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Phoenix, AZ (LifeNews.com) -- Jesse Ramirez was badly injured in an automobile accident in May 2007 and nearly became a victim of euthanasia when his wife made the decision to have his feeding tube removed. Now, Ramirez has recovered to the point that he is enjoying life and waking and running.Ramirez suffered traumatic brain injury in the accident and had been in a minimally conscious state for just over a week when doctors told his family he may never recover.A legal battle ensued over the man's life and he almost became a victim of euthanasia in the same way Terri...

July 15, 2008 (LifeSiteNews.com) - More than half of people in the US would rather be dead than disabled says a new survey. A US website for disabled people ran the survey which asked, "Which would you choose: Living with a severe disability that forever alters your ability to live an independent life, or death?" 52 per cent of the respondents chose death.The survey, run by the online community and website Disaboom, found that differences in attitude toward disability were based on age, income, geographic location, and level of education. 63 percent of younger Americans chose death over disability,...

A large number of endangered, unwanted, and unborn children held a town hall meeting on the 4th of July - alarmed at the brutal and untimely killing of millions of their brothers and sisters in recent years. That the murderous war waged on them had the full force and respectability of the law made their plight all the more terrifying. Their complaint was humble and it was simple. They were not distressed by rising gas prices, or the deteriorating economy in general. They were not even frightened by the exponential increase of natural disasters. The threat of global warming or...

Olympia, WA (LifeNews.com) -- Voters in Washington state head to the polls in November to decided whether to make it the second, after Oregon, to legalize assisted suicide. In the coming months, they'll likely see a one-sided campaign in favor of I-1000 because the backers of the initiative have a nearly 12-1 advantage in fundraising.The numbers should light a fire under pro-life advocates, patient and disability rights groups and medical professionals who don't want euthanasia to expand.Backers of the assisted suicide proposal turned in more than enough signatures earlier this month to likely qualify for the ballot.And when the debate...

Zurich, Switzerland (LifeNews.com) -- A leading government official in Switzerland wants the European nation to stop the infamous practice of "death tourism." That's where residents of other countries come to the mountainous nation to have pro-euthanasia groups help them engage in an assisted suicide.Swiss Justice Minister Eveline Widmer-Schlumpf says the practice is giving her nation a bad name."Today somebody can come to Switzerland and already the next day can have an assisted suicide through one of these assisted suicide organizations. This should not be possible," Widmer-Schlumpf told the Sonntags Zeitung newspaper.Widmer-Schlumpf wants to see legislation introduced that would help...

When it comes to physician-assisted dying, Teresa Grove wears her politics on her refrigerator door ­­— and on her chest. Grove works as a hospice nurse. For the past 14 years, she has been involved with the Oregon group Compassion in Dying (now Compassion and Choices), which sponsored the 1994 Oregon Death With Dignity Act. She chaired its board of directors for 10 years and still serves as a client volunteer. An advance directive, also known as a Physician’s Order for Life-Sustaining Treatment, is affixed to her refrigerator. The tattoo on her chest — impossible to be missed by emergency...

Michael is the widower of Theresa Marie Schindler “Terri” Schiavo, who died on March 31, 2005, after being judicially executed—as her husband wanted. She had collapsed on February 25, 1990, having experienced a heart attack that caused respiratory and cardiac arrest, which resulted in extensive brain damage. She was diagnosed by several doctors to be in PVS—persistent vegetative state. She was placed in—and brought out of—several hospitals for 15 years. In 1998, Michael, her husband and guardian, petitioned a Florida Court to remove her feeding tube. Robert and Mary Schindler, her parents, opposed the petition. They claimed that she was...

Chandigarh, India (LifeNews.com) -- Seema Sood made headlines worldwide when she sought permission from the president of India for a mercy killing. As with almost every nation in the world, India prohibits euthanasia and the request of the former well-educated engineer was declined. Sood tells the Times of India she's glad her petition was rejected. Just two years ago, Sood longed for death as a rheumatoid arthritis made it so the 37-year-old lost movement in all of her limbs for a period of 15 years. Today, Sood is up and walking again, after a knee replacement surgery and she's thankful...

A court on Thursday dismissed a petition filed by the family of a comatose 75-year-old woman to let her die. Kim’s children said their mother, who survives on life support, had the right to die with dignity so she would not have to continue living a meaningless life and asked for permission to remove the respirator and discontinue injections and feeding. But the Seoul Western District Court said that stopping treatment conflicted with the principle of the absolute value of life, and there was no way to confirm Kim’s own will. The court ruled that even family members do not...

