World Right-to-Die Newsletter-1December 2011

EXIT SWITZERLAND HOSTS 2012 WORLD FEDERATION CONFERENCE IN ZURICH, JUNE 13-18

In honor of the 30th anniversary of EXIT Switzerland, the 14th World Federation Conference will be held in charming Zurich, in exquisite Switzerland.

Begun in 1980, the World Federation now has as members more than 55 right-to-die societies in more than 45 countries worldwide.

Every other year, members of those societies – and interested others – congregate to discuss ways to deepen their commitment toward worldwide respect of the human right of self-determination at the end of life. Where else can you talk to like-minded people from Zimbabwe, Israel, Australia, Japan and more?

Thirty years ago, Exit Switzerland began as a way of providing legal aid in dying (not Voluntary Euthanasia) to the citizens of the country. There are now two major organizations, both of which are sponsoring this conference – the German-speaking EXIT Deutsche Schweiz and the French-speaking EXIT A.D.M.D.

Details about the country, the accommodations, the program, transportation, cuisine, and lots more can be found on the World Federation website: www.wfrtds-congress.com/ Hotel rates cannot be guaranteed after December 31, 2011. Registration deadline is January 31, 2012. Financial aid may be available until January 31. Contact Michael-hk.irwin@virgin.net. To be nominated for a board position contact wfsecretary@hotmail.com.

Briefly, here are some highlights:

• On June 13, there is an all day tour available of Zurich and environs, featuring a boat ride, a train ride, a 3 course lunch, and an exploration of the medieval center of the city. Registration is that evening, followed by a Welcome Reception at the Swissôtel, with a panoramic view of the city. Continued on page 2

JACK KEVORKIAN DIES JUNE 3 AT 83Because he served eight years in prison, then was required not to speak about assisted suicide when he was released on parole in 2007, Jack Kevorkian had faded from public view at the time of his death in June. Many people in the world forgot the impact this outspoken pathologist had on the discussion about and support for assisted dying.

There has been no doctor so willing to accept the consequences of publicly providing assistance in dying for such a sustained period of time. His first case was Alzheimer’s sufferer, Janet Adkins, in 1990, his last, Tom

Youk, with late stage Motor Neuron Disease (ALS) in 1998. He said he helped 130 people die, but that he declined 4 out of every 5 requests on the grounds that the patient needed more treatment, or medical records had to be checked.

Continued on page 3

WORLD FEDERATION CONFERENCEContinued from page 1

• Events on June 14 and 16, will be open to EXIT and WF members only (if you would like to join one of our member societies, please see the web site for a list. Currently there are no individual

memberships in the World Federation). June 16, there is a gala banquet at the Swissôtel.

• June 15, is Public Day, where all events, including talks by renowned experts on the subject of assisted dying, are open to anyone interested in the purpose of right-to-die societies. June 17 and 18, are post-conference tours of this beautiful country.

ABOUT SWITZERLAND

• It is one of the cleanest and safest places in Europe.• In addition to French and German, English is widely spoken. • The public transport network is extensive, reliable and frequent.• Currency=Swiss Franc (1CHF = $1US) • No vaccinations, no visas are required. • June temperature = 70 degrees F/21C. • Drink – even enjoy – the tap water • Swissôtel, 4½ star hotel, is conference headquarters, but less expensive and close-by hotels are available at reduced rates.

Places to visit in Zurich include:• Bahnhofstrasse for shopping sprees • The medieval town centre • The Zurich Kunsthaus art museum

• Promenade, parks and beaches along the lakeshore • Fraumünster Church with its stained-glass windows by Marc Chagall • The renowned Zurich Opera House • International musicals or other shows are featured at “Theater 11,” very close to the conference hotels • The beautiful and truly animal-friendly Zurich Zoo • Uetliberg, the mountain overlooking the city and commanding a fantastic view across the valley, and all the way to the Alps (a short 20-minute train ride from the Central Railway Station) • The lake boats, which serve food and drinks

2-World Right-to-Die Newsletter Issue No. 61

FIERY SCOTTISH MSP VOWS TO TRY AGAINMargot MacDonald, an independent member of the Scottish Parliament, will try again to make medically assisted dying legal. Last year she introduced her End of Life Assistance bill, which was defeated 85-16. She feels her clear reelection is a mandate to support her intention to “unambiguously allow for a patient to seek, and be given medical assistance to end their life before nature decrees,” she said.

