Free Republic

Question: Is it ever permissible for Christians to withdraw life-sustaining support to terminally ill individuals?(By CP Cartoonist Rod Anderson)This is a question I am asked with ever increasing frequency as the medical technology continues to push back the threshold of physical death.First, it is imperative to state that Christians must never countenance any medication or treatment that actively shortens life (i.e., euthanasia or “mercy-killing”).The vexing question for people of faith, however, is “is it ever morally permissible to withdraw extraordinary life-extending treatments for terminally ill unconscious or comatose patients?” I need to note at this point that I agree with...

President Donald Trump is slated to sign the controversial "right-to-try" bill on Wednesday, which would bypass drug regulators to give gravely ill patients access to experimental medicines. The legislation allows patients with life-threatening conditions to ask drugmakers for medicines that have cleared some testing but still haven't been approved by the Food and Drug Administration. Previously, people would need to ask the FDA for access to experimental treatments. Trump and Vice President Mike Pence had been major supporters of passing the measure, which supporters say gives patients hope they would not otherwise have. The House of Representatives approved the bill...

President Trump on Wednesday signed into law a bill that would allow those with potentially terminal diseases to try experimental treatments and bypass the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. The so-called Right to Try Act of 2017, sponsored by Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., unanimously passed the Senate last August, and cleared the House last week on a party-line vote of 250-169 -- in a win for both Johnson and the Trump administration. "Today I am proud to keep another promise to the American people as I sign the Right to Try legislation into law," Trump said Wednesday. "We're going to...

WASHINGTON -- Imagine the horror of learning you have a terminal illness for which science has not yet come up with a treatment. Now imagine receiving the same diagnosis, and then learning a promising new treatment exists that could save your life -- but you can't get access to it thanks to governmental obstacles. That is the nightmare that befell Andrea Sloan, an Austin lobbyist who gave up her job at a high-priced law firm to advocate for victims of domestic violence. In 2007, Sloan was diagnosed with ovarian cancer, and for more than six years tried every Food and...

Californians who are terminally ill will not be able to access drugs with the potential to save or prolong their lives as a result of Gov. Jerry Brown’s veto of the Right to Try Act on Sunday. AB 159, the California Right to Try Act, passed the state assembly and senate with overwhelming bipartisan support. “It’s disappointing that Governor Brown couldn’t see the need to allow Californians the right to fight to save their own lives,” said Assemblyman Ian Calderon (D., Whittier), who sponsored the legislation. “Both Democrats and Republicans wanted this for our California’s terminally ill.” In his veto...

More than 50 patients have died after an NHS trust introduced a secret policy to downgrade 999 calls and not to send ambulances to terminally ill patients. Managers at East of England ambulance trust were accused of “the most cruel form of rationing imaginable” after admitting that 8,000 patients had been affected by the changes. An internal NHS report discloses that 57 patients died after their calls were downgraded following a decision not to send ambulances to the terminally ill and to those who had given instructions not to resuscitate. It meant that, instead of receiving a response from paramedics...

Playing God to save a buck. More than 50 patients have died after an NHS trust introduced a secret policy to downgrade 999 calls and not to send ambulances to terminally ill patients. Managers at East of England ambulance trust were accused of “the most cruel form of rationing imaginable” after admitting that 8,000 patients had been affected by the changes.An internal NHS report discloses that 57 patients died after their calls were downgraded following a decision not to send ambulances to the terminally ill and to those who had given instructions not to resuscitate.It meant that, instead of...

The Academy Awards are the left coast's great cultural event of the year, more important to the stars than a Hillary Clinton fundraiser. Like them or not, movies drive the culture, reflecting and reacting to what's going on around us. They require our awareness. They can't be dismissed simply because they're the stuff of fantasy. Fantasy is in vogue on the right coast, too. The Washington Post, once one of the president's most cheerful enablers, observes in an editorial that, "President Obama's foreign policy is based on fantasy." He seeks the happy endings of Hollywood's movies, where wishes come true...

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - A U.S. Supreme Court ruling backing Oregon's physician-assisted suicide law gives a major boost to a similar measure languishing in the California legislature since last year, lawmakers said on Tuesday. "I believe we will get this bill passed this year and signed by the governor," said Assemblyman Lloyd Levine, co-author of a law to allow state residents to obtain lethal medication if they had less than six months to live. Levine, a Democrat, spoke after the U.S. Supreme Court rejected legal arguments by the Bush Administration seeking to strike down Oregon's pioneering Death with Dignity Act....

Doctors reverse historic right-to-life rulingBy Times Online and agencies The General Medical Council won its appeal today against a court ruling which enabled terminally-ill patients to force doctors to give them life-saving nutrition where there is a disagreement over treatment. Leslie Burke, 45, who has a degenerative brain condition, won a ruling last year in the High Court to stop doctors withdrawing food and drink. But today a panel of three judges headed by Master of the Rolls Lord Phillips set aside the decision of Mr Justice Munby, which was hailed as a landmark for terminally-ill patients at the time....

Bill would approve of suicide Terminally ill patients could seek relief By Juliette Rule rep9@wyomingnews.com Published in the Wyoming Tribune-Eagle CHEYENNE - Legislators will be asked to discuss a death-with-dignity bill drafted by Sen. Keith Goodenough in the upcoming legislative session. Discussion of a bill takes a two-thirds vote during a budget session, and given that, Goodenough, D-Casper, said he doesn't expect the bill to go far. "I'm appealing to the leanings of traditional Libertarian attitudes in Wyoming," he said. "The government should stay out of my life as much as possible, especially with such a personal issue." The bill,...