Rome, Italy (LifeNews.com) -- The family of Terri Schiavo is concerned about an Italian woman whose father has won the right form a court to subject her to a painful euthanasia death. They fear Eluana Englaro will be dehydrated and starved to death in the same way Terri's husband forced her to endure.Englaro has been in what doctors term a vegetative state for 16 years and has received food and water through a feeding tube.Beppino Englaro, Eluana's father, has been seeking the right to remove the feeding tube and starve and dehydrate Eluana to death in the same way...

Rome, Italy (LifeNews.com) -- In a case that hearkens back to the international debate over the life and death of Terri Schiavo, a father in Italy has received permission from a court to take his daughter's life. Eluana Englaro has been in what doctors term a vegetative state for 16 years and has received food and water through a feeding tube. Beppino Englaro, Eluana's father, has been seeking the right to remove the feeding tube and starve and dehydrate Eluana to death in the same way as Schiavo. Schiavo's husband won that right after a years-long legal battle that made...

BERLIN, Germany, July 8, 2008 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Deutche Welle reports that German Chancellor Angela Merkel has spoken out in the strongest terms against euthanasia in the wake of the suicide of an elderly woman. Merkel, said that she is against "every form of assisted suicide," regardless of the circumstances. Merkel's stance was echoed by Germany's Health Minister Ulla Schmidt. "I reject this path categorically," she said. "The correct path is to offer assistance to those who are dying instead of helping those free from terminal illness to commit suicide." Controversy was sparked after a 79-year-old Wurzburg woman committed suicide Saturday...

Royal Oak, MI (LifeNews.com) -- Elections officials in Oakland County have certified that assisted suicide crusader Jack Kevorkian has submitted enough signatures on petitions to qualify for the November ballot as an independent candidate. The certification comes on the heels of a victim's son confronting him.Joe Rozell, the elections director in Oakland County, said on Monday that her office verified 3,200 signatures on petitions requesting his candidacy to appear on the November ballot.Kevorkian needed at least 3,000 to qualify to take on pro-life Rep. Joe Knollenberg and his main opponent, former Lottery Commissioner Gary Peters, a Democrat.All three are seeking...

ROME, JULY 6, 2008 (Zenit.org).- Advocates of assisted suicide continue to press their case in many countries. In Germany a former senator from Hamburg, Roger Kusch, released a video of him helping a woman commit suicide, reported Reuters on July 1. Kusch advised Bettina Schardt on how to prepare a lethal mix of drugs that would kill her. Schardt, 79, was not suffering from any serious illnesses. Before helping her to die Kusch filmed 9 hours of conversation with Schardt, who said she dreaded being taken to a home for the elderly. Kusch's actions came in for widespread condemnation, reported...

A German politician who helped a woman to end her life and released a video of her death has caused outrage in Germany and prompted the authorities to try to tighten their rules on . Roger Kusch, a former senator in Hamburg and a prominent right-to-die campaigner, has said he advised Bettina Schardt, a healthy 79-year-old pensioner, on how to prepare a lethal cocktail of sedatives and anti-malaria drugs which would kill her. He said he then left her flat shortly before she died. Mr Kusch filmed nine hours of conversations with the unmarried and childless woman, who said she...

Members of the Delaware House of Representatives have approved a resolution declaring "it is against the public policy of this state" for food and water to be withheld from a 24-year-old woman left with brain injuries following a drug overdose.The case of Lauren Richardson is reminiscent of that of Terri Schiavo, the Florida woman who died after courts ruled doctors could follow her husband's orders to deprive her of food and water until she died.The Schiavo case, on which WND reported exhaustively, ended in March 2005 when she died, despite a battle by her parents who wanted to care...

July 3, 2008 (LifeSiteNews.com) - A British "end of life" care protocol approved for use by the National Health Service (NHS), has created a systematic, and legal, method of euthanising elderly and disabled patients, even while "mercy killing" remains officially illegal, says a prominent expert in elder care. The "Liverpool Care Pathway" will be used to eliminate patients deemed to be "blocking beds" in the increasingly financially strapped public health system. For years, Dr. Adrian Treloar, a psycho-geriatrician and senior lecturer at the Greenwich Hospital and Guys', King's and St. Thomas's Hospitals in London, has been sounding the warning...

