Posted on Saturday 14th October 2023 at 2:40am
Branka van der Linden shrilly cherry-picks one finding from a journal paper and tells whoppers about the Netherlands and other VAD jurisdictions.
I haven’t written for a while, but was prompted to do so by my friend and colleague Ian Wood. He pointed me to an email just sent about by Branka van der Linden of the anti-VAD “HOPE” blog site.
I've written about Ms van der Linden's musings before, including:
What’s the big deal?
In her email, Ms van der Linden wrote provocatively against the Netherlands’ voluntary assisted dying (VAD) law, citing a recently-published medical journal study of Dutch VAD cases that involved people with intellectual disabilities or autism spectrum disorder (or both). The study is a legitimate examination of cases published by the Dutch Euthanasia Commissions, and contains numerous observations and some qualifications.
Keywords:
Fearmonger |
Flapdoodle |
Fudge |
Fiction |
Voluntary euthanasia (VE) |
Netherlands |
Branka van der Linden |
Article review |
Claim response |
Legislation |
Legislative reform |
Lobbying: Opponents
Read more...
Posted on Friday 18th September 2020 at 4:47am
A recently-published account of a grandmother's death paints a scathing picture of Victoria's voluntary assisted dying law. So what's its provenance? I expose a trail of vested-interest backing, leading to a particular source. Hold on to your hats…
A friend pointed out to me an opinion piece published this week in MercatorNet that slams Victoria's voluntary assisted dying (VAD) law. Written about an elderly woman with cancer who used the law to die peacefully, it's an angry diatribe written by the woman’s granddaughter-in-law: one Mrs Madeleine Dugdale.
Update 21-Sep-2020
Mrs Madeleine Dugdale's article has been withdrawn from MercatorNet without explanation. Here's a screenshot of the original.
Keywords:
Fearmonger |
Filibuster |
Fudge |
Fiction |
Faith |
Australia |
Religion |
Catholic |
Claim response |
Legislation |
Rhetoric |
Rhetoric: Suicide |
Rhetoric: The 'vulnerable'
Read more...
Posted on Friday 4th January 2019 at 11:43pm
Marshall Perron reports how VAD influenced the Victorian 2018 election, and it wasn't pretty for opponents.
Many news outlets are reporting that Victoria's voluntary assisted dying (VAD) Act comes into effect mid-year, and how other Parliaments around the country are likely to implement similar reforms. Moves are afoot in Western Australia, Queensland, NSW and Tasmania, with other jurisdictions to follow. Marshall Perron, former Chief Minister of the Northern Territory and architect of the first VAD law in Australia, has penned a media release to highlight how VAD influenced the Victorian election. The result wasn't pretty for opponents of VAD law reform.
Media release - Marshall Perron
Parliamentarians traditionally shy away from supporting voluntary assisted dying (VAD), believing it is politically toxic to do so. Victoria, under the Andrews government, has changed all that by showing the opposite to be true.
After legislating VAD – Victoria is the first Australian state to do so – Andrews won a thumping victory at the 2018 Victoria State election.
Keywords:
Assisted dying (AD) |
Physician-assisted dying (PAD) |
Australia |
Victoria |
Legislation |
Legislative reform
Read more...
Posted on Thursday 17th May 2018 at 1:27am
Two new DyingForChoice reports outline the substantial evidence that it's not VAD doctors who 'play God' with their patients. Find out who is.
In two supplementary submissions to the Parliament of Western Australia, I report empirical evidence about the standards of end-of-life medical decision making in jurisdictions with and without voluntary assisted dying (VAD) laws. The evidence clearly contradicts the assumption of assisted dying opponents that legalised VAD will lead to worse end-of-life decision making by physicians. In fact, the evidence clearly shows which physicians are 'playing God' with their patients, and it's not the Dutch.
When I appeared as an expert witness before the Parliament of Western Australia's Joint Select Committee on end of life choices, the Hon. Nick Goiran, a staunch Christian opponent of VAD, asked me for evidence of bringing end of life decision making out of the 'dark shadows' and into the light in jurisdictions in which VAD is lawful.
Keywords:
Assisted dying (AD) |
Australia |
Western Australia |
Catholic |
Legislation |
Legislative reform
Read more...