L. J. Goody Bioehtics Centre
News Summary
27 Aug 2010 : Euthanasia: the slippery slope DOES exist!
Euthanasia advocates may claim otherwise, but here is the proof. Swiss Justice Minister Eveline Widmer-Schlumpf is thinking of extending her country's liberal law on assisted suicide. She told the Swiss newspaper Sonntags Zeitung that "we want assisted suicide not only for the terminally ill, but others as well... We cannot simply exclude the chronically ill from assisted suicide. It should be permitted under certain conditions." For more , click here.
27 Aug 2010 : Donor-conceived children and the right to know
Not all countries recognise the importance of giving donor-conceived children the right to access sinformation on their donor. "The adult voices of IVF donor offspring are a welcome counterbalance to an array of cultural forces aimed at further marginalizing fathers," wrote Washington Post columnist Kathleen Parker recently. "At the very least, it is time for a serious debate on the ethics, meaning and practice of donor conception." To read more , click here.
27 Aug 2010 : IVF: Can you become a dad after you're dead?
Last year there were several cases in Western Australis concerning a woman's right to retrieve semen from her dead partner in order to have children. But can you really become a dad that long after you have died? While these questions remain under discussion in Australia, the USA is reflecting on similar ethical issues with a legal edge. To read the complex details , click here.
13 Jul 2010 : Is IVF technology affecting reproductive decisions?
Another hint that the availability of IVF technology may be influencing women's reproductive decision-making: it is now possible to freeze eggs until one's career is established or until 'Mr Right' comes along. This effectively pushes up the age at which some women will access IVF, which exactly contradicts the advice of most fertility specialists. To read more on this strange situation , click here.
13 Jul 2010 : Have your say on donor IVF
The Australian Senate is holding an inquiry into practices surrounding donor IVF, including a child's access to donor information, payment for donation, and limits on the number of families to benefit from one donor. The cut-off date for submissions is 30 July 2010. To have your say , click here.
01 Jun 2010 : Children of Donor Dads : The Full Report
To read the full 140-page report "My Daddy's Name is Donor: A New Study of Young Adults Conceived Through Sperm Donation" , click here.
01 Jun 2010 : Children of Donor Dads Tell Their Story
While they have a sense of being 'wanted' by their mothers, children born of donor sperm also have a sense that "they are a product made to suit their mother’s wishes rather than a natural happening" according to Elizabeth Marquardt from the Institute for American Values. To read the disturbing results of her recent survey , click here.
18 May 2010 : "Death with Dignity" is Looking Less and Less Dignified
Euthanasia has never looked less like 'dying with dignity': last month's discovery of funereal urns in Lake Zurich may be connected with that city's infamous Dignitas Clinic which routinely kills patients seeking euthanasia. One former employee said that up to 300 urns had been 'dumped' in the lake by the company which claims to provide a 'dignified' exit. It would be funny if it were not so tragic. To read the TimesOnLine report , click here.
18 May 2010 : At Last! Solid Research on the Effects of Donor IVF
Children born of donor sperm or eggs have long reported a general sense of unease and even anger if they are deprived of information about and contact with their donor parent. Now empirical data published recently in Reproductive Biomedicine Online articulates their concerns: a high proportion felt that something had been missing from their identity. Which raises the question: will WA's new surrogacy laws have similar effects if children born of surrogacy arrangements are not informed at an early age? To read the new research , click here.
30 Mar 2010 : HEALTH INSURANCE - SHOULD I PAY FOR OTHERS' BAD HABITS?
Medical people often gripe about have to treat patients who don't look after their own health, and in some cases treatment has been refused. No-one doubts that we should take responsibility for our own health, but is it ethical to refuse treatment to those who don't? In this opinion piece from the New York Times, Dr Sandeep Jautar argues that the argument is not as simple as it seems: we all engage in risk-taking behaviour. To read his thought-provoking article , click here.
