Free Republic

Democrat Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker expanded his state’s culture of death on Friday by signing a bill into law legalizing assisted suicide for terminally ill people. Illinois is now the 12th state, plus Washington, DC, that allows physicians to assist terminally ill people in killing themselves — all in the name of “choice,” compassion, and easing end-of-life suffering. Pritzker signed the bill despite concerns from opponents that such a law could be a slippery slope (look no further than Canada) and could be used to coerce people with disabilities and financial hardships to choose death. […] The bill, called the...

Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker on Friday signed legislation allowing physician-assisted suicide for certain terminally ill patients, making Illinois the 12th state to enact such a law. The measure, known as the End of Life Options for Terminally Ill Patients Act, or Deb's Law, lets doctors prescribe a lethal dose of drugs that eligible patients may self-administer. Springfield's State Journal-Register reported that the law takes effect in September. Under the statute, adults must have a terminal illness expected to result in death within six months, as confirmed by two physicians. Patients must have the mental capacity to make medical decisions, be...

Ludwig Minelli, the head of Dignitas, is 77. A trained lawyer, he founded the assisted suicide organisation 12 years ago.The organisation, whose slogan is '"live with dignity, die with dignity", has helped over 1,000 people to die. Many of them are people who have travelled to Switzerland because assisted suicide is not permitted in their own countries. Dignitas has the status of an association under Swiss law, with two active members, Mr Minelli and one other. The identity of the other member has not been revealed. These two active members control the policy and financing of Dignitas.Question: You have been...

Karen Royle’s memories of the last precious hours with her cherished mother Rona are far from the serene, comforting images that she had hoped for. Before arriving in Zurich, Karen, 51, had envisaged a pretty Swiss chalet, with perhaps a view of the Alps — ‘just like the pictures in the book Heidi, which I’d loved as a child’. But the Dignitas ‘apartment’ at No  84 Gertrudestrasse, where 74-year-old Rona chose to end her life rather than succumb further to the ravages of Motor Neurone Disease (MND), bore no comparison to the picture-postcard tranquility her family had imagined. The image Karen...

A retired art teacher committed suicide at the Dignitas clinic because she was frustrated at the lack of interaction in modern life, because of our reliance on computers and the Internet. The 89-year-old, who asked only to be identified as Anne before her death, was frustrated with the trappings of modern life, including fast food, consumerism and the amount of time people spend watching television. Anne, a former electrician with the Royal Navy, was not terminally ill or seriously handicapped and traveled to Dignitas in Switzerland last month. Before her death she told the Sunday Times: “People are becoming more...

... In the 1960s, when the first right-to-die organizations began helping terminally ill people end their lives in Switzerland, the Swiss gave broad support to a practice widely viewed as a personal choice. Backed by the world's most liberal right-to-die laws, assisted-suicide groups have since then quietly helped thousands kill themselves. Lately, the increasingly controversial activities of Dignitas and its founder, Ludwig Minelli, are pushing even the famously tolerant Swiss too far, prompting calls for changes in the nation's assisted-suicide law. Mr. Minelli has long played the agent provocateur of Switzerland's right-to-die movement, most notably because his group helps the...

The founder of Dignitas – a Zurich, Switzerland, clinic that assists those with illnesses end their lives – says he wants to open a chain of "suicide clinics" in other countries to give everyone, including the mentally ill, the "the choice of a choice." Ludwig Minelli Ludwig Minelli, a Swiss lawyer, told the London Sunday Times he has already opened an associated Dignitas office in Germany and he intends to lift the "taboo" against suicide by lobbying other countries to set up clinics to offer information on effective methods of suicide and to alert people to the risks of...

Two sisters are selling tickets for a party to raise money to enable their mother to commit suicide at a Swiss clinic. Jackie Baker, 59, wants to travel to the Dignitas euthanasia clinic after developing motor neurone disease in February. Her daughters Tara O'Reilly and Rose Baker are desperately trying to raise £8,000 so their mother can "die with dignity" in Switzerland. Hairdresser Tara, 40, is selling tickets for a girls night out with drag artist and playboy waiters to raise the funds for her mother. Tara said: "It's what she wants. We were very upset at the beginning but...

The founder of Dignitas, a controversial assisted suicide organization, ended his own life at age 92, the group announced Monday. It’s a tragic irony that underscores the dehumanizing consequences of the deadly practice. Ludwig Minelli, a former journalist and human rights lawyer, died November 29 through what Dignitas described as “voluntary assisted dying,” just days before his 93rd birthday on December 5. The Zurich-based death group, which Minelli established in 1998 to enable people to end their lives “on their own terms,” provided no further details about the circumstances of his death. Dignitas, one of Switzerland’s most prominent suicide killers,...

Benjamin Turland lost both of his grandmothers to Canada's legalized euthanasia and assisted suicide program, known as Medical Assistance in Dying (MAiD). While much has been shared about the devastating numbers of Canadians who are dying through the program, less has been shared about the lasting impact those deaths have on the family members left behind. Key Takeaways: * Benjamin Turland said that losing both his grandmothers to MAiD "wrecked" him, and caused lasting trauma. * He explained the difference between watching a loved one die naturally and watching one choose death — and how it affects those left behind....

