December 30, 2013

2013 Life & Hope Network News

December

  • Judge Extends Deadline for Jahi Mcmath 12/31/2013 (Fox News) – The family of a 13-year-old California girl declared brain dead rejoiced Monday after a superior court judge extended a deadline to keep the teen on a ventilator as her family attempts to move her to a new facility.
  • Jahi McMath Supporters Pressing for Release from Children’s Hospital 12/31/2013 PHILADELPHIA, Pa., December 31, 2013 / — Under the direction of the Terri Schiavo Life & Hope Network, numerous organizations and individuals have been working on behalf of Jahi McMath and her family in relative silence for the sake of the sensitivity of her case.
  • NY Facility is Jahi Mcmath’s Only Remaining Option 12/30/2013 (Mercury News) – A Los Angeles-area long-term care facility that had been willing to accept Jahi McMath has withdrawn its offer, leaving a New York hospital as the only apparent option for the brain-dead girl as a 5 p.m. Monday deadline to remove her from a ventilator approaches, her mother and attorney said Sunday.
  • Family in Talks With Facilities to Move Jahi Mcmath 12/28/2013 (KGO) – The family of an Oakland girl declared brain-dead by doctors tells us they have new options of where to move her, though moving her is not a sure thing. Children’s Hospital Oakland can take 13-year-old Jahi McMath off life support Monday.
  • Family Fights to Move Jahi to New Care Facility 12/27/2013 (KTVU-AP) – The family of a girl who was declared brain dead after complications from a tonsillectomy wants to transfer her to a nursing home that is willing to keep caring for her even though doctors have said she is beyond recovery, a lawyer said Thursday.
  • Jahi Mcmath’s Family Hopes for Miracle after Ruling 12/26/2013 (CBS News) – A Northern California family that lost its bid to keep a 13-year-old girl on life support says “there is still time for a miracle.”
  • Our Disdain for the Brain Injured 12/23/2013 (Bobby Schindler/LifeNews.com) – How many of these news reports do we need to read about patients who are wrongly diagnosed as being in a so-called persistent vegetative state (PVS) before we eliminate this dangerous, unscientific and completely subjective diagnosis?
  • Judge Orders Life Support for “Brain Dead” Girl 12/21/2013 (NRO) – This is the right decision. Most of you have probably heard of Jahi McMath, the girl who had catastrophic complications from a tonsillectomy and was later declared “brain dead.”
  • Wesley J. Smith: Euthanasia Activists Are on a Roll 12/20/2013 (Weekly Standard) – Advocates of assisted suicide tell two-no, three-lies that act as the honey to help the hemlock go down. The first is that assisted suicide/euthanasia is a strictly medical act. Second, they falsely assure us that medicalized killing is only for the terminally ill.
  • “Brain Dead” Term Too Loosely Used 12/19/2013 (NRO) – I have been following the tragic case of Jahi McMath, who went to Oakland Children’s Hospital for a tonsillectomy and suffered a catastrophic complication, resulting in cardiac arrest. According to the media, her doctors later declared her “brain dead” and told the parents she would be removed from life support. After a lawyer’s letter, Jahi’s life support continues.
  • Experiment Reveals Patients in ‘PVS’ Might Have Emotional Connection to Familiar Faces 12/18/2013 (The Blaze) – Research about patients thought to be in vegetative states with questionable levels of consciousness has been finding that they might be more aware than previously thought.
  • Euthanasia: Who Cares About Right v. Wrong? 12/17/2013 (NRO) – I quit practicing law, I now realize many years later, because I got into the profession to help promote justice. But even back then (circa early 1980s), society didn’t really know what “justice” was. So, law became primarily about process.
  • 12-Year-Old Vows to Get Back On Horse After TBI 12/16/2013 (News Tribune) – Tears fill Emma McCord’s eyes inside a stable on the outskirts of Kennwick as she is reminded of the limitations her traumatic brain injury has caused. The 12-year-old buries her face in her mother’s armpit for a moment. She quickly reappears with a smile and begins to laugh as she remembers how lucky she really is.
  • Belgian Senate Okays Child Euthanasia 12/13/2013 (NRO) – Belgium took a big step closer to child euthanasia, with a huge vote in favor in the Senate. From the ABC story:
  • Mother: He’s My Child. And He’s Human 12/12/2013 (wnyt.com) – Darryl Mount Jr. was unable to greet the guests at his birthday party Sunday. He could not blow out the candles, or eat any of the cake.
  • Let Me Count the Ways Dutch Doctors Kill 12/11/2013 (NRO) – How do Dutch doctors kill? Let me count the ways: Dutch euthanasia statistics are bogus. Always were. First, they have a very narrow definition of euthanasia and assisted suicide.
  • Snowboarder Shares Injury And Recovery In ‘The Crash Reel’ 12/09/2013 (onlyagame.com) – Before December 31st, 2009, Kevin Pearce was one of the most spectacular snowboarders anybody had ever seen. He’d challenged Shaun White, aka “The Flying Tomato,” for the status of top dog in the sport, having won three medals at the 2008 Winter X Games and another one in 2009. He was training in Park City, Utah, for the 2010 Olympics when he crashed.
  • Terri Schiavo’s Mother and Brother to Appear on Oprah’s: Where Are They Now? 12/06/2013 This Sunday, December 8 at 10pm ET, on the Oprah Winfey Network (OWN), Terri Schiavo’s mother and brother are scheduled to appear on, Oprah: Where Are They Now?
  • Giving Chimpanzees “Fundamental Rights to Bodily Liberty” 12/06/2013 (Wesley J. Smith) – I have been receiving media calls and emails about the wholly expected lawsuits by the Non Human Rights Project to obtain writs of habeas corpus for chimpanzees. From the US News and World Report story:
  • New Jersey Governor Christie Opposes Bill Legalizing Assisted Suicide 12/05/2013 (LifeNews.com) – New Jersey Governor Chris Christie stated during a press conference that he is opposed to the assisted suicide bill that is sponsored by Assemblyman John Burzichelli.
  • Disability Community Loses a Hero 12/04/2013 (By Dr. Mark Mostert) – Alison Davis, champion of the disability community and unfailing exemplar of a life well lived, died early on December 3, 2013.
  • Terri Schindler Schiavo’s 50th Birthday: “Where There’s Life, There’s Hope” 12/03/2013 (NCG) – It would have been Terri Schindler Schiavo’s 50th birthday on Dec. 3. But she became the victim of a judicial homicide at age 41 on March 31, 2005, shortly after 9 a.m. by order of Pinellas County Probate Court Judge George Greer because her estranged husband, Michael Schiavo, wanted to get on with his life with his concubine Jodi and their two children.
  • Time to Prevent Elderly From Living Too Long? 12/02/2013 (Wesley J. Smith) – Bioethicist Founding Father Daniel Callahan has long supported death panel health care rationing based on age. He has now weighed in against spending a lot on research to delay the aging process. The transhumanists aren’t going to like this! From, On Dying After Your Time.