NO JAIL TIME FOR FINAL EXIT NETWORK VOLUNTEERS; GEORGIA CASE UNEARTHS PERMISSIVE LAWFinal Exit Network, a national organization in the U.S., that provides information and support to members with an intolerable and incurable illness who are considering a hastened death, has completed a case in Arizona where 4 volunteers were arrested in 2009 for working with a woman in Phoenix. The Medical Director was acquitted of conspiracy charges; the other 3 were given one year probation and small fines, after they accepted guilty pleas.

Four volunteers were also arrested in Georgia in 2009. On November 7, the Network attorney, Robert Rivas, argued before the Georgia Supreme Court that the GA statute actually permits assisted dying by anyone as long as the services are not publicized.

Rivas has challenged the law as a free speech violation. If the Network is successful in this argument, the four defendants will not be tried. One of them is Ted Goodwin, current President of the World Federation and founder of the Network. The Court’s decision will be made within six months (www.finalexitnetwork.org).

“Death is very likely the single best invention of life. Almost everything, all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment of failure: These things just fall away in the face of death.” Steve Jobs

World Right-to-Die Newsletter-3December 2011

A DUTCH MEDICAL GROUP ENCOURAGES GERIATRIC AFFLICTIONS AS VE ELIGIBLEThe Netherlands Society for the Promotion of Medicine (KNMG) issued a recent position paper, concluding that an accumulation of geriatric afflictions, including loss of function, may also qualify as a medically classifiable disease and, thus, be eligible to be considered as a criterion for assistance in dying. In 2002, the Netherlands Supreme Court issued a decision in a case where a doctor provided euthanasia to a former senator, stating that this help should not have been provided because the patient’s suffering was not rooted in a medically classifiable disease, but in being ‘tired of life’. This decision has governed practice in the Netherlands, but the KNMG report may enlarge the pivotal requirement in the Dutch Euthanasia Act, which states that a patient should be suffering unbearably and with no prospect of improvement. Thus those who consider their lives to be ‘completed’, may ultimately have the right to euthanasia. (For details see Worldrtd.net)

OLD HAWAII STATUTE MAY AUTHORIZE ASSISTED DYING

Experts working with Compassion and Choices, and the Hawai’i Death with Dignity Society, have unearthed a 102-year-old provision in Hawaiian law that they say means aid in dying has been legal all along:

[W]hen a duly licensed physician … pronounces a person affected with any disease hopeless and beyond recovery … nothing herein shall forbid any person from giving or furnishing any remedial agent or measure when so requested by or on behalf of the affected person.”

Advocates say the provision was added in 1909 to give dying patients the option to get treatment that may not have been approved by the government. Some retired doctors now say they are poised to go ahead and help those who seek aid in dying, provided they meet guidelines established by the Oregon Death with Dignity law.

(Thanks to Roland Halpern; see http://CompassionAndChoicesHI.org.)

KEVORKIANContinued from page 1

Kevorkian was tried four times for assisting suicides between May 1994 and June 1997. With the assistance of attorney Geoffrey Fieger, Kevorkian was acquitted three times; the fourth trial ended in a mistrial.

In 1999, he was tried for providing a lethal injection to Youk, who could no longer move his hands or swallow. Acting as his own lawyer, and not being able to provide evidence of Youk’s pain and suffering, Kevorkian was convicted of second degree murder. Judge Cooper could have given him probation but instead, imposed the maximum sentence of 10-25 years. As one justice said in his appeal, it was not so much that the injection was given, as it was that the video of Youk’s death was provided to Mike Wallace who showed it, and interviewed Kevorkian, in front of 60 million people.

One reason for his parole in 2007, was a previous bout with hepatitis. Kevorkian was hospitalized on May 18, 2011, with kidney problems and pneumonia. He grew rapidly worse; he died from a thrombosis on June 3, eight days after his 83rd birthday. According to his attorney, Mayer Morganroth, there were no artificial attempts to keep him alive, and his death was painless.

