In late 2024, attorney, medical ethics expert, and VSED advocate Professor Thaddeus Pope gave a virtual talk to the Hemlock Society of San Diego about how dementia patients might be able to utilize medical-aid-in-dying to avoid late stages of their disease. As Professor Pope explains, if the patient were to begin VSED while they still […]
Using VSED and Medical Aid in Dying (MAiD) to Avoid Late-Stage Dementia Read More »
On October 15, Seattle-based Worry-Free Wednesdays (WFW) sponsored a Seattle Town Hall panel discussion centered on the end-of-life options dementia patients have to sustain their quality of life. WFW is an end-of-life planning, education, and awareness organization helmed by the capable and energetic Wendy Norman, who moderated the October event. Speakers included attorneys Erin Mae
Reducing Fear from a Life with Alzheimer’s Read More »
Canada’s medical assistance in dying law continues to evolve. A February 2015 Canadian Supreme Court ruling, Carter v. Canada, paved the way for the legalization of physician-assisted suicide. The following year, Parliament passed federal legislation to allow Canadian residents to request MAiD under very specific circumstances and rules; generally, visitors to Canada are not eligible. Eligibility requirements
Quebec to approve advance requests for MAID as of Oct. 30, 2024 Read More »
British co-authors Anna Wharton and Wendy Mitchell penned three bestselling books before Wendy, diagnosed in 2014 with early-onset Alzheimer’s and vascular dementia, chose VSED to escape the final stages of her disease. Shortly after Wendy’s death in February 2024, Anna wrote a post for her blog, White Ink, about medical aid in dying in the
Wendy Mitchell: The Case for Assisted Dying in the UK Read More »
In February 2024, after a decade-long battle with early-onset dementia, British author Wendy Mitchell chose to stop eating and drinking. She details her decision-making process in a post titled, “My final hug in a mug….” on the blog Which Me am I Today? Wendy started her blog shortly after her diagnosis of early-onset Alzheimer’s and vascular
VSED Stories: Wendy Mitchell’s Choice Read More »
In a new article in Journal of the American Geriatrics Society, “Medical aid in dying to avoid late-stage dementia,” authors Thaddeus Mason Pope, JD, PhD, and Lisa Brodoff, JD, discuss the plight of patients with dementia who wish to use medical aid-in-dying (MAiD) but are unable to qualify due to an inability to satisfy the
Using VSED as a bridge to MAiD for people with dementia? Read More »
The first issue of the Journal of Aid-in-Dying Medicine has now been published online. The Journal is online only; i.e., there is no print version. The Journal is also open access, meaning that anyone can read it. There is no paywall for any articles, thanks to advertisers. Some highlights from this first issue: A discussion
New journal on medical-aid-in-dying (MAID) Read More »
Researchers from Amsterdam UMC in the Netherlands recently published a new qualitative analysis on patients who chose to hasten their death via VSED. Below are details from the abstract, published in the November-December issue of the journal Annals of Family Medicine. Purpose: Voluntary stopping of eating and drinking (VSED) is a controversial [SIC] method to
New Study on patients who choose VSED Read More »
VSED: The Least Bad Option By Kate ChristiePublished on The Good Death Society Blog, a project of Final Exit Network (Kate Christie is a former technical and marketing writer who now primarily writes fiction. She is author of the book, The VSED Handbook: A Practical Guide to Voluntarily Stopping Eating and Drinking. She also works
Reblog: Kate Christie’s blog post on the good death society blog Read More »
Cheryl Hauser’s VSED story is similar to that of many others. Diagnosed with Alzheimer’s in her early 70s, she decided early on that she did not wish to live to the end stages of the disease. Her brother had suffered from the same form of dementia, so she knew from first-hand experience the depth of
VSED Stories: A good death for a Minnesota woman who championed VSED Read More »