November

  • Child Euthanasia a Step Closer in Belgium 11/30/2013 (NRO) – Belgian euthanasia looks to soon legally spread to children. From the CNN story: “A controversial bill that would extend the right to request euthanasia to children suffering terminal illnesses and adults with dementia cleared a vote in a Belgian Senate committee Wednesday.”
  • Happy Thanksgiving! 11/28/2013
  • Aged Couple’s Joint Suicide Pushes Euthanasia 11/27/2013 (NRO) – Well, here we are again. The logic of euthanasia-that killing is an acceptable answer to human suffering-gets taken to its logical conclusion of death-on-demand. An elderly French couple, not wanting to ever be apart, killed themselves in a French hotel and left a pro euthanasia suicide note. From the The Local story:
  • Belgium’s Meteoric Rise to Become Euthanasia Capital of the World 11/26/2013 (Dr. Peter Saunders) – It is widely acknowledged that euthanasia is out of control in Belgium: a 500% increase in cases in ten years; one third involuntary; half not reported; euthanasia for blindness, anorexia and botched sex change operations; organ transplant euthanasia; plans to extend euthanasia to children and people with dementia.
  • Death by Doctor: Delivering Euthanasia When No One Else Will 11/25/2013 (NRO) – Euthanasia is only as limited as the consciences of doctors willing to kill. In other words, given that the supposed limits are wholly unenforced-and mostly depend on self-reporting-the only limits to euthanasia and assisted suicides are those doctors impose on themselves.
  • Pope Thanks Disabled Boy For Entrusting Him to Guardian Angel 11/22/2013 (CNA/EWTN News) – A 16 year-old Argentine boy who suffers from chronic encephalopathy-a brain disorder-was moved by a letter from Pope Francis responding to a note that he had sent the pontiff a few days earlier.
  • Noxious Nitschke Opens Internet Suicide Clinic 11/21/2013 (NRO) – Australia’s Philip Nitschke is Jack Kevorkian, squared, but without our late ghoul’s willingness to put his own freedom on the line for his beliefs. How noxious is Nitschke?
  • Study Shows Adult Stem Cells May Repair Brain Injury 11/20/2013 (Oracle) – According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 1.7 million people a year will suffer a traumatic brain injury. A new stem cell study conducted by USF researchers may lead to respite for patients suffering traumatic brain injury (TBI).
  • Scot Bill Creates “Suicide Facilitator” Profession 11/19/2013 (NRO) – This is completely nuts! The new assisted suicide legalization bill in Scotland is so wild that it would create the new profession of “licensed suicide facilitator!” From the SP Bill 40:
  • Pope Francis Greets Hundreds of Disabled Visitors 11/17/2013 (LifeNews.com) – Pope Francis has received worldwide praise for his outreach to people who are mentally and physically disabled. The leader of the Catholic Church recently kissed and blessed a man with tumors all over his head and he let a teenager with Down Syndrome take a spin in the Popemobile.
  • Arizona High School Football Player Dies from Traumatic Brain Injury 11/15/2013 (CBSSports.com) – A high school football player died Monday night in a Phoenix hospital after he suffered a serious head injury in a playoff game this past Saturday.
  • Belgium Bishops Attack Proposed Euthanasia Law Extension 11/14/2013 (CatholicHerald.co.uk) – The president of the Belgian bishops’ conference has joined other faith leaders in criticising proposed legislation to extend euthanasia to children and dementia sufferers, warning the measure risks “destroying the functioning of society”.
  • Cape Teen Recovering After Bicycle Crash 11/13/2013 (NBC-2.com) – He no longer needs assistance from a breathing tube, and he is even eating and talking on his own. Connor Fields, 13, is still in the ICU recovering from a traumatic brain injury he suffered during an accident October 21st. Connor was riding his bicycle near his home when police say he collided with a trailer being towed by a truck.
  • Imagine Pain Knowing of Own Dehydration! 11/12/2013 (NRO) – We dehydrate to death helpless people to death in this country because they have a catastrophic cognitive impairment. Advocates for dehydration say it is just medical ethics, the withdrawal of the medical treatment of tube feeding. (Now, there is even a lawsuit to compel starvation by withholding spoon feeding-not a medical treatment!)
  • Belgium, Where Death Becomes the Norm, Living the Exception 11/11/2013 (Mercatornet.com) – Recently I received an invitation to fly to Calgary in mid-November to attend the North American première of a film called End Credits at the Marda Loop Justice Film Festival.
  • Oregon Tightens Duty to Die on Cancer Patients 11/10/2013 (NRO) – As I have discussed here previously, the first state to explicitly ration Medicaid-an integral feature of all single payer systems-tightened the screws against terminal cancer patients a few months ago. Now, the issues is gaining wider discussion in Oregon.
  • Euthanizing the Unhappy: The Urgent Need for Love 11/08/2013 (by Jennifer Roback Morse) – The recent physician-assisted suicide of a deeply depressed Belgian woman made worldwide headlines. But the headlines didn’t say a thing about depression. The headlines read, “Belgian killed by euthanasia after a botched sex change operation.”
  • “Death Panels” Are Euthanizing Patients Every Day as Doctors Make Treatment Decisions 11/06/2013 (By Bobby Schindler/LifeNews.com) – Former Governor Sarah Palin, whether it was intentional or not, certainly began the discussion on end of life issues when she referred to “death panels” in a 2009 debate about federal health care legislation to cover the uninsured in the US.
  • Academics Endorse Euthanasia of People Who are “Weary of Life” 11/04/2013 (LifeNews.com) – This article is written by Xavier Symons and published on November 2 on Bioedge. Several academics are arguing for euthanasia for those ‘weary of life’.
  • Student Struck by Car Continuing Recovery at Home 11/03/2013 (wpxi.com) – A South Fayette High School graduate is home with his family after a nearly fatal accident in September 2012.
  • Wesley J. Smith: The V-Word Is as Bad as the N-Word 11/01/2013 (First Things) -The Washington Redskins football team is under great pressure to change its name to stop offending Native Americans.

October

  • Quebec One Step Closer to Euthanasia 10/31/2013 (LifeSiteNews.com) – The Quebec government is one step closer to decriminalizing euthanasia as “medical aid in dying” after Bill 52 passed its second reading today with an 84 to 26 “vote in principle” at the National Assembly, with none abstaining.
  • Less Brain Deaths Tempt Organ Ethics Meltdown 10/30/2013 (NRO) – I blame my pal Ralph Nader and the law of unintended consequences: Improved safety-such as seat belt and helmet laws-resulted in far fewer catastrophic brain injuries. Great news! But that has meant fewer people experience “brain death.”
  • Football Player is on the Road to Recovery Following Brain Injury 10/29/2013 (Herald Journal) – After a football injury nearly took the life of Dassel-Cokato High School junior Luke Nelson, he is back home on the road to recovery. Not only did the initial injury nearly take Luke’s life, but as he was recovering, a serious infection nearly cost him his life a second time.
  • Feds Say No to Nursing Home “No CPR” Policies 10/28/2013 (NRO) – A little good news out of the federal bureaucracy for a change. Apparently some nursing homes have instituted “no CPR” policies for all residents-regardless of what the patient or family might want-even if against an advance directive.
  • Pitt Lands Leading Role in International Brain Injury Study 10/25/2013 (Pittsburgh Post-Gazette) – The University of Pittsburgh says it will play a leading role in an unprecedented international study aimed at better diagnosing and treating traumatic brain injury, a public health issue that remains shrouded in mystery despite decades of clinical trials.
  • Arizona Professor: Humans as Special as Bacteria 10/24/2013 (NRO) – I will have a new ebook out in early 2014, dealing with how anti-humanism has badly infected the environmental movement. Here’s an example of what I mean. A professor (of course!) named Guy McPherson says WE’RE ALL GOING TO DIE! by 2040 from global warming.
  • VA Hospital Opens Suite for Vets with Brain Injuries 10/23/2013 (CBSDFW.com) – The Dallas Veterans Affairs Medical Center opened a new suite Monday for veterans with polytrauma and traumatic brain injury.
  • More Media Support For Death Panels 10/22/2013 (Wesley J. Smith) – The mainstream media often promotes death panel rationing-even as it denies the threat is real. Slate has published a piece by a Canadian student studying law at Yale. He extols Canadian death panels in the context of the Hassan Rasouli case, about which I have written on more than one occasion.
  • Evil Organ Buyers Victimize Children 10/21/2013 (NRO) – The first case of a child smuggled into the UK to be organ harvested has been uncovered. From the Telegraph story: “The first case of a child being trafficked to Britain in order to have their organs harvested has been uncovered.
  • Teammates Rally for Teen Who Experienced Brain Injury 10/20/2013 (lohud.com) – “Keep Fighting #42.” That was the message of love and encouragement Saturday afternoon as crowds of supporters came out for a fundraiser for Justin Sacco, the Mahopac eighth-grader who suffered a traumatic brain injury two weeks ago.
  • Schiavo’s Brother Teaches How to Avoid a Forced Premature Death 10/15/2013 (Christian Newswire) – Bobby Schindler doesn’t want what was done to his sister to ever happen to anyone else. That’s the motivation behind Life Legal Defense Foundation’s Saturday evening forum in Santa Clara, “How to Protect Yourself and Your Loved Ones from a Hastened Death.”
  • BC’s Appeal Court Says Canada’s Ban on Assisted-Suicide is Constitutional 10/14/2013 (Calgary Herald) – British Columbia’s Court of Appeal has reversed a lower court ruling that said Canada’s assisted-suicide ban violated the charter rights of gravely ill Canadians.
  • Pay People to be Euthanized Early! 10/13/2013 October 13, 2013 (NRO) – Money is a big part of the euthanasia issue, and increasingly so. If cost saving is the essential public health policy paradigm, what could be cheaper than killing as a “medical treatment?”
  • Pa. Daughter Faces Assisted Suicide Charge 10/11/2013 (AP) – A Pennsylvania judge said Thursday that she will rule later on whether to dismiss an assisted suicide charge against a nurse accused of handing her 93-year-old terminally ill father a bottle of morphine.
  • FOX 19 Interview with Terri’s Brother! 10/11/2013 (FOX 19) – The Family of Terri Schiavo is having their 3rd Life & Hope Concert in Cincinnati tonight at the Taft Theater. Watch this interview with Tracey Johnson and Bobby Schindler, Terri’s Brother.
  • Euthanasia of the Blind in the Netherlands! 10/09/2013 (NRO) – It gets worse and worse-and yet the stories still repeat the mantra that euthanasia is implemented under “strict guidelines.” A Netherlanders woman lost her vision and was killed on request by her doctor.
  • New Trial for NY Man Who Said He Assisted Suicide 10/07/2013 (AP) – A man convicted of murder after claiming he was just helping a motivational speaker kill himself won a new trial Thursday in a case that tests the legal bounds of assisted suicide.
  • Adult Stem Cells Help Repair TBI 10/04/2013 (rdmag.com) – Univ. of South Florida researchers have suggested a new view of how stem cells may help repair the brain following trauma.
  • Will Obamacare Boost Assisted Suicide? 10/03/2013 (NRO) – I rarely agree with assisted suicide proponents. But an article in Salon may be onto something-that the passage of the Affordable Care Act could boost assisted suicide legalization. From the article:
  • Belgian Euthanized after Botched Sex Change Operation 10/02/2013 (Telegraph) – A Belgian has been killed by medical euthanasia after pleading for death because a botched sex change operation to turn her into a man had resulted in “a monster”. Mother of sex change Belgian: ‘I don’t care about his euthanasia death’.
  • Euthanasia Activists Employing Celebrities to Push Assisted Suicide 10/01/2013 (By Ken Connor/LifeNews.com) – It is no secret that we live in a celebrity obsessed society. This isn’t just an American phenomenon, it’s a global phenomenon.