Sacramento, CA (LifeNews.com) -- Though sponsors of a bill that would promote euthanasia removed some of the problematic language from the measure, a leading California pro-life group says several concerns remain. The bill would codify palliative sedation and voluntary stopping of eating and drinking as legitimate means of pain control and allow doctors and nurses to suggest death by unconscious dehydration. Last week, changes were made to the bill that Brian Johnston of the California Pro-Life Council calls “bell and whistle amendments” that looked good but did not remove the significant concerns pro-life advocates have with the bill. Johnston told...

Forrest M. Mims III Copyright 2006 by Forrest M. Mims III. Recently citizen scientist Forrest Mims told me about a speech he heard at the Texas Academy of Science during which the speaker, a world-renowned ecologist, advocated for the extermination of 90 percent of the human species in a most horrible and painful manner. Apparently at the speaker's direction, the speech was not video taped by the Academy and so Forrest's may be the only record of what was said. Forrest's account of what he witnessed chilled my soul. Astonishingly, Forrest reports that many of the Academy members present gave...

BIRMINGHAM, UK, July 2, 2008 (LifeSiteNews.com) - "Ellen Westwood was due to die in February but her family's Catholic and for them, life is sacred." So begins the television coverage by the BBC of a battle by a Birmingham family to prevent the NHS from dehydrating their mother to death. According to the BBC's report, doctors decided on a Friday in February that Mrs. Westwood was "due to die" by the following Monday, but the family, with the intervention of their priest, fought the order to remove the woman's hydration. Mrs. Ellen Westwood, 88, was in Birmingham's Selly Oak Hospital...

In the First Book of the Bible, in Chapter 1, God states that man (mankind) is created in God's image. Man is different from other animals -- it reflects God by God's design. In the book of Psalms, Psalm 139 starting with verse 11, it is stated how we are knit by God in our mother's womb and other things that God knows about us when we are being pro-created. Jeremiah 1:5 talks about God knew us before He formed us in the womb... Finally, the 4th and 5th commandments [given to Moses] are broken by abortion, euthanasia, embryonic stem...

The Oregon Health Plan:The Reality of When the Government Runs Health Care "Elect me and your health care problems will all be over." The people of Oregon fell for that line almost 20 years ago. Expecting Utopia, what they got was a reality check: long lines for a lottery to pick who's covered and suicide coverage--instead of cancer drugs. In 1989. Oregon became the second State, after Hawaii, to attempt complete medical coverage of it's citizens. It has not gone as planned. In fact, it seems to be approaching disaster. Within a few years: In early 2003, the Oregon Health...

 PHOENIX, AZ, June 26, 2008 (LifeSiteNews.com) - On Tuesday, the State of Arizona passed a bill known as "Jesse's Law", which will help protect incapacitated patients from being euthanized.  The new law, inspired by the ordeal of Jesse Ramirez, closed a loophole in the decision-making process for patients who are physically unable to communicate their wishes regarding medical care.House Bill 2823 establishes a court process to obtain an emergency order to prevent a surrogate decision-maker from withdrawing the administration of food or fluid from an incapacitated patient.Jesse Ramirez was seriously injured in a May 30, 2007, car accident. Barely 10...

Editor's Note: In Part I of Annie's Story (http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2008/jun/08061911.html), Bugos told the story of Annie Farlow, a girl who was born with Trisomy 13, and who died at only 80 days of age, devastating her parents and siblings. In Part II Bugos relates the Farlow's experiences, after Annie's passing, with the health-care staff who had cared for their daughter, and the disturbing discoveries they made about the circumstances surrounding their daughter's death. TORONTO, ON, June 20, 2008 (LifeSiteNews.com) - The Farlows tried to focus on funeral arrangements."Within days, I sensed that something wasn't right," relates Annie's mother, Barbara Farlow. "I...

SYDNEY, June 20, 2008 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Euthanasia provider and activist Dr. Philip Nitschke has released controversial statements that essentially instruct anyone who believes they are suffering from Alzheimer's disease to avoid obtaining a diagnosis in favour of seeking a doctor who can help them commit suicide as quickly as possible. These comments come on the heels of yesterday's New South Wales jury ruling that convicted two women for the "euthanasia" death of a 71-year old Sydney man, Graeme Wylie, in 2006. As reported by the news service, The Age, Shirley Justins, the wife of Wylie, was convicted of manslaughter for...