Kevorkian wrote several books, including “Prescription Medicide: The Goodness of Planned Death” in 1991. He was a painter, played the organ and flute, composed and played jazz, and taught himself German and Japanese.

An excellent tribute to his life is the award-winning HBO film, “You Don’t Know Jack” with Al Pacino, Susan Sarandon and John Goodman. A savior to some, a villain to others, it depicts a man who could be abrupt, dogmatic, even cheap and, at the

same time, compassionate, dedicated and courageous.

IRISH WOMEN PREVENTED FROM GOING TO DIGNITAS

Irish police stopped two women who on the way to Dignitas for help to die. One was in the final stage of MS. They were told they could be prosecuted if they took advantage of the services offered at the Swiss clinic, and could serve up to 14 years in prison.

4-World Right-to-Die Newsletter Issue No. 61

INTEGRATING PALLIATIVE CARE AND LEGAL EUTHANASIA IN BELGIUM by Jan L. Bernheim, M.D., Ph.D.

Palliative Care (PC), the ‘quality-of-life-first’ alternative to futile continued disease-directed medical treatment, is another endeavor to increase human control over dying. However, an explicit motive of hospice founder, Dame Cicely Saunders, was the prevention of Voluntary Euthanasia (VE) or assisted dying. Yet, PC and VE share several

foundational ethical values, including beneficence to the patient, respect for patient autonomy and aversion to medically futile treatment. Nevertheless, in other than the Benelux countries, PC and VE are widely viewed as antagonistic societal developments and adversarial political causes. By and large, the palliative care community is still opposed to euthanasia. For example, in 2003 the European Association for Palliative Care (EAPC) posited that ‘euthanasia should not be part of the responsibility of PC’ because legal euthanasia: 1) by appearing to be an alternative for PC, could impede the development of PC; and, 2) VE might entail slippery slope effects with vulnerable patients.

Since 2002, in the Netherlands and Belgium and 2009 in Luxembourg, euthanasia has become legal when requested by a competent and well-informed irreversibly suffering adult, performed carefully by a doctor after consultation of at least one other competent physician and reported to a Control and Evaluation Commission. In the Netherlands the PC and the VE movements were quite separated in personnel and time (legal euthanasia preceding the development of PC). But they largely went hand in hand in Belgium. Both had wide public support. The first PC initiatives came from advocates of VE at the Free University of Brussels, where contraception, abortion and assisted procreation had also been pioneered. Concurrently, a substantial number of caregivers were pioneers and advocates of both. What they practiced and propagated, was patient-centered Integral End-of-Life Care, consisting of conventional PC and/or VE, according to the patient’s informed wishes. These views prevailed. Worldwide, Belgium was second only to the UK, in PC development when it legalized euthanasia in 2002. The eventual euthanasia bill was enacted by Parliament, together with a bill on patient rights, and one expanding the reach of PC to nation-wide, doubling its funding and integrating PC in national health insurance.

Physicians trained in PC tend to practice euthanasia more than their untrained colleagues. End-of-life decisions

potentially or certainly shortening survival are made much more frequently after the patient has received multidisciplinary PC, than when not.

In consecutive robust epidemiological studies between 1997 and 2008, which were published in top international medical journals, no slippery-slope effects of legalizing euthanasia have been found. On the contrary, several indicators such as more consultation preceding end-of-life decisions and a decreased incidence of life-ending without explicit patient request, suggest that the overall carefulness of end-of-life care has improved.

Before 2002, in the worst of cases, a patient who requested euthanasia may have been less likely to receive life-abbreviating medication than one who did not request euthanasia, because a request was usually known to family or nursing staff, thus exposing the physician to prosecution. This revolting paradox has ceased.