September

  • Boy Recovering from Tree Branch Accident  9/30/2013 (wsbtv.com) – Almost two months after a rotted tree fell on Tristen Wilson, the 5-year-old is now in rehab and taking his first steps.
  • The Duty to Die This Way Cometh 9/27/2013 (NRO) – Medicine is becoming a one-way street. If a patient wants to refuse treatment in order to die-sacrosanct! That’s fine. But it should work both ways. Nope.
  • Glenn Beck to Headline 2nd Life & Hope Award Gala 9/26/2013 PHILADELPHIA, September 26, 2013 / — The Terri Schiavo Life & Hope Network is delighted to announce that America’s leading multi-media personality, Mr. Glenn Beck, will be the honored speaker at the second annual Terri Schiavo Life & Hope Network’s Award Gala, Thursday, March 27, 2014 at the Union League of Philadelphia.
  • Teen Continues to Heal 9/25/2013 (The Review) – Tyler Simpson is saying the Lord’s Prayer with his grandmother, but he’s saying it so fast, he confuses it with the Hail Mary.
  • One in Thirty Deaths in Holland are from Euthanasia 9/24/2013 (The Daily Mail) – The number of Dutch people choosing to end their lives through euthanasia has risen 13 per cent in a single year, making it the cause of almost one in 30 deaths in the country.
  • We Are Becoming a “Killing Kind” of Society 9/23/2013 (NRO) – The Quebec Parliament is debating one of the most radical euthanasia bills I have ever seen. How radical? It mandates that doctors do-or be complicit in-the euthanizing.
  • Tom DeLay Acquitted, Terri Schiavo Too 9/20/2013 (By June Maxam/NCG) – Former House majority leader Tom DeLay, once one of the most powerful Republicans in Congress until he resigned in 2005 because of felony money laundering charges in connection with a campaign finance investigation, has been exonerated.
  • Obamacare: Putting Our Innocent in the Cross Hairs of Anti-Life Agenda 9/19/2013 (By Bobby Schindler/LifeNews.com) – Recently, in an address to Catholics who came to Turin, Italy for the 47th annual Social Service Week, Pope Francis said the following, “A population that does not take care of the elderly and of children and the young has no future, because it abuses both its memory and its promise.”
  • Euthanasia Advocate Takes Credit for Higher Elderly Suicide Rate 9/18/2013 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Top euthanasia advocate Philip Nitschke has taken partial credit for the increase in the suicide rate among elderly men in New Zealand that was revealed in recently released statistics.
  • Vietnam Vet Gives Back After Experiencing TBI  9/17/2013 (Fort Campbell Courier) – He’s an author, psychologist, Vietnam Veteran. He’s a husband, teacher and motivational speaker. He’s also a severe traumatic brain injury survivor. Meet Dr. James P. Meade Jr., who was shot down over the jungles of Vietnam, May 8, 1967.
  • Pope Francis: A Society that Fails to Protect Young and Old ‘Has No Future’ 9/16/2013 (LifeSiteNews) – “A population that does not take care of the elderly and of children and the young has no future, because it abuses both its memory and its promise,” Pope Francis said on Friday.
  • Advocacy Group Publishes Nation’s First-Ever, Nursing Home Report Card 9/13/2013 (Families for Better Care) – Families for Better Care, a Florida-based nursing home resident advocacy group, published the first-ever state-by-state nursing home report card.
  • Preying on the Disabled? 9/12/2013 (Human Life Matters) – I came across a headline that posed a bold idea: “Killing MS Patients VIA Assisted Suicide to Harvest their Organs?” As a theoretical question for provocative bioethicists to ponder or advocate, it may be interesting, but I live in the real world far from academia.
  • Is Compassion and Choices Hiding Secret Assisted Suicides in California? 9/11/2013 (LifeNews.com) – Compassion and Choices-once known by the more accurate name Hemlock Society-is in the well paid, but non profit business, of promoting assisted suicide.
  • Humanism = Pro Suicide? 9/10/2013 (NRO) – And we wonder why there is an epidemic of geriatric suicide. The Humanist has published an article that could have been a perfect fit for the old Hemlock Quarterly, in which a wife (“non theist”) wholeheartedly supports her husband John’s desire to commit suicide because he has Alzheimer’s disease.
  • Grateful for Life, However it Comes 9/09/2013 (Shoreline Times) – Ever since the look for the good project began, I have had thousands of people write to me telling me what they’re grateful for. People of all different ages, ethnicities, and circumstances each have something beautiful to say, and sometimes very powerful.
  • Talking “Death Panels” with Dennis Miller 9/06/2013 Bioethicists, Wesley J. Smith talked about his article on the perils of Obamacare “Bureaucracy Lives!”.
  • VA Fails to Provide Effective Treatment to Over 200,000 Vets with TBI 9/06/2013 (Digital Journal) – In a study commissioned by the Veterans Administration, the Rand Corporation interviewed thousands of veterans from Iraq and Afghanistan and estimated 18% suffer from PTSD and 19% suffer from traumatic brain injury (TBI).
  • Assisted Suicide Battle on Two Fronts: Vermont and New Jersey 9/05/2013 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Although assisting suicide is only legal for a small fraction of the world’s population, advocates remain focused on promoting this dangerous legislation.
  • Couple Adopts Disabled Baby Others Called a “Curse” 9/04/2013 (LifeNews.com) – For nine months, Adam was carried in his biological mother’s womb. He was safe with her, until the day he was born. Shortly after his birth, in a hospital in India, Adam was abandoned.
  • Smith: Peter Singer is a Eugenicist 9/03/2013 (NRO) – Eugenics has always been about promoting desired utilitarian outcomes. The old eugenics wanted to improve the human herd through the crude manipulation of who could and should be parents.
  • Dr. Mark Mostert: Terri Schiavo’s Father – In Memoriam 9/03/2013 (By Dr. Mark Mostert) – I only met Bob Schindler Sr. twice. He could not have been nicer. The first time was at a conference where I turned up determined to help out against the unspeakable evil of euthanasia and assisted suicide. I was there because, like many of us, I had watched Bob’s beloved daughter, Terri, starved and dehydrated to death at the behest of a black-robed executioner, Florida’s Judge Greer.