"Only those who love and care have the right to judge quality of life.  To our family, Annie was perfect."  -Barbara FarlowTORONTO, June 19, 2008 (LifeSiteNews.com) - It has been more than two years since Annie Mary Farlow was born with Trisomy 13, the 3rd or 4th most common chromosomal anomaly in North America.  Many Trisomy 13 children die during their first week of age; most do not survive childhood; and only a small percentage reach their teenage years.  Annie's story is not that different from the other countless stories of children with genetic illnesses.  She was loved by...

WINNIPEG, June 18, 2008 (LifeSiteNews.com) - In a new development in the case of Samuel Golubchuk, three doctors in Winnipeg have agreed to treat the 84-year-old man after several of their colleagues refused to do so. Yesterday LifeSiteNews.com reported that two doctors - ICU director Bojan Paunovic and specialist David Easton - had refused shifts at Winnipeg's Grace Hospital's rather than treat Golubchuk, claiming that it was unethical to continue providing food and hydration to the severely disabled man. This is in addition to the resignation of Dr. Anand Kumar, the doctor who originally wanted to remove Golubchuk from...

Olympia, WA (LifeNews.com) -- The Initiative 1000 measure that would make Washington the second state, following Oregon, to legalize assisted suicide, is drawing expected opposition from pro-life groups and medical professionals. But the son of the proposal's spokesman and disability groups are opposed as well. Booth Gardner the millionaire former governor of the state, is the lead spokesman for the I-1000 assisted suicide proposal.Gardner suffers from Parkinson's disease, which is incurable but not fatal and he would not qualify to use the assisted suicide measure to take his own life. However, it prompted his desire to speak up for those...

June 16, 2008 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Recently, yet another situation similar to that of my sister Terri Schiavo has made headlines. In West Palm Beach, Florida, Raymond Weber is asking the court to dehydrate his disabled wife, Karen, to death. If you have read any of the reports in mainstream media, it’s just another case of a husband looking out for the “best interest” of his spouse. And just as in Terri’s case, Raymond Weber is asking the government to deliberately kill his wife who is not dying and is guilty of nothing more than having difficulty swallowing and therefore needing...

During the last decade of her life, my ancient grandmother always set the mood for our family Christmases by announcing as soon as she arrived for lunch that she wanted to die. While the rest of us thanked each other extravagantly for the socks, ties and scarves we would never wear, she would bang on and on about how much she hoped this Christmas would be her last on Earth. I'll never forget the one that really did turn out to be her last. This was her 91st Christmas, and my mother had asked along one of the family's oldest...

London, England (LifeNews.com) -- A British woman has won the right to force England's prosecutors to reveal when they will charge someone with participating in an assisted suicide. The case involves a woman who wants to head to Switzerland soon to kill herself at a euthanasia center and she doesn't want her family charged when they return. Debbie Purdy has multiple sclerosis and she plans to go to a Dignitas euthanasia facility in Switzerland to kill herself as the condition worsens. However, she doesn't want her husband charged with committing an assisted suicide when he returns home to the UK...

Orlando, FL (LifeNews.com) -- Terri Schiavo died from a painful starvation and dehydration euthanasia death at the hands of her former husband over three years ago. Yet, Terri's family is still having problems getting the mainstream media to report the story of her life and death accurately. In the most recent case, the Orlando Sentinel newspaper is under fire for a news article that wrongly referenced Terri Schiavo as "brain dead."On Saturday, May 24, 2008, Aaron Deslatte, a reporter from the newspaper, published the story with the erroneous claim.Terri's brother Bobby Schindler called and left repeated messages for Deslatte to...

Elderly foreign tourists are tapping Mexican pet shops for a drug used by veterinarians to put cats and dogs to sleep that has become the sedative of choice for euthanasia campaigners. Tourists from as far as Australia have travelled to Mexico to buy liquid pentobarbital, which causes a painless death in humans in less than an hour, right-to-die advocates say. Clutching photos of the bottled drug to overcome a lack of Spanish, they have maps sketched by euthanasia activists to locate back-street pet shops and veterinary supply stores near the US border. There they can buy a bottle for $35...

Winnipeg, Canada (LifeNews.com) -- A Canadian doctor has quit his job at a hospital rather than treat a severely disabled patient. Samuel Golubchuck is a terminally ill elderly patient undergoing treatment in a Winnipeg hospital's ICU and his doctors want to refuse life-sustaining treatment. Now, the doctor who wanted to impose his values on Golubchuck by forcing him off respirator and feeding tube has resigned rather than continue treatment. Golubchuck's family -- citing religious reasons because they are Orthodox Jews and saying it is what he wanted -- filed a lawsuit and a temporary injunction requiring doctors to not take...