Since the law, a decreasing number of patients receive lethal drugs without explicit request. These patients are largely in extremis and unconscious. Thus, if anything, the slippery slope has been inverted. The most quantitatively important change since the law, has been the massive increase of terminal sedation practices, suggesting that the expansion of PC and the persuasiveness of its tenets, reciprocally influenced the practice of euthanasia and other end-of-life decisions. Guidelines by medical and PC professional organizations, including the Federation Palliative Care Flanders, the Medical Disciplinary Board and the Flemish General Practice Scientific Association, endorsed the concept of Integral Palliative Care, i.e. conventional PC including euthanasia. In practice, among end-of-life caregivers and PC units, just like among patients, there is a pluralism ranging between full acceptance of and total abstention from euthanasia, and these personal attitudes are respected.

Integral end-of-life care has not eroded the confidence of Belgians in their health care system, on the contrary: confidence was 87% in 1999, and rose to 92% in 2008, the highest of all counties studied in the European Values Survey.

Yet, some problems persist. • A minority of catholic health-care institutions still exert pressure on their staff to abstain from euthanasia.

• Physician-assisted death of children and incompetent patients occurs, but, unlike in the Netherlands, remains to be regulated.

• There are indications that continuous deep sedation is too often practiced without patient consent or against their preferences.

ZIMBABWE RTD GROUP ALIVE AND WELLFaye Girsh, Roving Ambassador

The board gave me this title because I love to travel (no funds attached). When it’s possible, I like to combine my two passions, and visit right-to-die (RTD) organizations. This summer I was in southern Africa, and made arrangements to meet some of the members of Final Exit Zimbabwe (FEZ), a small organization which has been a member of the World Federation for many years. The group, headed informally by Howard Dean (shown meeting me at the airport), is centered in the capital, Harare, a formerly gracious city, which is also the home of Robert Mugabe, the tyrant who has ruled the country since its independence in 1980! At one time it was considered the “bread basket of Africa” because of its rich agricultural resources; it is now scored as the least developed country in the world.

FEZ members, part of the 1% white minority, survived the hyperinflation period from 1999 to 2008, where bills were printed for 50,000,000 Zimbabwe dollars, which might buy a loaf of bread. This situation was alleviated in 2008, when the U.S. dollar became the currency standard, after most people saw their savings wiped out. During that difficult time, the WF sometimes paid FEZ’s dues, but now they are functioning on their own, have public meetings and produce an informative newsletter.

Though they would like to go farther, the Board is currently concentrating on promoting Living Wills, since the criminal code is strict on even removing life support systems (Here are some board members,

that’s me in the middle, next to Howard). In a country like Zimbabwe, where life expectancy has decreased from age 60 to age 42, staying alive becomes a primary concern. FEZ’s guiding statement remains in part “….people have the right to self-determination for all life decisions…. (and) should be able to retain their dignity, integrity and self-respect at the end of their lives.”

December 2011 World Right-to-Die Newsletter-5

• Though the reporting rate of euthanasia steadily increases, too many cases of euthanasia still remain unreported, especially in the French-speaking half of Belgium.

• Most physicians are inexperienced with euthanasia, and for personal reasons or under institutional policies, a substantial number of end-of-life caregivers and PC units still rebuke requests of euthanasia. To palliate these limitations, the volunteer caregivers of Life End Information Forum (LEIF) are available to help with euthanasia requests. Conclusions: Historical, epidemiological, public funding and regulatory data suggest that the legalization-of-euthanasia drive enhanced the development of PC. Conversely, as intended by its founders, a well-developed PC network made the legalization of euthanasia more widely acceptable. The process of legalization of euthanasia was ethically, politically and budgetarily linked to the development of PC. Euthanasia can be part and parcel of integral palliative care. In epidemiological studies, between 1997 and 2008, no slippery slope effects of legal euthanasia have been observed, and the carefulness of end-of-life decisions increased.

Selected references:

Bernheim, J.L., Deschepper, R., Distelmans, W., Mullie, A., Bilsen, J., Deliens, L., Development of palliative care and legalisation of euthanasia: antagonism or synergy? Brit. Med. J. 336: 864-867, 2008.

Bernheim. Jl,, Mullie. A., Euthanasia and Palliative Care in Belgium: Legitimate Concerns and Unsubstantiated Grievances. J. Palliative Medicine, 13, (7): 798-799, 2010. Bernheim is Emeritus Professor of Medicine and Medical Ethics, and a member of the End-of-Life Care Research Group, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Belgium.

