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 March 2022 at 1:00am
The Anglican archbishop of Sydney has revealed profound ignorance by revealing he hasn't a CLUE what his own flock think about voluntary assisted dying law reform.
I've written previously about bishops demonstrating their ignorance, as in the example of Catholic Bishop Tim Harris who presumed most or all of his flock opposes voluntary assisted dying (VAD), when in fact a significant majority support it. This time it's the Anglican Sydney diocese archbishop who's loudly flaunting his biases.
Sydney Anglican archbishop Kanishka Raffel (pictured on the diocese website above), has launched a program calling on NSW parliamentarians to reject a bill that, with a large number of safeguards, seeks to make VAD lawful in the state. NSW is the last state in the nation that still outlaws the practice.
Keywords:
Fearmonger |
Fudge |
Fiction |
Faith |
Australia |
New South Wales |
Frank Brennan |
Margaret Somerville |
Religion |
Christian |
Anglican/Church of England/Episcopal |
Legislative reform |
Lobbying: Opponents |
Rhetoric: Slippery slope |
Rhetoric: Suicide |
Rhetoric: The 'vulnerable'
Read more...
Posted on Saturday 8th August 2020 at 8:39am
Support for voluntary assisted dying (VAD) in Australia continues to strengthen, including amongst religious Australians.
A recent article in The Guardian reports that most Queensland churchgoers support voluntary assisted dying (VAD), citing a recent YouGov poll commissioned by the Clem Jones Trust.
In fact, attitudes in support of VAD have been strengthening across Australia for many years, and the last few are no exception. In this analysis I explain, using impeccable Australian Election Study (AES) data gathered by a specialist team at Australian National University.
Each federal election, the AES gathers extensive demographic and attitudinal data from a substantial sample of Australians. That means we have comparable snapshots from each election in recent times, including 2019, 2016, 2013, 2010 and 2007 (though attitudes toward VAD have been asked only since 2016).
Keywords:
Assisted dying (AD) |
Australia |
Religion |
Non-religious |
Christian |
Anglican/Church of England/Episcopal |
Catholic |
Analysis |
Legislative reform |
Poll / survey |
Statistics
Read more...
Posted on Tuesday 18th June 2019 at 7:00pm
Victoria's Voluntary Assisted Dying Act 2017 has now come into effect, giving dying Victorians another choice at end of life.
Victoria's Voluntary Assisted Dying Act (2017) has now come into effect. Including 68 safeguards, the Act gives Victorians with a terminal illness another option to consider at end of life, if it is of interest to them. As overseas evidence shows, the possible choice of voluntary assisted dying provides comfort and relief for the terminally ill and their loved ones. It demonstrates that the State respects the wider range of alternatives that dying patients may choose to pursue when faced with intolerable and unrelievable suffering.
The Act contains what is arguably the world's most detailed and carefully laid out safeguards.
Key aspects of the provisions are:
- The person must be 18 years or over; and
- Be ordinarily resident in Victoria and an Australian citizen or permanent resident; and
Keywords:
Assisted dying (AD) |
Australia |
Victoria |
Legislative reform
Read more...
Posted on Thursday 23rd May 2019 at 2:39am
Plenty of Catholic propaganda is evident in Cabrini Health Palliative Care Director's "Palliative Care Week" editorial, opposing VAD for incoherent reasons.
Director of Palliative Care at Cabrini Health, Associate Professor Natasha Michael, yesterday published an opinion piece in The Age newspaper. In it, she rails against Victoria’s voluntary assisted dying (VAD) Act which comes into effect on 19th June. Instead she articulates an arrogant and prescriptive view of what Australians should and shouldn’t be allowed, consistent with Catholic dogma, as I uncover.
Michael, along with fellow devout Catholic Dr Stephen Parnis, ‘tirelessly’ opposed the introduction of Victoria’s VAD law. They continue to actively oppose it, and her opinion piece reveals her spurious ‘reasoning’.
The Catholic Healthcare brick wall
More than half of all palliative care services in Australia are delivered through Catholic institutions, of which Cabrini Health is one arm. These institutions have determined that VAD will not be available in any of their facilities or via any of their services, even if the individual patient and doctor are supportive.