A trial can proceed in a lawsuit filed against DeKalb Medical Center for removing an 18-year-old patient from life support against her mother's wishes. The Georgia Supreme Court declined to hear an appeal in the lawsuit, meaning a ruling issued last year by the state Court of Appeals stands. That appeals court ruling said the decision to end the life of a patient with no living will and no chance of regaining brain function belongs to families, not hospitals. The state Court of Appeals also held that the Georgia's two-year deadline for filing wrongful death claims doesn't apply to children....

SALEM, Oregon, June 4, 2008 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Lung cancer patient, Barbara Wagner, was recently notified that her oncologist-prescribed medication that would slow the growth of cancer would not be covered by the Oregon Health Plan; the plan, however, she was informed, would cover doctor-assisted suicide should she wish to kill herself. "Treatment of advanced cancer that is meant to prolong life, or change the course of this disease, is not a covered benefit of the Oregon Health Plan," read the letter notifying Wagner of the health plan's decision. Wagner says she was shocked by the decision. "To say to someone,...

Ottawa, Canada (LifeNews.com) -- A member of the Canadian Parliament has announced his intent to propose a bill that would legalize assisted suicide in Canada. But one leading anti-euthanasia group isn't waiting for official introduction of a bill before asking pro-life advocates to start speaking out against it.The Euthanasia Prevention Coalition has launched a letter-writing campaign asking people to contact their MPs and urge strong opposition to a potential bill from MP Francine Lalonde, a member of the Bloc Québécois party.The organization has written sample letters but EPC director Alex Schadenberg encourages people to write their own to express...

Olympia, WA (LifeNews.com) -- Leading pro-life advocates are worried that the campaign to make Washington the second state to legalize assisted suicide is gaining momentum. They say the organization behind the ballot proposal has raised almost $1 million, including hundreds of thousands from its Oregon colleagues.Euthanasia advocates are urging state residents to sign petitions to get I-1000 on the November ballot.I-1000 backers have to submit 224,800 valid signatures to the Secretary of State by July 3 to qualify the measure for the Washington ballot.While pro-life groups, disability rights activists, and medical professionals are already educating state residents about the dangers...

ANCHORAGE, Alaska, June 3, 2008 (LifeSiteNews.com) — The Alaska Supreme Court signed an order Friday that will keep Providence Hospital from removing Mari Chamberlain’s life-support tubes. Her husband filed a lawsuit against the hospital to prevent doctor’s from ending her life support, which would most likely result in her death. “No one should be allowed to decide that an innocent life is worthless. A man is caring for the wife he loves; it’s not the hospital’s job to end her life,” said Senior Counsel Joe Infranco of Alliance Defense Fund (ADF). “We are pleased with the court’s decision to allow...

The attempt to limit religion to the purely private sphere is a major area of conflict in many countries. One of the areas of battle involves Christians and Church-based institutions active in health care. Last week the California Supreme Court heard testimony regarding a discrimination lawsuit brought by a lesbian who was denied artificial insemination. The Associated Press published a background report on the case May 26. Guadalupe Benitez is objecting to being refused treatment by a private clinic, the North Coast Women's Care Medical Group. The doctors at the clinic refused to treat Benitez based on their religious beliefs....

SACRAMENTO, May 29, 2008 (LifeSiteNews.com) - An assisted-suicide bill that allows doctors and nurses to suggest death by unconscious dehydration has barely passed the California State Assembly. AB 2747 would authorize total sedation without nutrition and hydration for depressed and confused patients, whether or not their natural death was imminent. The bill would also allow family members to order the death of a mentally disabled person when a nurse opines they have less than a year to live, similar to Terry Schindler Schiavo's death at the hands of her husband. AB 2747 passed the Democrat-controlled Assembly Wednesday afternoon on...

By the time she was found, her body had become stiff with rigor mortus. (Charleston, West Virginia)—According to the AP report, West Virginia resident, Val Thomas' heart stopped last Saturday morning, and by the time she was found, her body had become stiff with rigor mortus. (Photo: AP)Paramedics were able to revive her, but only after an estimated 15 minutes without oxygen or a pulse—she was rushed to an area hospital. During procedures to lower her body temperature, Val's heart stopped two more times.The Thomas family was told by doctors that Val had only a 10 percent chance of...