25 Mar 2010 : THE UNSTOPPABLE REACH OF EUTHANASIA
Wherever euthanasia or physician-assisted suicide have been made legal, advocates invariably push for total freedom - effectively, you won't need any justification to ask for help to die. The Netherlands are now debating just such a relaxation of the rules. Australian-born ethicist and lawyer Margaret Somerville highlights the dangers , click here.
10 Mar 2010 : GETTING THE FACTS RIGHT ABOUT EUTHANASIA
Public debate on complex issues such as euthanasia is not helped when proponents can't get the facts right. Palpably untrue claims that quickly assume the status of 'proven facts' only lead us astray. Here, Australian-born Canadian ethicist and lawyer Margaret Somerville brings her considerable experience to bear on this issue. To read her clarification of the facts , click here.
02 Mar 2010 : WITHDRAWING NUTRITION AND HYDRATION ON PATIENT REQUEST
In line with long-standing Catholic teaching, Pope John Paul II said in 2004 that providing nutrition and hydration to unconscious patients is, in principle, ordinary care which should not be withdrawn unless it has become therapeutically futile or overly burdensome. In seeking to clarify his comments, the US Bishops seem only to have confused the issue. The key point, however, is that if a competent patient refuses a life-sustaining medical treatment (even via an advanced health directive) on the grounds that it is not therapeutically beneficial or too burdensome, it is ethically and legally proper to honour that refusal. To read Kaiser Health's take on this issue , click here.
23 Feb 2010 : 'MERCY KILLING' NOT AN OPTION FOR THIS MUM
Full-time carer Elisabeth Shepherd fears that a move to euthanasia and assisted suicide will reduce our commitment to care for people like her 36-year-old son James. 'I also fear it may mean that people like James begin to feel that being such a burden on a carer, who is very often a close relative, is a choice they are actively making by not committing suicide. That guilt may be enough to tip the balance into them taking their life.' To read Veronica Moore's moving account in London's Daily Mail , click here.
05 Feb 2010 : EUTHANASIA : A WARNING FROM BELGIUM
According to Belgian bioethicist Erny Gillen, “Euthanasia is not a solution, euthanasia is a threat and, as a threat, it should not be offered to anyone.” To read Prof Gillen's interview with New Zealand's Nathaniel Centre, which covers euthanasia, palliative care and the need for the healthy to offer solidarity with the dying , click here.
02 Feb 2010 : DONOR-CONCEIVED CHILDREN SHOULD HAVE A LEGAL RIGHT TO KNOW
As more children are conceived using donor gametes - donated eggs, sperm, or both - there is increasing concern that the laws which permit IVF do not also guarantee a child's right to information about their genetic parent. Dr Lucy Frith here critiques the law in the UK, but her comments also apply to the situation here in Australia. To read what Dr Frith has to say , click here.
25 Jan 2010 : DYING, THE LAST GREAT OPPORTUNITY FOR GROWTH
Australian-born ethicist Margaret Somerville writes: 'The challenge is to find meaning in dying – to make dying the last great act of living.' Euthanasia is the final medicalisation of human life, a quick technological fix that robs us of our greatest opportunity for growth. To read Margaret Somerville's comments in full , click here.
20 Jan 2010 : SHOULD I TAKE MY OWN LIFE?
When Charlotte Raven was diagnosed with Huntington's, an incurable degenerative disease, there seemed only one option: suicide. But would deciding how and when to die really give her back the control she desperately craved? And what about the consequences for her husband and young daughter? To read her own account , click here.
14 Jan 2010 : DANGER IN LEGALISING ASSISTED SUICIDE, DISABILITY GROUPS WARN
If assisted suicide is legalised most of the people who will die are disabled. According to lobbyist Diane Coleman, "Proponents of legalized assisted suicide are willing to treat lives ended through abuses of the practice as 'acceptable losses' when balanced against their wish for a pleasant way out and their unwillingness to accept disability, or responsibility for their own suicide. We disagree." For a hard-hitting critique of Oregon's much-vaunted laws , click here.