This arbitrarily limits access to lawful choice by citizens.
Keywords:
Fearmonger |
Fudge |
Assisted dying (AD) |
Australia |
Victoria |
Catholic Church |
Legislative reform |
Lobbying: Opponents |
Rhetoric: Killing |
Rhetoric: Suicide
Read more...
Posted on Wednesday 10th April 2019 at 8:39pm
HOPE’s Director, Branka van der Linden, is at it again, foisting more misleading information on unwilling members of Parliament. I expose the rot and provide some background on Mrs van der Linden.
HOPE’s Director, Branka van der Linden, is at it again, foisting more misleading information about voluntary assisted dying (VAD) on unwilling members of Parliament. I expose the rot and provide some background on Mrs van der Linden.
Van der Linden’s latest email to all WA MPs states:
Subject: WA Report relies on troubling Belgian study
[MP Salutation] --
Did you know that a study showing that one person in Belgium is euthanised every three days without their explicit consent also found that:
Keywords:
Fearmonger |
Flapdoodle |
Faith |
Australia |
Anthony Fisher |
Paul Kelly |
Paul Russell |
Alex Schadenberg |
Margaret Somerville |
Branka van der Linden |
Religion |
Catholic |
Claim response |
Legislative reform |
Lobbying: Opponents |
Statistics |
Rhetoric: The 'vulnerable'
Read more...
Posted on Tuesday 2nd April 2019 at 7:23pm
Anti-assisted-dying ginger group 'HOPE' continues to pedal egregious misinformation to politicians considering law reform: this time to Western Australian MPs.
The Catholic-backed anti-assisted-dying ginger group, HOPE, was represented for years by Paul Russell. He's retired and Branka van der Linden is now at the helm. But its penchant for pedaling egregious misinformation hasn't changed. Van der Linden recently sent an email to all WA members of parliament, containing three points.
Van der Linden's email reads:
Dear [MP salutation],
Did you know that the WA majority report that recommended assisted suicide for WA either dismissed or failed to report on the following statistics?
Keywords:
Fearmonger |
Flapdoodle |
Fudge |
Fiction |
Faith |
Belgium |
Netherlands |
Oregon |
Branka van der Linden |
Claim response |
Legislative reform |
Statistics |
Rhetoric: Slippery slope |
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 Saturday 11th August 2018 at 11:33pm
In this week's Senate debate, misinformation about indigenous Territorians' attitudes toward lawful assisted dying will abound. Senators should reject such rubbish.
In 1996 the Northern Territory Rights of the Terminally Ill Act (ROTI) came into effect. Just four people had used the Act when seven months later an Act of the Federal Parliament extinguished the NT law, by cancelling the Territories’ authority to enact it.
This week, the Senate [federal parliament] debates the Restoring Territory Rights (Assisted Suicide Legislation) Bill, sponsored by libertarian Senator David Leyonhjelm. If the Bill passes both houses, the Territories will again have the authority to legislate the matter of assisted dying.
Opponents of lawful assisted dying have been sharpening their knives to ensure that Senator Leyonhjelm’s Bill fails and that Territorians remain second-class citizens. In this post I expose one of the desperate and disgraceful pieces of misinformation opponents use to try and curry fear about law reform.
Opponent signals
There are signals from many quarters that assisted dying opponents are dragging out the tired old argument that indigenous Australians are too fearful of assisted dying to allow reinstatement of the Territories’ legislative authority.
The signals are clear, though so far mostly behind the scenes. Nevertheless, they predict a full onslaught of invalid “fear” claims in the parliamentary debate this week.
Keywords:
Fearmonger |
Filibuster |
Fudge |
Fiction |
Faith |
Australia |
Australian Capital Territory |
Northern Territory |
Religion |
Catholic |
Legislative reform |
Lobbying: Opponents |
Statistics |
Rhetoric
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...
Posted on Tuesday 13th February 2018 at 9:37pm
A DyingForChoice.com article in LivingNow explains why assisted dying law reform has taken so long, and why it will accelerate from here.