COUPLE REFUSING FOOD AND FLUID EVICTED FROM ASSISTED LIVING

Armond and Dorothy Rudolph, 92 and 90, both in poor health and in an assisted living facility in New Mexico, planned their death by not eating and drinking, fearing they would end up in a nursing home. On Day 4 of their fast, the

management called 9-1-1, but the emergency room doctor refused to force feed them, finding them rational and within the law. Their son rented a house, and stayed with them for the 11 days it took for them to die. “Both knew that they didn’t want to endure a lingering decline,” their son said. “Neither wanted to lose their independence.”

6-World Right-to-Die Newsletter Issue No. 61

DIGNITAS ASSISTS IN DEATH OF ISRAELI TV HOST

Adi Talmor, 58, veteran Israeli editor and broadcaster, ended his life at Dignitas after he was diagnosed with cancer. A taboo subject in Israel, Talmor’s death has brought the discussion of assisted dying into the open.

A son of Holocaust survivors, Talmor worked for 33 years as a news anchor and news editor at Israeli Army Radio. Talmor wrote a series of accounts, explaining his decision, which goes against Israeli law and the Jewish faith. A heavy smoker, he was diagnosed this year with lung cancer. On August 5, Talmor ended his life at Dignitas.

No one at the station knew of Talmor’s illness. The colorful man of the radio was alone in both his life and his death. He kept the fact that he had cancer to himself. Talmor also composed the announcement of his death, adding a list of songs he would like played on Army Radio on Saturday. “He hinted years ago that this is what would happen,” a friend remembered. “He had heard of people who were going through agonizing struggles to fight cancerous illnesses and said, ‘I won’t get to that. The moment I feel my time has come, I will take leave of this world right away.’”

(World Radio Switzerland and Haaretz.com)

UK NURSES PROHIBITED FROM MENTIONING DIGNITAS

New guidelines from The Royal College of Nursing, remind staff that it is illegal to offer information about assisted dying, including contact details for Dignitas, in case it is seen as “encouragement.” Nurses could go to prison if they have are found to have

discussed any aspect of euthanasia with a patient who goes on to commit suicide.(Exit Newsletter, 31, 2 11/11 ( http://www.euthanasia.cc)

PROPOSED DEATH WITH DIGNITY INITIATIVE IN MASSACHUSETTS100,000 signatures are being collected to place a proposition on the 2012 Massachusetts ballot, to permit terminally ill to receive a prescription for lethal medication from a doctor. A local newspaper conducted an online poll, with nearly three-quarters of respondents supporting passage.

Proponents must gather 68,911 signatures by mid-November. If the signature drive succeeds, lawmakers have until May 2012 to back the proposal, offer an alternative, or permit the plan to go to the ballot unaltered. Barring legislative intervention, backers would need to collect an additional 11,485 signatures before sending the plan to voters in November, 2012.

The lead petitioner of the Massachusetts Death with Dignity initiative is Dr. Marcia Angell, former Editor of the New England Journal of Medicine and Senior Lecturer in Social Medicine at Harvard Medical School. In 1997, Time Magazine named Dr. Angell one of the 25 most influential Americans.

Joining Dr. Angell, are several prominent physicians, social workers, legal scholars, and patients’ rights advocates.

(To help see https://co.clickandpledge.com/sp/d1/default.aspx?wid=47090)

MINOR DEVELOPMENTS IN SWEDEN by Berit HasselmarkVice President, RTVD of Sweden

After 20 years of silence from one of the most important sources in Sweden, when it comes to new regulations and guide lines regarding terminally ill persons and palliative care,

we finally got this result. In June, the National Board of Health and Welfare has issued new rules for palliative care that, in some cases, gives terminally ill patients the right to die. Patients will be able to stop any life-support treatments, even if it means they could die. But before that type of decision can be made, a doctor must first consult with another licensed professional and the patient’s doctor.

The rules also require that all seriously ill patients should have a specific doctor they can contact. Unfortunately, there is no answer to the question of physician assisted death or to voluntary euthanasia. Things essentially remain as before, not only more clearly defined, but with most of the discretion left to the physician. In the Swedish organization RTVD, we are of course disappointed, but so are also other persons, prominent in the health care field, complaining that the ethical issues about who makes these decisions are still unaddressed.