". . . the fake news isn’t reporting on Operation Arctic Frost. It’s not that they’re trying to cover it up. . . but that they actually think it was totally normal and legitimate." — Hans Mahncke. Surely you’ve noticed in recent years just how gruesome the Halloween townscape has become with our competitive yard displays of giant skeletons, shrieking ghouls, corpses seeming to emerge from the crabgrass, and miscellaneous body parts strewn about the property. The symbolism seems pretty overt: America yearns to become a death cult. The world has seen this before and it generally doesn’t end well....

People living in the West need to understand the Muslim mindset. At a time when America finds itself dealing with pro-terrorist rallies on college campuses, the U.S. government providing military arms and equipment to Islamic countries, and Americans deeply concerned about impending terrorist threats and Islamic law (sharia) being imposed and adjudicated in local communities, how does the average person come to understand these issues? How can an effective solution be reached when few really seem to know what is going on? It is helpful to begin with the understanding that the Islamic world sees everything through the same lens....

A lady who wrote to a financial advice column detailing her financial struggles in accessing healthcare has been told about how easy it is to access assisted suicide, which would mean she “wouldn’t need to worry”. Writing to MarketWatch’s financial advice column, a woman in her sixties detailed how she was concerned about being unable to access Medicaid, a government health insurance programme in the United States, unless she sells off her assets. “It also goes against my principles to dispose of my assets just so the government will support me”, she said. As age and life experiences have left...

Palestinianism depravity: The Sick Islamo-Fascistic "Joy" in Palestinian Arab October 7 AtrocitiesTwo years after the barbaric Hamas-led assault on Israel on October 7, 2023—an orgy of murder, rape, mutilation, and kidnapping that claimed over 1,200 innocent lives and saw more than 250 civilians dragged into Gaza as hostages—the world should be united in revulsion. Instead, a disturbing pattern has emerged: gleeful celebrations of this savagery by Palestinians, their supporters, and radical Islamo-fascist sympathizers worldwide. What civilized societies condemn as terrorism, these groups hail as a "glorious day of success" or a "revolution." This isn't mere denial; it's a perverse revelry...

[Catholic Caucus] Pope Leo XIV Wades Into Durbin DebatePope Leo XIV responded to controversy over the Chicago cardinal’s plans to honor a Catholic U.S. senator who supports legalized abortion, saying that the senator’s record should be considered in its totality and that Americans should search together for the truth on ethical issues.Several U.S. bishops condemned Chicago Cardinal Blase Cupich’s plans to honor U.S. Sen. Richard Durbin, D-Illinois, with a “lifetime achievement award” for his work surrounding immigration policy despite his pro-abortion voting record. “I am not terribly familiar with the particular case. I think it’s important to look at the...

Today, Planned Parenthood is closing its Houston, Texas abortion facility that was the biggest abortion center in North America. Planned Parenthood Gulf Coast announced in July that it would close two Houston-area abortion centers, including its 78,000-square-foot Prevention Park facility, once the largest abortion center in the Western Hemisphere. That closing will happen today and hundreds, if not thousands, of pro-life Texans will be on hand to celebrate. The Houston Coalition for Life is hosting two special vigils today. “The events will both honor the lives lost to abortion within the building and celebrate the closure of Planned Parenthood’s Prevention...

A California man who plotted to assassinate Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh also wanted to kill at least two other conservative justices in a bid to preserve Roe v. Wade. New court filings revealed this week are spotlighting the violent extremism that gripped abortion activists in the chaotic lead-up to the landmark Dobbs decision. Nicholas John Roske, 28, of Simi Valley, California, faces 30 years to life in prison for attempted murder of a U.S. official in his bid to assassinate Justice Kavanaugh. Roske was arrested outside Kavanaugh’s Chevy Chase, Maryland, home on June 8, 2022, where he was found...

This past weekend, I appeared on “Fox News Sunday” as a panelist, opining on matters ranging from the shambolic state of the Democratic Party to an absurd and protracted culture war skirmish. If you watch the clips in those hyperlinks, and crank the volume all the way up, you may notice a faint commotion outside the studio. A small handful of "pro-Palestinian" protesters were creating as much noise as they could, chanting, banging on pots and pans, and blaring a police-style siren (ironically, I'd bet that many, most, or all of these agitators also support defunding the police, which is...

Bestselling author and journalist ‪@douglasmurray‬ shares firsthand insights from the frontlines of Ukraine and Gaza, offering a vivid look at the human cost of war and the stakes for global stability. In this wide-ranging conversation with ‪@Foxla‬'s ‪@elexmichaelson‬ Murray also weighs in on U.S. campus protests, cultural shifts, and key election issues shaping America’s future. Transcript linked after video.

Rep. Maxine Waters (D-CA) joined the chorus of Democrats and pro-abortion activists reacting furiously to the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade on Friday. Waters, flanked by Rep. Al Green (D-TX), joined activists outside the Supreme Court following the ruling, telling reporters: “The hell with the Supreme Court, we will defy them.” “You see this turnout here? You ain’t seen nothing yet,” the California Democrat, who serves as chairwoman of the House Committee on Financial Services, also warned.