August

  • Doctors Vote Not to Change Anti-Euthanasia Policy 8/30/2013 (CCN) – The Canadian Medical Association’s (CMA) general council has voted not to change its policy against euthanasia and assisted suicide.
  • Four Years Ago Today, Terri’s Dad Passes Away 8/29/2013 From August 29, 2009, “A Father I’d Want on My Side”, By Joni B. Hannigan: I envied Terri Schiavo her father, Bob. There were times I thought: What a waste, she doesn’t know how good she has it. Not like it was her fault, but if only she knew. But of course she knew.
  • Recovery Reveals Power of the Brain 8/28/2013 (Times Colonist) – From Canadian reserve army captain to patient and now researcher and research subject, Nanaimo’s Trevor Greene continues to command attention. Greene was on a tour of duty in Afghanistan in 2006 when he stopped at a village to speak with a group of elders.
  • Wesley J. Smith: Dehydrated Patients May be Aware! 8/27/2013 (NRO) – Imagine you are in a hospital or nursing home with a brain injury. Doctors say you are “not there,” but you are. And you hear doctors tell your family to stop giving you food and water! Imagine what that would feel like.
  • On the Natural Death of Brooke Hopkins 8/26/2013 (NRO) – I have long known of the tragedy that struck vocal assisted suicide advocate Margaret Pabst Battin and her husband Brooke Hopkins. Hopkins was catastrophically injured in an accident and has spent years under Battin’s very good care.
  • Man Forced to Live in a Hospital for 45 Years Absolutely Loves His Life 8/22/2013 (LifeNews.com) – An entire life of hospitalization: how could that possibly be a happy or fulfilling experience?
  • Australia’s Dr. Death Launches Voluntary Euthanasia Party 8/21/2013 (LifeNews.com) – You’ve got to give Dr Philip Nitschke some credit for telling it like it really is.
  • A Courageous Mother Chose Life for Her Disabled Baby 8/20/2013 (Human Life Matters) – Lacy and Chris Buchanan are a young couple whose baby was born blind. They knew before baby Christian was born that something was very wrong.
  • Obamacare Death Panels Come to Oregon 8/18/2013 (LifeNews.com) – Even though it was 85 degrees outside today, a snowball was made. It is a small snowball, but it is not going to melt. In fact it is going to grow and before long, it will be so big that no one will be able to move it.
  • Surviving Traumatic Brain Injury 8/16/2013 (abc.net.au) – Tish Peiris was twenty-five when a car accident left her with a traumatic brain injury. She’s come a long way almost twenty years later, but her recovery is ongoing.
  • Disabled Woman Wants Suicide/Organ Donation 8/15/2013 (WJBK) – 16 years ago this week, Sherri Muzher was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis, a disease that has robbed her of a life she always hoped to have, and now in its final stages making her a hostage of her own body.
  • Study Shows People in “PVS” Were Incorrectly Diagnosed 8/13/2013 (By Bobby Schindler/LifeNews.com) – There is more encouraging news coming out of Canada regarding the very unscientific persistent vegetative state (PVS) diagnosis. Once again there has been a study regarding three people who were incorrectly thought to be in a PVS.
  • AMA Wants Doctors to Ration Care 8/12/2013 (NRO) – The medical establishment is all on board for cost cutting in health care. That’s a good goal, of course. But how that is done really matters ethically.
  • Terri Schiavo’s Brother Speaks in Carroll 8/09/2013 (Catholic Globe) – Bobby Schindler confessed to the crowd at the Santa Maria Winery he was no attorney, no doctor and no end-of-life expert. The perspective he presented July 26?
  • Assisted Suicide Deaths Increase by 17% in One Year in Washington State 8/07/2013 (By Dr. Saunders/NRLC News) – The number of Washington state residents who died of physician-assisted suicide rose to 83 in 2012, up from 70 in 2011, 51 in 2010 and 36 in 2009, when the state’s Death With Dignity Act took effect.
  • Brain Injury Compels Young Woman to Help Others 8/06/2013 (CapeGazette.com) – Paula Murray doesn’t remember anything from an accident eight years ago that left her in a coma for 40 days. She is told she was driving when her car was struck by a tractor-trailer.
  • Apes Don’t Have Rights, Humans Have Duties 8/05/2013 (NRO) – Here we go again-Peter Singer pushing the Great Ape Project that seeks to give rights to apes. Now, the controversy is featured in The World. From, “Should Apes Have Legal Rights:”
  • Patients are Being Euthanized Every Day – And It’s Getting Worse 8/02/2013 (By Bobby Schindler/LifeNews.com) – This past year the World Medical Association reaffirmed their longstanding position against euthanasia and physician assisted suicide. This is great news and the declaration was strongly worded. From the World Medical Association’s Declaration on Euthanasia:
  • UK Court Rules Against Euthanasia 8/01/2013 (AP) – A British appeals court upheld a law against euthanasia in rejecting appeals from two severely disabled men who argued that doctors should be allowed to legally kill them.

July

  • World Medical Association Opposes Euthanasia 7/31/2013 (NRO) – The world’s professional medical associations overwhelmingly oppose euthanasia and assisted suicide. The World Medical Association reiterated its strong such commitment to the ethical practice medicine this year. From the WMO Resolution on Euthanasia:
  • The Dangerous ‘Help’ of Assisted Suicide 7/30/2013 (By Diane Coleman) – Proponents of legal assisted suicide for the terminally ill frequently claim that the opposing views of disability organizations aren’t relevant. Nevertheless, although people with disabilities aren’t usually terminally ill, the terminally ill are almost always disabled.
  • St. Paul Girl Finally Home After Colorado Ski Accident 7/29/2013 (KMSP) – Finally back in St. Paul with the dogs she loves, 20-year-old Ellie Cizek has returned home after spending five months recovering from a traumatic brain injury she sustained while skiing in Colorado. “Nothing can be better than being home, honestly,” Cizek said.
  • How the Culture of Death Metastasizes 7/25/2013 (NRO) – The culture of death is like a cancer sapping the moral health of western society. And, like a cancer, it never stops spreading. Here’s how: I wrote earlier today about Oxford bioethicist Julian Savulescu supporting palliated self starvation as a manner of dying.
  • Brother of Terri Schiavo to Speak at Iowans For Life Dinner 7/24/2013 (Des Moines Register) – The brother of Teri Schiavo, a Florida woman who died in 2005 after a lengthy battle that focused on legal, ethical and moral issues involving prolonged life support, will speak Saturday night in Des Moines at the annual benefit dinner for Iowans for Life.
  • Life & Hope Network: Advocating for Patients with Cognitive Disabilities  7/23/2013 (Main Line Today) – Twenty-three years have passed, but the memories are still vivid. Bobby Schindler’s father called just after 5:30 a.m., and he rushed to his sister’s apartment, where he found her unconscious on the floor. He’d just seen her a few hours ago at his own apartment in the same Florida complex. She’d been fine then. She just had to be fine now.
  • Euthanasia Holocaust Not About “Nazis” 7/22/2013 (By Wesley J. Smith) – Germany is creating a memorial to the 200,000 + victims of the euthanasia Holocaust, in which doctors enthusiastically killed disabled babies and adults between the years 1939-45. From the BBC story:
  • The Causes of NHS Death Squad Medicine 7/19/2013 (NRO) – The NHS is melting down. As I have repeated posted about here, the Liverpool Care Pathway-intended to prevent patients from dying in agony-became instead a door to imposed back door euthanasia.
  • Newsboys to Headline 3rd Terri Schiavo Life & Hope Concert! 7/16/2013 Philadelphia, Pa., July 16 / — The Terri Schiavo Life & Hope Network is delighted to announce that Christian music artists, Newsboys (pictured) will headline the 3rd Terri Schiavo Life & Hope Concert, October 11, 2013 at the beautiful Taft Theatre in downtown Cincinnati. Showtime 7:00 p.m. (continue reading press release…)
  • Brother: Never Forget Terri Schiavo’s Death, Help Patients Like Her 7/15/2013 (LifeNews.com) – At a moving talk at the National Right to Life Convention in Dallas, Br. Paul O’Donnell and Bobby Schindler (brother of Terri Schiavo) shared their testimonies of losing those close to them.
  • Wesley J. Smith: A Same Fate Awaits Us Under Obamacare 7/13/2013 (NRO) – These are the consequence of centralizing healthcare under bureaucratic control. Deprofessionalization. Medicine practiced by the numbers. The most weak and vulnerable victimized.
  • Woman Declared ‘Brain Dead’ Woke Moments Before Organs Harvested 7/11/2013 (LifeSiteNews.com) – A woman who was pronounced brain dead by doctors unexpectedly woke up just as her organs were about to be removed for transplant.
  • Earth “Right to Life” Anti-Human 7/10/2013 (NRO) – I keep warning that the environmental movement is growing increasingly radical anti-human. The proposed international law of “ecocide,” would punish large scale development of resources as a crime akin to genocide.
  • ‘Pope Of Life,’ John Paul II, to be Declared a Saint 7/08/2013 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Pope John Paul II, the beloved friend of the pro-life movement, is to be raised to sainthood according to announcement today from Pope Francis.
  • France Socialists Heart Euthanasia 7/05/2013 (NRO) – Opposing assisted suicide/euthanasia should be a top liberal agenda item. (For example, see Robert P. Jones, Nat Hentoff, Dr. Rex Green, and most disability rights activists-such as Diane Coleman.)
  • Watch Terri’s Life & Hope Award Gala Video! 7/03/2013 On Friday, April 5, 2013, the Terri Schiavo Life & Hope Network held its first Award Gala with keynote speaker Governor Sarah Palin. We would like to share with you a short VIDEO of the highlights of the Award Gala with Gov. Palin, Gary Sinise, Glenn Beck and much more!
  • Film Depicting Euthanasia of 26-Year-Old Draws 700,000 Viewers 7/02/2013 (LifeSiteNews.com) – A documentary on the “chosen death” of a young woman who was suffering from a degenerative disease has drawn a mass audience in the Netherlands.
  • Father Making Recovery from Coma, Major Brain Injury 7/01/2013 (Missoulian) – A 13-year-old boy watched in horror as his father, a 20-year veteran backcountry skier, rolled like a snowball down the steep terrain of Twin Lakes Headwall, a late-season ski area on the Beartooth Pass.