SEE SIR TERRY PRATCHETT ON YOU TUBE The June BBC broadcast of “Choosing to Die,” can now be viewed at http://topdocumentaryfilms.com/terry-pratchett-choosing-to-die/ The documentary features author Sir Terry Pratchett, who was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s in 2008, accompanying 71 year old ALS patient, Peter Smedley, to Dignitas for a peaceful death. On YouTube, you can also view Pratchett’s remarkable speech, “Shaking Hands with Death.” (Thanks to Russel Ogden, Farewell Foundation – www.farewellfoundation.ca)

BOOKSTHE WALK TO THE PARADISE GARDENby Leon Arden, Muswell Press, Ltd., England, 2011. ISBN- 978-0-9565575-9-9. Available from Amazon.com in Kindle form

An entertaining, funny yet powerful novel about a dysfunctional New York family, forced to grapple with a profound question: do they dare take part in a decision involving the death of a loved one? Russell becomes painfully aware of his mother’s intellectual failings and his father’s need to control. He escapes into a relationship with a young English girl, but their bliss is not to be. His father suffers a stroke, is paralyzed and confined to a wheelchair. His life is unbearable, and he begs Russell to help him end it. His son refuses, but the father tries to kill himself by a series of increasingly bizarre and desperate methods, and Russell is forced to consider a move that could destroy his own life. This gripping novel deals with all the ramifications of euthanasia, and how it impacts a family, no matter what choices they make.

“This is not just a funny picture of a New York family. Nor is it just a serious book about assisted suicide. Because it is both, it is an enjoyable, indeed engrossing, read.” -Brian Clark

“A first novel of raw intensity and disturbing psychological impact.” -Saturday Review

PEACEFUL TRANSITIONS, 2ND EDITION by Stanley Terman, M.D., Ph.D. Life Transitions Publications, Carlsbad CA, 2011. ISBN- 13: 978-1-933418-18-6.(See www.LifeTP.com to order)

Dr. Terman is one of the strongest advocates for voluntary refusal of food and hydration as the best way to end life, a position recently adopted by Compassion and Choices. In this volume, he explains his “Ironclad Strategy” for achieving the death you want, by using his pictorial My Way Cards, which eventuate in a Natural Dying Advance Directive/Natural Dying Physician’s Orders (NDAD/NDPO) which, Terman says, will work even in cases of advanced dementia. It does mean that such a patient, with these directives, will not be fed or hydrated even if they want desperately to eat and drink. Terman is well-informed, and tends to include a lot of information in his writing, which could be confusing. He claims this book is unique because “It strives for a way to die peacefully that is NOT premature.” (highlights by Dr. Terman.)

World Right-to-Die Newsletter-7December 2011

Books, Plays and Film EUTHANASIA ACTIVISTSby Wikipedia Books, L.L.C., Memphis TN; also Barnes and Noble, 2010.ISBN- 978-1-155-35199-5.

This 66 page paperback contains 2 to 7 page biographies, with references when relevant, and a good index, to 18 activists. Included are our known leaders: Humphry, Kevorkian, Nitschke, and Minelli, plus others like Ramon Sampedro, Debbie Purdy, Karl Binding, Jacob Appel, and David Moor. It is a helpful little book, and can be obtained – and expanded – by going on to http://booksllc.net/?q=Category:Euthanasia%5Factivists. Most entries also have a dedicated URL to a hyperlinked online version.

WRONG MEDICINE: DOCTORS, PATIENTS, AND FUTILE TREATMENT, 2ND EDITION by Lawrence Schneiderman, M.D. and Nancy Jecker, Ph.D., Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore, 2011. ISBN-10: 0-8018-9851-X.

Dr. Schneiderman is a pioneer in promoting the concept of medical futility. This important, well-written, carefully documented 230 page paperback is must reading for anyone trying to understand or to fix the U.S. medical system, which devotes huge resources to medical care that accomplishes nothing, and often leads to suffering and isolation at the end of life. Allocation of medical resources that is equitable and rational, also includes legal assisted dying. These authors put the issue not just in the context of autonomy, but of exploring what is humane, end of life care.