14 Jan 2010 : ADULT STEM CELL INFORMATION
A new website tells the good news stories about adult stem cells and their successful use in actual therapies. Read patients' stories, watch the video links. A good resource for secondary school research which we will put on to our 'stem cell' resource page. To go the the website , click here.
30 Nov 2009 : EUTHANASIA AND THE PUZZLE OF HUMAN DIGNITY
Both sides of the euthanasia debate claim to be advancing the cause of human dignity, so who should we believe? One side upholds our fundamental prohibition on all killing except in self defense, while the other side allows this prohibition to be breached on a number of grounds. So one side claiming to uphold 'human dignity' actually contradicts this basic ethical principle. To read Margaret Somerville's assessment , click here.
25 Nov 2009 : IVF AND THE CHILD'S RIGHT TO KNOW
Australian-born lawyer and ethicist Margaret Somerville holds that in IVF, ethics requires us to place children's best interests at the centre of decision making and not, as has been largely true up to this point, to allow adults' wishes or preferences to override children's fundamental human rights. To read her views in more detail , click here.
20 Nov 2009 : NEW EUTHANASIA RESOURCE NOW AVAILABLE
We are pleased to announce the addition of a new resource page on this site. To access some important links and pdf documents dealing with the subject of euthanasia, click on the "EUTHANASIA" button on the right hand side of this page. We will be adding new documents to this page, and creating new pages, in coming weeks. .
27 Oct 2009 : UK FERTILITY LAWS MAY 'SCRAMBLE GENERATIONS'
British IVF laws permit gametes to be stored for up to 55 years, allowing an infertile woman to receive a 'donation' of eggs from her mother years later. In this way a woman could give birth to a daughter who is also her half-sister. Such extraordinary possibilities have prompted further debate in the House of Lords. To read Nienke Korsten's report in Bionews , click here.
21 Oct 2009 : LEARNING ABOUT LIVING FROM THE DYING
Ageing, disability or chronic illness may confine us, but there is still meaning and purpose in life. The trick is to identify what it is that gives meaning, and to share that with others. Psychiatrist Henry Grunebaum recounts an important learning curve of his own , click here.
19 Oct 2009 : IVF: UK REVISIONS CAUSE CONFUSION
Th UK's Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act 2008 entered a new phase this month, but some commentators are concerned that efforts to clarify the Act have actually made it more confusing. Law lecturer Sarah Elliston points to some of these issues in an article which also contains valuable links to UK legislative and other sources, and related articles. To read her view , click here.
09 Oct 2009 : ARE WE OVER-TESTED?
As health-care costs continue to rise some are suggesting that we are having too many pathology and imaging tests. In this article from the Washington Post a physician reflects on his own experience of the US healthcare system , click here.
06 Oct 2009 : NEW UK IVF LAWS AND THE RIGHTS OF DONOR-CONCEIVED CHILDREN
From the beginning of this month Britain's new Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act recognises the rights of donor-conceived children to access information about their donors and about any other half-siblings conceived from the same donor. This recognises a fundamental right to know who we are related to, which is also an issue in WA's own IVF laws. To read one lawyer's reflections on these changes to UK laws , click here.
25 Sep 2009 : THE ETHICS OF PAYING FOR TEST-TUBE BABIES
In paying for IVF technology, society becomes complicit in its use and has ethical obligations toward the children who result. To read Australian-born lawyer and ethicist Margaret Somerville's reflections on some proposed changes to IVF regulation in Ontario , click here.
04 Sep 2009 : END-OF-LIFE ISSUES IN USA HEALTH REFORM : A BACKGROUND
The USA is "a country where an optimistic ethos places great faith in technology and often precludes frank contemplations of mortality. That tendency has a price tag: A quarter of Medicare costs -- totaling $100 billion a year -- are incurred in the final year of patients' lives, and 40 percent of that in the last month." For more background on how end-of-life issues are impacting President Obama's health reform efforts , click here.