A DyingForChoice.com editorial in the Jan/Feb 2018 issue of lifestyle magazine, LivingNow, explains why assisted dying law reform in Australia has taken so long, and why it will accelerate from here.
Download the editorial (PDF 3.5Mb)
Visit LivingNow
Keywords:
Physician-assisted dying (PAD) |
Voluntary euthanasia (VE) |
Australia |
Religion |
Legislative reform |
Rhetoric
Read more...
Posted on Monday 30th October 2017 at 11:20pm
Across the country, most Coalition MPs (with notable exceptions) demonstrate themselves to be ‘unrepresentative swill’ when it comes to honouring the electorate’s wish for assisted dying law reform.
It was with tongue in cheek that I recently quoted former Prime Minister Paul Keating to wonder if politicians voting on assisted dying Bills were ‘unrepresentative swill.’ The now-obvious answer to this question has become more than just humorous, with the publication yesterday of the Hansard record of Victoria’s Legislative Assembly vote on the Voluntary Assisted Dying Bill 2017.
How ironic it was that the very day after I quoted Keating’s slight against his then-hostile Senate, Keating himself, a conservative Catholic, would come out against voluntary assisted dying (VAD) reform.
Hansard record makes compelling reading
But, more importantly, the Hansard record of votes on the Victorian Bill in the lower house make for compelling reading.
Keywords:
Assisted dying (AD) |
Australia |
Victoria |
Analysis |
Legislative reform |
Poll / survey |
Statistics
Read more...
Posted on Wednesday 18th October 2017 at 9:41pm
As the Victorian Parliament debates its Voluntary Assisted Dying Bill, shenaningans are afoot in the corridors of power.
Former Australian Prime Minister Paul Keating once famously branded the Senate “unrepresentative swill” for obstructing his legislative agenda. Today, the question of how representative our political masters are remains moot.
Major community support for VAD
Take voluntary assisted dying (VAD) for example. Poll after poll demonstrates that the overwhelming majority of Australians want this additional choice for people in extremis at the end of life. The impeccable Australian Election Survey (AES) conducted by Australian National University scholars last year confirmed that 77% of Australians want VAD reform, with 13% undecided and just 10% opposed.
Keywords:
Filibuster |
Fudge |
Assisted dying (AD) |
Australia |
Victoria |
Analysis |
Legislative reform |
Statistics
Read more...
Posted on Tuesday 10th October 2017 at 7:58am
Catholic anti-assisted dying lobbyist Mr Paul Russell bombards Victorian politicians with selective misinformation.
As the Parliament of Victoria prepares to debate an assisted dying Bill, South Australian Catholic anti-assisted-dying lobbyist Mr Paul Russell is at it again. This time he's sent a missive to Victorian politicians shouting about, amongst other things, a crisis of assisted dying numbers in Washington state. He’s conveniently cherry-picked his arguments again.
Mr Russell wrote that in Washington state:
“deaths from lethal drugs prescribed under the Act have nearly quadrupled (376%) from 51 in 2010 to 192 in 2016.”
Keywords:
Fearmonger |
Filibuster |
Fudge |
Assisted dying (AD) |
Australia |
Victoria |
Paul Russell |
Catholic |
Legislative reform |
Lobbying: Opponents |
Statistics
Read more...
Posted on Thursday 14th September 2017 at 10:20pm
I expose the misinformation and incoherent arguments of the Catholic church recently published in Fairfax media.
It’s very disappointing that Catholic theologian Dr Joel Hodge’s recent editorial in Fairfax media about assisted dying law reform contained misinformation: the same old tired and discredited story trotted out as though it's true. Dr Hodge also repeated an old and curiously one-sided (Catholic) examination of the hypothetical slippery slope.
Unhappily, the kind of misinformation that Dr Hodge advances muddies the waters and cruelly stands in the way of legislative action, which most Australians want.
Keywords:
Fearmonger |
Fudge |
Fiction |
Faith |
Assisted dying (AD) |
Australia |
New South Wales |
Victoria |
Catholic |
Legislative reform |
Lobbying: Opponents |
Rhetoric: Slippery slope |
Rhetoric: The 'vulnerable'
Read more...