June

  • NHS’s Horrifying Present is Obamacare’s Terrifying Future 6/28/2013 (NRO) – I have written often here of the meltdown being experienced by the NHS. The cause? Centralized control that deprofessionalizes physicians, rations healthcare, and turns the system into a bureaucratic nightmare.
  • Atlanta DJs Fired After Mocking NFL Player with ALS 6/26/2013 (Bobby Schindler/LifeNews.com) – Last week, three Atlanta DJ’s were fired because of the skit they aired making fun of Steve Gleason, a former NFL football player who is battling Lou Gehrig’s disease, commonly known as ALS. From the ESPN story:
  • Mom, Daughters Charged with Starving Family Member to Death 6/25/2013 (Times-Tribune) – For two years, Robert Gensiak’s world was his bedroom. It was there, his family kept him from doctors, even when his skin cracked and bled and open sores formed from being forced to stay in his child-sized bed covered in feces.
  • Euphemisms: The Modus Operandi of Death Rights Advocates 6/24/2013 (Public Discourse) – The principle that human life is inviolable has been the keystone of medical ethics since Hippocrates, but it suffered setbacks in Anglo-American jurisprudence during the twentieth century.
  • Anti-Disabled Bigotry: It’s How You Say It? 6/20/2013 (NRO) – Colin Brewer, who disgustingly called for the infanticide of disabled infants some time ago, is apparently under police investigation for those comments.
  • Businesswoman Makes Miracle Brain Injury Recovery 6/19/2013 (Scotsman.com) – After months of rehabilitation Ellen learned to speak and walk again and ran in a marathon relay in aid of the brain injury charity that helped her. The weather had been kind, the roads were surprisingly good and the cycle from home in Edinburgh out to North Berwick was exhilarating.
  • Quebec Euthanasia: Journalism Malpractice 4 6/18/2013 (NRO) – Now the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) has misled the public about the nature of Quebec’s proposed euthanasia legalization bill. First, there is the headline: “Anti-Euthanasia Doctors Hostile to Quebec’s Assisted Suicide Bill,” and lead paragraph:
  • Dutch MDs: OK to Put Baby Out of Parents’ Misery 6/17/2013 (NRO) – Despite infanticide still being murder under (the rarely enforced) Netherlander criminal code, the Dutch Medical Association (KNMG) has issued an ethics opinion holding that doctors may euthanize dying babies to end the parents’ suffering.
  • Mother, Caregiver Killed Autistic Teen To End His Suffering 6/14/2013 (CBS) – Cook County prosecutors said a west suburban woman and family caregiver planned for at least a week to kill the mother’s 14-year-old son, because they believed he wasn’t getting sufficient care for his autism.
  • Fighting the Culture of Death, One Katie At a Time 6/13/2013 (Catholic World Report) – Belgium is a troubled country on any number of levels. Its unity has been tenuous for decades, it is increasingly challenged by an Islamic immigrant community that rejects European virtues, and just like its neighbor, Holland, it is clumsily eager to embrace the latest in eugenics and social engineering.
  • Brain Injury Survivor Keen on NZ Return 6/12/2013 (New Zealand Herald) – A year after the Turangi crash that killed three US students, its most scarred survivor remains determined to return to thank those who saved her life.
  • ‘Another Step Towards Euthanasia for Children’ 6/11/2013 (presseurop) – In the wake of several months of testimony from doctors and experts in medical ethics, a Belgian Senate committee will on June 12 examine the possible extension of the country’s euthanasia law to include children.
  • Pushing Elder Suicide 6/09/2013 (NRO) – As we are in the midst of an elder-suicide crisis, we see elder suicide promoted within the assisted suicide movement and its camp followers in the media. Now, continuing the recent pattern, the 2002 joint elder suicides of Admiral Chester Nimitz, Jr. and his wife Joan has been extolled in Slate.
  • Two Year Old Emerges From “PVS” After Stem Cell Treatment 6/05/2013 (Daily Mail) – Doctors claim to have successfully treated a child suffering with cerebral palsy with stem cells for the first time.
  • Whose Life Is It Anyway? 6/04/2013 (NRO) – Bioethics pushed personal autonomy to the forefront of medical decision making, helping forge the legal right to say no to unwanted life-extending care. Today, if a person doesn’t want to be in an ICU or to be otherwise kept alive with medical treatment, the patient or family can say no. And that’s generally a very good thing.
  • LifeNews Welcomes Terri Schiavo’s Brother as New Blogger 6/03/2013 (LifeNews.com) – LifeNews.com, the premier pro-life news outlet and the most-visited pro-life web site on the Internet, is excited to welcome four key pro-life activists as new contributing bloggers.

May

  • Do No Harm: Doctors Killing Disabled People? 5/31/2013 (by Rebekah Maxwell) – Ah, the beauty of our progressive society. It seems like only yesterday we were marveling at the UK politician who openly proclaims that disabled children should be killed “like deformed lambs…smashed against a wall.”
  • Newborn Comes Back to Life in Mother’s Arms 5/30/2013 (Live Action News) – A premature newborn in Australia, born along with his twin sister at just 27 weeks’ gestation and weighing in at only two pounds, was pronounced dead by his physician after medical staff tried for twenty minutes to revive him.
  • Philly Family’s Fight Over Lung-Donor Rule Spurs National Debate 5/29/2013 (Philly.com) – A Philadelphia-area family’s fight over the rules that govern lung transplants is getting national attention. Ten-year-old Sarah Murnaghan, of Newtown Square, is dying of cystic fibrosis at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia.
  • Pushing Assisted Suicide is Likely Driving Up Suicides in General 5/28/2013 (LifeNews.com) – One suicide begets another, a study in Canada has demonstrated. From the Ottawa Citizen story: “That suicide is contagious is a widely held-and controversial-theory.
  • Artist Overcomes TBI With Passion for Art 5/24/2013 (Connection) – Brian Menish is a Herndon High School alum, a fine arts graduate with degrees from Shepherd University and West Virginia University, and an artist living with a Traumatic Brain Injury.
  • Vermont Help Line Launched for Patients Pressured to Take Assisted Suicide Drugs 5/23/2013 (LifeNews.com) – Ignoring calls from hundreds of Vermonters imploring him to veto the poorly crafted, dangerous legislation, Governor Peter Shumlin boldly signed the bill into law on Monday, May 20, 2013. He was surrounded by cheering supporters of legalized assisted-suicide.
  • The NHS is Killing Disabled People 5/22/2013 (The Guardian) – My daughter was ill at the weekend. Just a heavy cold; but when your child has profound and multiple learning disabilities, even a minor illness can send her life-threatening condition spiralling out of control, so we needed to get some antibiotics.
  • How Legal Euthanasia Changed Belgium For Ever 5/21/2013 (By Tom Mortier & Steven Bieseman) – In 2002, Belgium became the second country in the world after its neighbour, The Netherlands, to legalise euthanasia. Over the next decade our country has become a living laboratory for radical social change.
  • Declare “Assisted Suicide Free Zones” in Vermont! 5/20/2013 (NRO) – Vermont has legalized assisted suicide, and hospitals in the state are delaying implementation on premises. From the AP story:
  • The Tragic Reality of ‘Covert Euthanasia’ 5/17/2013 (Renew America) – Pope Francis has spoken about the tragic reality of “covert euthanasia.” From a May 6, 2013 Catholic News Service story: “While the fight to preserve life is often centered on abortion and capital punishment, the future Pope Francis also warned against a more subtle form of disregard for human dignity: what he called ‘covert euthanasia.’
  • Court: Specify Assisted-Suicide Laws When People Entitled to Lethal Dose 5/16/2013 (Washington Post) – An elderly Swiss woman who would rather end her life now than decline further in health found sympathy Tuesday from the European Court of Human Rights, which called on the Swiss to clarify their laws on so-called passive assisted suicide.
  • Court Intervenes to Save Life of France’s ‘Terri Schiavo’ 5/15/2013 (LifeSiteNews.com) – France’s “Terri Schiavo” shall live. A young man left to die of hunger because his doctor decided his quality of life after a car accident would no longer improve is being fed and hydrated again since Saturday, when his father and mother and two of his siblings obtained an emergency ruling.
  • Vermont Legalizes Assisted Suicide 5/14/2013 (Wesley J. Smith/NRO) – Alas. Today, the Vermont Legislature passed a bill that legalizes assisted suicide in the state. The governor has promised to sign it into law and it will take effect immediately.
  • Car Accidents Leading Cause Of Traumatic Brain Injury 5/13/2013 (NewJersey.com) – Clifton’s Dennis and Rosalind Benigno have been providing round-the-clock care to their son, Dennis John, since 1984 when the then 15-year-old was struck by a car while walking and was left with a Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI).
  • Peers Clash Over Right-To-Die ‘Spin’ 5/12/2013 (Telegraph) – Lord Carlile of Berriew QC said that plans due to be put before Parliament by Lord Falconer on Wednesday to allow doctors to help terminally ill people to die would not “pass the public safety test”.
  • Democrat Senators Gave Unanimous Consent to Schiavo Law 5/10/2013 (The Corner) – Oh the revisionism! Jeffrey Toobin writes that former Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor became appalled by supposed Republican “fanaticism” for passing the Terri Schiavo law that required a federal court to review the questionable state process that led to an order of death by dehydration.
  • Vermont’s Coming “No Rules” Assisted Suicide 5/09/2013 (NRO) – Vermont seems poised to enact assisted suicide into state law. For the first three years, it will be a law with even fewer “protective guidelines” than the ephemeral Oregon rules. Then, the guidelines sunset and doctors would seem to be able do pretty much as they please. From the Burlington Free Press story:
  • She’s Still Fighting For Recovery 5/08/2013 (post-gazette.com) – It has been almost 24 years since the night that changed my life forever. On the evening of Aug. 29, 1989, I was the passenger in a car that crashed on McCully Road in Hampton. The seat belt saved my life, but it did not prevent me from sustaining a traumatic brain injury.
  • France’s Terri Schiavo Lies Dying While Parents Are Powerless to Save Him 5/07/2013 (LifeSiteNews.com) – A young man is dying somewhere in France in circumstances similar to those in which Terri Schiavo was starved to death in the United States in 2005.
  • Oklahoma Enacts Law to Protect Vulnerable 5/06/2013 (NRLC) – Oklahoma Governor Mary Fallin on April 26 signed into law the Oklahoma Nondiscrimination in Treatment Act after it passed the state Senate 41-2 and the House 85-11.
  • Snowboarder Recovery from TBI to Debut at Sundance 5/02/2013 (windsorstar.com) – The camera zoomed out as snowboarder Kevin Pearce sank deeper into the leather rocking chair, his voice quivering with every word he whispered to his therapist.
  • Poor NHS Care Drives Assisted Suicide Support 5/01/2013 (NRO/Wesley J. Smith) – Here is another cogent warning about the dangers of centralized health care. The people of the UK have apparently lost so much trust in the NHS, that it is driving support for legalizing assisted suicide. From the Telegraph story:

April

  • Euthanasia Changes Culture 4/30/2013 (NRO) – I have a long article out in the current (May 2013) First Things magazine detailing the never-ending expansion of euthanasia in Europe, to the point that there are few medicalized killings that are not allowed.
  • Mild Blast Brain Injury Similar to Those with Alzheimer’s 4/29/2013 (UPI) – Mild traumatic blast injuries can cause changes in the brain similar to those in Alzheimer’s disease and other memory-processing disorders, U.S. scientists say.
  • Suicide Debate Reignites; Minister Stands Firm 4/25/2013 (cbcnews.au) – Canada’s Justice Minister says he won’t reopen the debate over assisted suicide despite the decision of Winnipegger Susan Griffiths to end her life via assisted suicide in Switzerland. Close friend Cindy Rublee was with Griffiths in her last moments.
  • Scientists Find Way to Turn Stem Cells into Brain Cells 4/24/2013 (US News) – Scientists have discovered an antibody that can turn stem cells from a patient’s bone marrow directly into brain cells, a potential breakthrough in the treatment of neurological diseases and injuries.
  • People With Down Add Love to the World! 4/23/2013 (NRO) – The pernicious search and destroy mission to wipe people with Down off of the planet through eugenic abortion is taking so much love out of the world. Case in point: Last year, Cincinnati Reds fan, Teddy Kremer, visited the clubhouse. Joy ensued.
  • Doctor Calls Recovery of Child Shot ‘Inspiring To See’ 4/22/2013 (newsnet5) – A rehabilitation doctor says the three-year-old survivor of her mother’s murder-suicide is “inspiring to see.” Isabel Perez awoke from a coma on Feb. 11, five days after she was shot. “She did have a very severe gunshot wound to the brain and I’m very impressed with the fact that she got here alive. Credit for that goes to the paramedics,” Dr. Ken Winston said, a pediatric neurosurgeon.
  • Hyperbaric Oxygen Treatment Gaining Popularity in Medical Field 4/21/2013 (SBWIRE) – When Steve Koca had plaque within his blood passageways block circulation to his foot, his physicians told him he ought to use a high-pressure oxygen system to assist his recovery.
  • Montana Senate Rejects Doctor-Assisted Suicide Bill 4/19/2013 (AP) – The Montana Senate has rejected a measure that would have made it illegal for doctors and caregivers to help terminally ill people kill themselves. House Bill 505 was struck down Monday in a 27-23 floor vote after senators removed it from the Senate Judiciary Committee, where it was stuck after failing to get a majority of support.
  • New Laboratory to Study Brain Trauma 4/18/2013 (Chron.com) – A new Rice University laboratory will be one of the few in the country to examine how the brain responds over time to traumatic injuries or neurological disorders.
  • People Don’t Have to Die in ICUs! 4/17/2013 (NRO) – Sometimes it is as if hospice never happened. People now often die at home, surrounded by loved ones, without heroic efforts forced upon the dying to keep them alive.
  • Tide is Turning for Brave Liam Knight 4/16/2013 (news.com.au) – Back on a surfboard in the water at his beloved beach, Liam Knight was another step closer to his dream of being able to go for a surf again. Under the watchful eye of his recreational therapists, the 17-year-old paddled about in Collaroy’s rock pool yesterday as if he’d never left it.
  • 79-Year-Old Wakes From Five-Year Coma 4/15/2013 (Blaze) – The first words of a 79-year-old Michigan woman as she emerged from a five year semi-coma were, “I want to go to a Bob Seger concert.”
  • Jacki Ragan: Terri’s Day 2013 4/11/2013 (NRLC News) – Most of us can remember where we were and what we were doing on important dates – landmarks so to speak-such as September 11, or when singer-songwriter John Lennon was shot. For those of us who are a bit older, it might include when President Kennedy was shot. So, where were you on March 31, 2005?
  • Beating Traumatic Brain Injury 4/10/2013 (BeauregardDailyNews) – It was Superbowl Sunday of 2007, and Karen Cadle of Jackson, Miss., was lighting a stack of firewood in her fireplace to stay warm on a chilly winter night.
  • Suicide Shouldn’t Be Easy to Accomplish 4/09/2013 (NRO) – Switzerland is Jack Kevorkian (pictured) as a country. Just as suicidal people used to fly to Michigan to be made dead by him, they now fly to Switzerland to be made dead at Swiss suicide clinics. Some say that this is a reason to legalize assisted suicide.
  • Palin Keynotes Terri Schiavo Gala: All Life Has ‘Worth That’s Immeasurable’ 4/08/2013 (Breitbart) – On Friday night in Philadelphia, former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin keynoted an event designed to honor Terri Schiavo and defend life, delivering a heartfelt speech at the Terri Schiavo Life & Hope Network’s Award Gala in front of a packed ballroom of supporters in which she declared that nothing was more “important than defending the right to life.”
  • The Execution of an Innocent in Florida 4/05/2013 (American Thinker) – In this instant media age even the most horrific tragedies and the lessons they teach us can quickly disappear. Some events, especially those that scream injustice and discrimination, deserve to never be forgotten.
  • Foundation Inspired By Terri Schiavo Case Has Local Ties 4/03/2013 (Main Line Media News) – In the early 2000s, America was gripped by the very public legal battle over care for a profoundly brain-damaged young Florida woman.
  • Does America Need Its Own Schindler’s List? 4/02/2013 (Pat Donahue/Fox News) – Every age needs courageous individuals to stand up for those who have no voice. Steven Spielberg’s movie, “Schindler’s List,” made the world aware of the heroic efforts of a German businessman, Oskar Schindler, who saved more than 1,200 Jews during the Holocaust.
  • Terri Schiavo: Her Death Marked a Beginning 4/01/2013 (By Bobby Schindler/WND) – For members of any family, an order of execution issued by a judge for a loved one is devastating news – it’s catastrophic to learn that someone you have known all your life is going to be killed by the state.