04 Sep 2009 : PALLIATIVE CARE : A BETTER OPTION THAN EUTHANASIA
"The World Health Organization has recommended that governments not consider assisted suicide and euthanasia until they have demonstrated the availability and practice of palliative care for their citizens. All states and all countries have a long way to go to achieve this goal. People are only beginning to learn that with well-trained doctors and nurses and good end-of-life care, it is possible to avoid the pain of the past experiences of many of their loved ones and to achieve a good death. The right to such care is the right that patients should demand and the challenge that every country needs to meet." To read all of Herbert Hendin's 2004 commentary on the dangers of passing euthanasia legislation , click here.
29 Aug 2009 : THE DANGERS OF STATE-SANCTIONED EUTHANASIA
Amid President Obama's apparently doomed effort to provide universal health cover in the USA, blogger Ethel Fenig reveals a shocking truth from the State of Oregon (which permits physician-assisted suicide): if providing euthanasia turns out to be cheaper than providing ongoing health care, you won't be funded for health care. To read her blog , click here.
13 Aug 2009 : CHRISTIAN ROSSITER - IS IT EUTHANASIA?
Western Australia has been transfixed in recent weeks by the case of Christian Rossiter, a Perth man suffering quadriplegia who has asked his carers to remove his PEG tube. As the WA Supreme Court prepares to rule on his application and Greens MLC Robin Chapple drafts a private members bill to permit euthanasia, this website will attempt to keep you abreast of the ethical issues. Watch for the new button in the 'Topics' column, coming soon to the right-hand side of this page .
10 Aug 2009 : EUTHANASIA AND DODGY STATISTICS
The UK's Royal College of Nursing says it neither supports nor opposes euthanasia, based on a survey of members. But that survey proves nothing - it effectively reached only 0.3% of members, making a mockery of the College's claim that 49% of members are for and 40% against euthanasia. For a critique of the College's claims , click here.
09 Aug 2009 : MY SISTER'S KEEPER
"Technology, apart from any ethical or moral compass, has progressed to the point where, for the first time in history, we are able to intentionally create human life and allow it to fully develop solely because we need that life to save another." Jodi Picoult's 2004 novel on the 'saviour sibling' question has recently been released to the big screen. To read Jennifer Lahl's insightful critique of 'My Sister's Keeper' , click here.
02 Aug 2009 : PAIN RELIEF IS NOT EUTHANASIA
The euthanasia lobby in Canada is deliberately confusing legitimate pain relief treatment with euthanasia in order to promote their cause, according to Australian lawyer and ethicist Margaret Somerville. To read her critique of this shameful tactic , click here.
29 Mar 2009 : TREATED LIKE ANIMALS: THE ONGOING MYTH OF EUTHANASIA
Euthanasis advocates claim, 'We're kinder to animals than to humans', but that simply isn't true and never has been. Examine the facts, and see for yourself. It isn't only sick animals that are euthanised: ugly, ill-tempered, hard-to-train and abandoned animals are euthanised every day. Do you really want to be treated like that? Stephen Drake and Dick Sobsey uncover an irrational deceit at the heart of the pro-euthanasia argument. To read it in full , click here.
28 Mar 2009 : EUTHANASIA: REFUSING TO MAKE SENSE OF LIFE
"Euthanasia is a predictable response to a loss of meaning in relation to death and its practice would augment that loss. Even if we believe that doesn’t matter, we should be concerned, because our capacity to find meaning in life may well depend on our being able to find meaning in death." To read Margaret Somerville's views in full, , click here.
02 Feb 2009 : DONOR-CONCEIVED CHILDREN HAVE A RIGHT TO KNOW
What rights do IVF children have to know their genetic parents? Not many rights at all, it seems, in jurisdictions that allow anonymous gamete donation. Even here in WA the 'donor register' is only volunary and children can still be denied this natural right. To read Renee Smith's view from the Center for Bioethics and Culture Network , click here.