LifeNews.com Note: Ken Connor is the chairman of the Center for a Just Society in Washington and a leading pro-life attorney who helped Terri Schiavo's family try to save her life. He is a former president of the Family Research Council. Even the most despicable ideas can be made palatable when euphemisms are used to spin them. That's why abortion advocates call themselves "pro-choice" rather than "pro abortion." It's also why they talk about "terminating a pregnancy" rather than "killing a baby." Controlling the language not only controls the argument, it often determines the outcome of the argument. Proponents...

Hans-Joachim Sewering: Accused of mass-murder A former SS doctor accused of sending 900 sick children to their deaths under the Nazi euthanasia programme has been awarded a German medical association's highest honour.The decision comes as Jewish organisations continue to press Germany to put 92-year-old Hans-Joachim Sewering on trial for mass murder. He was given the Guenther-Budelmann medal by the German Federation of Internal Medicine for "unequalled services in the cause of freedom of the practice and the independence of the medical profession and to the nation's health system". Sewering was a doctor at a tuberculosis clinic near Munich before...

Town hall officials are giving residents advice on ending their lives if they become very seriously ill.In a move that has triggered controversy, they are handing out ‘right to die’ cards that allow holders to refuse emergency treatment. The cards, which are available in libraries and surgeries, were the idea of an employee of Salford City Council. Shortcut to euthanasia? Salford's right-to-die cardDesigned to be carried in wallets, they instruct medics to withhold treatment if the carrier is too ill to make decisions. The council insists that the cards allow people to make "informed decisions" about their future medical...

FAMILIES will be encouraged by the Federal Government to let their "unresponsive" loved ones die if their medical treatment is costly and futile. The new proposed health guidelines, to be given to Health Minister Nicola Roxon within weeks, coincide with a Senate report on a euthanasia bill introduced by Greens Leader Bob Brown. The guidelines centre on withdrawing treatment - such as tube-feeding - from coma or brain-dead patients if procedures are "risky, intrusive, destructive, exhausting, painful or repugnant" and cost outweighs benefit or success. The Government's Australian Health Ethics Committee (AHEC) has drafted separate papers for families and health...

FORT WORTH, TEXAS, May 22, 2008 (LifeSiteNews.com) - A Peruvian man whose American doctors reportedly sought to starve and dehydrate him to death was spared Wednesday after the family alerted the Peruvian media and a pro-life Texas attorney intervened in the case. According to Peruvian media reports, Jesus Sanchez, 56, had been in a coma for over five months in John Peter Smith Hospital in Fort Worth, Texas, after suffering a heart attack after a soccer game.  After the hospital's board of ethics reviewed his case, his condition was pronounced "irreversible".  The hospital announced that it would deprive Sanchez of food and...

Mexico City, Mexico (LifeNews.com) -- Euthanasia advocates worldwide are promoting Mexico as a destination to obtain drugs that elderly people or terminally ill patients can obtain a drug to kill themselves. A Mexico newspaper said at least 200 people from English-speaking countries have traveled there since 2001 to end their lives.Exit International, a pro-euthanasia group from Australia, is behind the effort to promote the use of animal euthanasia drugs in Mexico to kill people."On the basis of Exit research, the best places to visit are the 20-odd (US-Mexico) border crossings, from Tijuana in California through to Matamoros on the...

Jack Straw, the justice secretary, has ordered an inquest into 10 suspicious deaths at an old people’s convalescent unit in Hampshire. The patients were among a group of 92 who died unexpectedly after being given abnormally large doses of morphine and other drugs at the Gosport War Memorial hospital. Their relatives believe their deaths were a form of euthanasia. Straw has demanded the coroner’s investigation even though at least seven of the bodies were cremated. An inquest cannot take place in the absence of a corpse unless there are exceptional circumstances. The justice ministry believes there is sufficient anxiety about...

New Zealand police are on the trail of a woman who is alleged to have helped a sick Aucklander die in return for a fee. Right-to-die campaigners have made a complaint to police about an American calling herself Susan Wilson. They believe she flew into New Zealand late last year and gave life-terminating drugs to a woman who was battling depression but not terminally ill, and walked away $12,000 better off. Dignity New Zealand spokeswoman Lesley Martin says it highlights an urgent need to work towards a just and legal process so people who want to end their lives can...