March

  • Anniversary of an Execution 3/19/2013 (NCG) – Eight years ago today, on Friday, March 18, 2005, less than an hour after Sixth Circuit Court Judge George W. Greer had defied subpoenas issued by a Congressional committee for Terri Schindler Schiavo to appear as a federal witness in a Congressional investigation, attorneys for Terri’s parents, Mary and Bob Schindler, visited their daughter to tell her that the death order was going to be executed, that she would die.
  • Donald Berwick Gets His Dream Job at NHS 3/15/2013 (NRO) – The NHS is a disaster, squared-caused by socialized systems, rationing, and centralized control. Over the years, I have reported here on women giving birth in hospital hallways, people being kept waiting in ambulances before entering ERs in order to permit hospitals to comply with waiting time directives from on high, and myriad other horrors.
  • Remembering Terri Schiavo: Governor Palin to Headline National Terri’s Day 3/14/2013 (Press Release) – Highlights include Terri Schiavo Life & Hope Network Award Gala/Dinner featuring Governor Palin and memorial mass with Archbishop Chaput
  • Two Inspirational Families: The Families of Terri Schiavo and Baby Joseph Maraachli 3/13/2013 (Fr. Pavone/LifesiteNews) – As I write this in mid-March I look forward to soon being with two special families, who because of the depth of their love for a family member, found themselves in the midst of an international spotlight they did not seek, and a fierce conflict they did not shirk.
  • Preventing “Assisted Death” Helping Deal with People’s Suffering 3/12/2013 (LifeNews) – For many people, their biggest fear in life is suffering. Often times this fear ofsuffering from accident or illness can become too much for an individual to bear.
  • Obamacare Death Panels Are Here! 3/11/2013 (Western Center for Journalism) – Neil Cavuto speaks with Dr. Manny Alvarez about a government-funded study outlining a “Mortality Test” for patients.
  • Kansas Assisted Suicide Bill Open-Ended 3/11/2013 (NRO) – American assisted suicide advocates pretend they want a very narrow license for “terminally ill” people for whom nothing else can be done to alleviate suffering. It’s pure baloney. They have a much more radical goal-they just hide it for political reasons.
  • Rebuilding a Life: After Crash, Student Strives to Recover 3/10/2013 (AP) – Meg Theriault didn’t look in a mirror for two months. When she did, a stranger met her gaze. Most of her hair was gone, but that wasn’t the worst of it: There was a dent on the left side of her head.
  • When In Doubt, Resuscitate 3/08/2013 (NRO) – The case of the nurse who refused CPR to an elderly woman continues to ricochet around the media and culture. I have heard people bend over backwards to say the nurse was right, because-well because.
  • Brain Injuries Can Strike Victims Universally 3/07/2013 (Redstone Rocket) – March is Brain Injury Awareness Month. A brain injury can happen anytime, anywhere to anyone. Brain injuries do not discriminate. Did you know that 1.7 million people will sustain a brain injury each year?
  • Elderly Woman Dies after Nurse Refuses to Do CPR 3/06/2013 (LA Times) – Bakersfield fire dispatcher Tracey Halvorson pleaded with the woman on the other end of the line to start CPR on an elderly woman who was barely breathing. “It’s a human being,” Halvorson said, speaking quickly. “Is there anybody that’s willing to help this lady and not let her die?” The woman paused. “Um, not at this time.”
  • GOVERNOR SARAH PALIN TO HEADLINE TERRI’S DAY APRIL 5th IN PHILADELPHIA! 3/05/2013 Memorial Mass with Archbishop Chaput and Terri Schiavo Life & Hope Network Award Gala/Dinner with Governor Sarah Palin Highlight Day’s Events
  • Pro Suicide Advocacy in Globe and Mail 3/05/2013 (NRO) – Here we go again. A woman committed suicide and it is depicted in the press as a positive-“on her own terms.” And note, she was not terminally ill, the usual excuse for supporting suicide. From the Globe and Mail story, “A Social Activist’s Ultimate Legacy: Advocating for the Right to Die:”
  • County Continues Persecuting Sara & Gary Harvey 3/04/2013 (Salem-News.com) – It seems the tortured imprisonment of Gary Harvey in Chemung County New York, will never end. Mr. Harvey who suffered a head injury as a result of a fall in his home seven years ago, has been a real cash cow for not only the hospital he is confined to, but also for numerous agencies, attorneys and predatory guardians.
  • Terri Schiavo -Type Patients May Feel Pain 3/01/2013 (Wesley J. Smith/NRO) – “Persistent vegetative state” is the only medical diagnosis I know of that contains a pejorative. No human being is a carrot. And the more we learn about these persistently unconscious patients, the more we seem to be discovering that they may not be “gone” after all.

February

  • Survivors of Traumatic Brain Injuries To Showcase Art 2/28/2013 (NoviPatch) – The City of Novi is proud to partner with Cassell and Associates to bring awareness to survivors of traumatic brain injuries by showcasing their clients’ artwork in the Novi Civic Center Atrium March 1 through April 28.
  • Forced Plug Pulling Coming? 2/27/2013 (NRO) – Oh, oh. NYU Bioethicist Art Caplan (pictured)  seems to suggest-in the context of a story about former Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon-that we should not maintain people like Terri Schiavo and others, who are either in a persistent vegetative or minimally conscious state-this even though new research suggests that at least some are more aware than thought previously.
  • Canadians Unite Against Legalized Euthanasia 2/26/2013 (OneNewsNow) – Doctors in Canada have launched a drive against an effort in Quebec to legalize euthanasia, despite a national law against it.
  • Oscar Host Seth McFarlane’s Blatant Bigotry 2/25/2013 (Wesley J. Smith/The Corner) – Can you imagine the Oscars allowing anyone to host the big show who had mocked defenseless minorities? No? Well, think again.
  • Death Panel Advocacy on ‘This Week’ 2/24/2013 (NRO) – Liberals screamed when Sarah Palin warned about “death panels” during the run up to the passage of Obamacare. But many really want health care rationing based on invidious methods of medical discrimination-as I have repeatedly reported here.
  • Brain Injury: My Road to Recovery – Regaining Independence 2/21/2013 (CBS) – “Left, right, stop or slow down.” After more than 30 years of driving, last October I found myself once again demonstrating to the RMV that I know my hand signals.
  • Toronto Newborn Wrongly Declared Dead 2/20/2013 (Calgary Herald) – A drop in core temperature due to exposure to severe cold can slow the metabolism so much that a person can appear to be dead, say doctors, who believe that was likely the case with a newborn girl who had been declared dead on the weekend but “came back” to life.
  • Salem Resident Continues to Heal After TBI 2/19/2013 (Roanoke Times) – Steven Myers and his mom Norma returned to their home in Salem on Dec. 1 after spending three months at the Shepherd Center in Atlanta, Ga., where Steven underwent intensive inpatient rehab, followed by intensive daily outpatient rehab at Shepherd Pathways in Decatur, Ga.
  • Assisted Suicide is Suicide 2/18/2013 (NRO) – Suicide is suicide. One would think that truth, at least, would not be a matter of controversy. But from its inception, the euthanasia movement has sought to advance the cause by redefining terms and blurring crucial ethical and moral distinctions.
  • Mouth Device Possible Treatment for TBI 2/16/2013 (army.mil) – The tongue is an amazing organ. Thousands of nerve fibers in it help us eat, drink and swallow. Without them, we would not taste. The tongue helps us speak. Quietly, its surface defends our bodies from germs.
  • France Closer to Legalizing Euthanasia 2/14/2013 (Telegraph) – Using the term “assisted death” rather than euthanasia, the council invoked a “duty to humanity” to allow a patient “suffering from an ailment for which the treatment has become ineffective” to die.
  • Forced DNR Coming to Texas? 2/13/2013 (NRO) – Good grief! The state with the worst futile care law in the nation now has legislation pending that would enable doctors to place DNR (do not resuscitate) orders on a patients chart without notice or permission-even if the patient is competent!
  • After Critical Head Injury, Wisconsin Man Makes Remarkable Recovery 2/12/2013 (JSOnline) – On the warm summer morning of July 5, Martin de Ridder thinks, he left his home here and drove a little more than an hour to the bridge-building job at U.S. Highway 41 over Lake Butte des Morts near Oshkosh. He thinks, but he doesn’t know.
  • Belgian Anorexia Euthanasia! 2/11/2013 (NRO) – Belgium is a vivid demonstration of the abandonment and darkness that euthanasia can’t help but eventually become. Now, only weeks after learning that twin disabled men were euthanized, we find out a young woman with the mental illness of anorexia nervosa has been killed by her psychiatrist – after being sexually abused by another psychiatrist. From the Bioedge report:
  • Terri Schiavo’s Brother on The Palin Radio Update! 2/11/2013 (SarahNETRadio.net) – Bobby Schindler, the Executive Director of the Terri Schiavo Life & Hope Network talks to Kevin about his sister, the state of life issues in America, and the big Terri’s Day gala coming up featuring Sarah Palin.
  • Quebec’s Doctors to Become Killers 2/09/2013 (NRO) – Quebec is about to make a major push to legalize euthanasia based on the recommendations of a commission. I have now had a chance to read the report, and it is pushing Quebec (and thence, Canada) toward a Belgium style culture of death.
  • Parents of Baby Joseph to be Honored With First Terri Schiavo Life & Hope Award! 2/07/2013 (News Alert) – The Terri Schiavo Life & Hope Network is delighted to announce that Moe & Sana Maraachli will receive the 2013 Terri Schiavo Life & Hope Award at the first Terri Schiavo Life & Hope Network’s Award Gala on Friday, April 5 in Philadelphia.
  • Police Officer Adjusting To Life After Serious Crash 2/06/2013 (myfoxdfw.com) – A Fort Worth police officer injured in a horrific crash three years ago is now telling his story. When fellow officers saw Richard Lambing’s (pictured) patrol car they couldn’t believe he got out alive.
  • Attack Victim Thanks God as He Recovers from Brain Injury 2/05/2013 (The Columbian) – Tyler Burton has always been a believer. But now that his own life is looking more and more like a miracle, he has no doubt as to why he’s alive today. “I believe, no question, ‘He’ saved my life,” Burton said.
  • Elderly Should ‘Hurry Up and Die’: Japanese Minister 2/03/2013 (LifeSiteNews.com) – The recently-elected government of Japan has made itself heard on the life issues. Finance minister Taro Aso, said on Monday that elderly and financially dependent Japanese have a duty to die quickly to take pressure off the government-funded social service system.
  • Hearings Begin on Assisted Suicide Bill 2/01/2013 (Rutland Herald) – Vermont lawmakers considering legislation that would allow doctors to prescribe lethal medication to terminally ill patients seeking to end their own lives heard Tuesday from former Gov. Madeleine Kunin, who said her brother’s death last month only strengthened her belief that a dying patient’s wishes must be paramount.