LOOKING FOR LIONEL by Sharon Snir, Allen and Unwin, Australia, 2010. ISBN- 9781 74175 951 8. Available on Amazon.comThis is a factual, well-written account of Ms. Snir’s experience with her father as she and her family dealt with his dementia – a scenario that is becoming increasingly and painfully familiar. (From DWDV Update, Spring, 2011)

REMEMBER ME, MRS. V? by Tom Valenta, Michelle Anderson Publishing Pty Ltd., Australia, 2007. ISBN-10: 0855723777. This is a powerful story describing the daily agony of seeing his wife deteriorate, after she was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease at the age of 54. He tells not only his very personal story, but the deeply moving experiences of thirteen other carers who have travelled similar journeys. (From DWDV Update, Spring, 2011)

It is with deepest appreciation and fanfare that we acknowledge and thank contributors to the Century Club – people or organizations, who have contributed $100 or more in the last six months. Your generosity enables the World Federation to distribute this Newsletter all over the world to member organizations and subscribers.

8-World Right-to-Die Newsletter Issue No. 61

Linda BanezRon BennettCarrie BrownUlrich DanckersLarry EgbertKinta Heller Exit Suisse Romande

Thank You!!

You can make a contribution to the Century Club (US$100 or more), or become a subscriber (US$18 for two years) by sending your check, made payable to World Federation, in US dollars or the equivalent to:

1116 Silverado St., La Jolla, CA 92037 • Tel 858.454.3158 • Fax 858.454.2214info@printomat.net • www.printomat.net

This newsletter can be read and downloaded at www.worldrtd.net

The editor can be contacted at fayegirsh@msn.com.

Graphic Design and Printing by

Faye Girsh, Editor7811 Eads Ave., #108La Jolla, CA 92037USA

Michael Irwin, Treasurer 9 Waverleigh Rd., CranleighSurrey GU6 8BZ England

Bernie KleinDon PedersonJim RappLenora RathboneFrank Sargent

Books, Plays and Film continued BOOKDEATH WITH DIGNITY: THE CASE FOR LEGALIZING PHYSICIAN-ASSISTED DYING AND EUTHANASIA, by Robert Orfali, Mill City Press, Minneapolis, 2011. ISBN-13: 978-1-936780-18-1 Available on Amazon.com

This is an excellent, new book that makes a succinct, well-documented, easy to read case for legalizing physician assisted dying (which he calls “the Nembutal”) for competent, terminally ill patients. Although his approach neglects do-it-yourself or non-physician methods, it is outweighed by the forcefulness and clarity of the presentation. His experience is personal: his young, surfer wife died a slow and often painful death from cancer. Even though she had good hospice care, Orfali details the limitations of palliative care in her case, and is persuasive in arguing for using both in a complimentary way. The Orfalis are from Hawaii, and have been instrumental in calling attention to the loophole in the Hawaii law, which may add that state to the column of those permitting assistance in dying (see P. 2, Hawaii law…).

FILMA SHORT STAY IN SWITZERLAND: A True Story of Life & Death, of Love & Family, 2009, A BBC production, available in DVD from Amazon.com

This 90 minute docudrama produced by the BBC, is based on the true story of British doctor, Anne Turner, played by Julie Walters. She is diagnosed with an incurable neurological disease, nearly identical to the illness her husband died of. She decides that when her illness reaches a critical point, she will end her life. The drama involves her children’s reaction, their struggle to understand and, ultimately, their support when she seeks help to die at Dignitas. Walters won the International Emmy Awards for Best Actress for this outstanding performance.

PLAYAN INSTINCT FOR KINDNESS by Chris LarmerLast year, Chris Larner accompanied his terminally ill ex-wife to Dignitas. “This is a show about fighting to die, about unendurable pain and enemas, and of a room with no view.” This moving, bittersweet drama reflects on the circumstances, morality and humanity surrounding the journey. Directed in August, at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, to excellent reviews, by triple Fringe First-winner, Hannah Eidinow.(From the DWDQueensland Newsletter, October, 2011. www.dwdq.org.au)

CENTURY CLUB