Posted on Wednesday 23rd August 2017 at 7:35pm
The Western Australia Parliament has established an inquiry - like Victoria's in 2015/6 - into end-of-life choices
After months of public remarks about end-of-life choices by the WA Premier Mark McGowan, the WA Parliament has just passed a resolution to establish a Joint Select Committee to investigate end-of-life choices for Western Australians.
Similar to the Victorian Parliamentary inquiry in 2015/16, the move is a strong step forward in assessing current practice and recommending improvements to both legislative and regulatory oversight of end-of-life for Australians in the west.
Keywords:
Western Australia |
Legislative reform
Read more...
Posted on Sunday 6th August 2017 at 2:31am
Religious leaders have the right to argue for their faith. But they deserve scrutiny when they put forward misleading arguments.
In Monday’s Herald Sun, Victorian Archbishops Philip Freier and Denis Hart, and Bishops Ezekiel, Suriel, Lester Briebbenow, Bosco Puthur and Peter Stasiuk published a half-page advertisement admonishing the Victorian government for its initiative to legalise assisted dying for the terminally ill, an ad similar to the one published by religious figures in 2008.
I have no quarrel with individuals of faith regarding their own private beliefs. However, the bishops’ attempt at public “leadership” through the advertisement is deserving of redress for its multiple fallacies.
The ‘abandonment’ fallacy
Keywords:
Fearmonger |
Fudge |
Faith |
Assisted dying (AD) |
Australia |
Victoria |
Religion |
Catholic |
Legislative reform |
Lobbying: Opponents |
Rhetoric: Palliative care can always help |
Rhetoric: Slippery slope |
Rhetoric: Suicide |
Rhetoric: The 'vulnerable'
Read more...
Posted on Friday 21st July 2017 at 1:53am
The Victorian Ministerial Advisory Panel on voluntary assisted dying today handed down its final report to the Government.
The Victorian Government has introduced its assisted dying Bill into the Victorian Parliament. It's based on extensive consultation with a wide range of stakeholders, and over 1,000 submissions. You can read all about it here.
The Ministerial Advisory Panel on voluntary assisted dying today handed down its final report to the Government.
The Panel was comprised of seven subject experts, with Professor Brian Owler as Chair and Professor Margaret O'Connor as Deputy Chair.
Keywords:
Assisted dying (AD) |
Australia |
Victoria |
Legislative reform
Read more...
Posted on Sunday 5th March 2017 at 10:24pm
Catholic Canadian anti-euthanasia blogger Alex Schadenberg is at it again, this time spreading shrill misinformation about a potential Oregon law change.
Catholic Canadian anti-assisted-dying blogger Alex Schadenberg is at it again. This time he’s parading his ignorance and spreading bull about a potential change in Oregon’s assisted dying legislation.
The Bill
Mr Schadenberg correctly reproduced Section 3 of Oregon Senate Bill 893, which states:
Keywords:
Fearmonger |
Fudge |
Fiction |
USA |
Oregon |
Paul Russell |
Alex Schadenberg |
Catholic |
Legislative reform |
Rhetoric: Slippery slope |
Rhetoric: The 'vulnerable'
Read more...
Posted on Thursday 9th February 2017 at 9:53pm
There’s overwhelming evidence that it’s religious conservatives who oppose your right to choose an assisted death, despite their protestations that their opposition is nothing to do with religion.
You only have to look to understand who is campaigning against your right to choose an assisted death in the face of intolerable and unrelievable suffering.
A case in point is a massive advertisement published in both of Melbourne’s daily newspapers: News Corp’s The Herald Sun (right-wing) and Fairfax Media’s The Age (left-wing). The ad was published in 2008 when Victorian MLC Colleen Hartland introduced the Medical Treatment (Physician Assisted Dying) Bill into the State legislature.
Keywords:
Faith |
Physician-assisted dying (PAD) |
Voluntary euthanasia (VE) |
Australia |
Victoria |
Religion |
Jewish |
Christian |
Anglican/Church of England/Episcopal |
Catholic |
Legislative reform |
Lobbying: Opponents |
Rhetoric: The 'vulnerable'
Read more...