January

  • Hypothermia Could Prevent Traumatic Brain Injury Victims from Dying 1/31/2013 (stv news) – Inducing hypothermia in people with traumatic brain injuries could prevent long-term damage and death. Every year, two million people worldwide suffer traumatic brain injuries.
  • Physician-Assisted Suicide Runs Risk of Invisible Coercion 1/30/2013 (Montana Standard) – Ben Mattlin writes in The New York Times on Oct. 31, 2012, that he counts himself as a pro-choice liberal who ought to support physician-assisted suicide, but as a lifelong disabled person, he cannot.
  • False Happy Face of Oregon Assisted Suicide 1/29/2013 (NRO) – The Oregon death bureaucrats, the media, and the ideologues work together to put a false happy face on assisted suicide in Oregon. No flaws, we are told. No abuses. Nothing to see but compassion.
  • Israeli Ex-Prime Minister ‘Has Brain Activity’ 1/28/2013 (BBC) – Ariel Sharon, the former Israeli prime minister who has been in a coma for seven years, has shown significant signs of brain activity, doctors say.
  • Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy Can Repair Brain Damage 1/27/2013 (everydayhealth) – A new way of treating brain damage might help people who sustained brain injury following stroke or other trauma, even years after the fact.
  • Archbishop Chaput to Celebrate National Mass for Eighth Anniversary of Terri Schiavo’s Death 1/23/2013 PHILADELPHIA, Pa, January 23, 2013 / — The Terri Schiavo Life & Hope Network is delighted to announce that Archbishop Charles Chaput, Archbishop of the Diocese of Philadelphia, will celebrate “The National Memorial Mass for Terri’s Day”. In addition, Governor Sarah Palin will be the honored speaker at the Terri Schiavo Life & Hope Network’s Award Gala following Terri’s Memorial Mass.
  • Mother: ‘Miracle’ Shot Saved Son with TBI 1/22/2013 (WRAL.com) – It can happen in an instant – a car accident or even a slip on a skateboard can lead to traumatic brain injury. The most severe cases can be fatal or leave patients with long-term disabilities.
  • Let’s Find a Way to Kill Alzheimer’s Patients! 1/21/2013 (NRO) – Don’t anyone tell me that the mercy killing imperative and cost containment aren’t mixed-driven by a pernicious “quality of life” ethic that denigrates and demeans the moral value of the most weak and vulnerable among us.
  • Introducing the Law of Life Summit 2013! 1/21/2013 (John Audino/cc2w.org) – It is that time of year again! The March for Life in Washington D.C. is right around the corner and as public struggle against legalized abortion in America turns 40 years old, it is time to take note of how the event has grown up.
  • Judge Won’t Intervene in Man’s Care 1/18/2013 (USA Today) – A judge on Wednesday refused a woman’s request to appoint a guardian or order a review of a hospital’s care of her 88-year-old father, who was removed from a ventilator Jan. 7 and had a feeding tube removed the next day.
  • Helen Keller, Anne Sullivan, and Assisted Suicide 1/17/2013 (American Spectator) – It would be interesting to know if I am wrong in my assumption that most Americans know the story of Helen Keller (1880-1968). My assumption would be wrong if you are reading her story here for the first time.
  • Right-to-Life Case Splits Family 1/16/2013 (Indy Star) – Paul G. Smith’s voice on the recording is soft and raspy. But the 88-year-old Carmel man’s words are clear. Do you, his daughter Susan Rissman asks, want something to drink? “Yeah.” Are you in pain? “No.” Are you hungry? “Yeah.”
  • Student Returns Home after Traumatic Brain Injury from Being Hit by Car 1/15/2013 (Central Kentucky News) – The road to recovery for a college student from Wilmore took her back home to her own bed Tuesday after she was hit by a car and suffered a traumatic brain injury a month earlier.
  • Twins Euthanized in Belgium 1/14/2013 (Wesley J. Smith/NRO) – In just ten years, Belgium has trumped the culture of death in the Netherlands that took some thirty years to poisonously flower. For example, there has been a joint euthanasia of an elderly couple, which was celebrated by a Belgian bioethicist in a news report.
  • Still Troubled by Terri Schiavo’s Death 1/11/2013 (National Catholic Register)* – *Twenty years after Terri’s husband Michael began his campaign to cut off her life support, Bobby Schindler discusses the impact of the protracted family tragedy that culminated with his sister’s death.
  • Traumatic Brain Injury Survivor, 19, Tells Story 1/10/2013 (ctpost.com) – Nine years ago no one expected Ryan Boyle to be spending Saturday at Linda’s Story Time discussing and signing copies of his book. And nine years ago, doctors expected Boyle to die or at best live confined to a bed and hooked up to machines.
  • Hit-And-Run Leaves High School Student with Traumatic Brain Injury 1/09/2013 (LosGatosPatch) – It has been two years since 17-year-old Campbell resident and Los Gatos High School student Shea Shaw crossed the intersection of Camden and Bascom avenues. Her life, and that of her family, has never been the same.
  • Comic Recovers from Life-Threatening Brain Injury 1/08/2013 (Today) – Even if Larry Miller’s name is not familiar, you’ll certainly recognize the comic – his credits include television shows such as “Curb Your Enthusiasm,” “Seinfeld” and “10 Things I Hate About You,” and some of his many film roles include “New Year’s Eve” and “Valentine’s Day.”
  • Schiavo’s Brother Tries to Save Another Life 1/07/2013 (NRO) – It is very scary when a state wants to dehydrate a citizen. That happened several years ago in the Haleigh Poutre case in Massachusetts. Haleigh was a 12-year-old child abuse victim beaten viciously by her step father into unconsciousness.
  • Bryan Campbell is Defying the Odds 1/06/2013 (ESPN) – Gary Campbell has a plane to catch. He’s flying to Florida later in the afternoon to see a running back recruit, but first he has to swing by his house to pack and say hello/goodbye to the toughest kid he’s ever met.
  • Assisting Suicide Isn’t Free Speech 1/04/2013 (OneNewsNow) – Four members of the Final Exit Network were indicted last May in the suicide of a Minnesota woman, though they say the state’s law banning assisted suicide violates their constitutional right to free speech and association.
  • Devastating Injury to Teen’s Brain Due to SIS 1/03/2013 (newkerala.com) – In a new study, physicians have reported the case of a 17-year-old high school football player with second impact syndrome (SIS) – a rare and devastating traumatic brain injury.
  • Obamacare’s “Great Chase:” And They’re Off! 1/02/2013 (National Review Online) – A few months ago I predicted here that Obamacare would result in a “great chase,” by which I meant that smaller employers would react to the health insurance mandate by reducing staffing to under 50 full time employees to escape the requirement.
  • Americans Support Physician-Assisted Suicide 1/01/2013 (NPR) – Voters in Massachusetts were the latest to weigh in on whether it should be legal for doctors to prescribe drugs to help terminally ill patients end their lives. The measure was controversial, and on Election Day it fell just short.

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