he decides he is going to take his own life to ease the pain and stop the suffering. Just as he is about to perform the deed an oncomer comes along knowing nothing about the situation and steps in resulting in the man who lost his family suffering even more in a mental institute.

You are telling me this is right? Its outright evil thats what it is!