Kevin Yuill
@historykev
Emeritus Professor of History. Author: Assisted Suicide: The Liberal, Humanist Case Against Legalization. CEO Humanists Against Assisted Suicide and Euthanasia
My article shows #assistedsuicide is a recent concept and #euthanasia is about compassion and social utility: Suicide versus Euthanasia in the American Press in the 1890s and 1900s: “A Man Should be Permitted to Go Out of This World Whenever He Sees Fit”cambridge.org/core/journals/…
The annual assisted dying reports produced by jurisdictions like Washington and Oregon are far from adequate. But they’re better than nothing. It’s astonishing that they could be axed. Note- an amendment to the TIA Bill that specified what must be reported annually was rejected.
Reassured by the promise of annual "assisted dying" reports? Washington state had those, but no more. "Due to funding cuts... a 2024 annual statistical report will not be released." #AssistedSuicide deaths will continue, though. nationalreview.com/corner/washing…
A month on from the Commons vote on assisted suicide, it’s clear that quite a few MPs were confused about the bill or influenced by misinformation. Here are 10 examples:
MPs have truly had the wool pulled over their eyes. Shocking abdication of responsibility. Turns out the Assisted Dying Bill was a Government Bill masquerading as a Private Members Bill.
Wait. Didn't @SKinnock claim again and again that the government was "neutral" on #assistedsuicide /#assisteddying? Now it has been declared one of "the Governent's major priorities". Did he mislead Parliament?
"That every individual is of equal dignity and freedom". Though we disagree on abortion and though I am an atheist, Kruger's analysis of our moral crisis is correct. We desperately need more parliamentarians of his standard. A giant in a house of lilliputians.
I gave a speech today in an empty chamber. It’s about the need for a Christian restoration.
16 July 1934 | Dutch Jewish boy, Rob Salomon Kets de Vries, was born in Rotterdam. In August 1942 he was deported to #Auschwitz from #Westerbork. He was murdered in a gas chamber after selection.
The Church of England’s General Synod today passed a motion by 238-7 votes, requesting 'His Majesty’s Government work to improve funding and access to desperately needed palliative care services instead of enacting a law that puts the most vulnerable at risk.’ #AssistedDyingBill
I hope the Assisted Dying Bill is “completely different”. It should not have passed as it was drafted but that’s for others to wrestle with - and justify. We shouldn’t have sent a Bill to be “improved” or “corrected” to the House of Peers. We should have done it.
NEW: Tonia Antoniazzi won a landmark vote to decriminalise abortion. She talks to @siennamarla about being painted ‘as a monster’, and how the assisted dying bill she co-sponsors ‘may look like a completely different bill’ after changes in the Lords: politicshome.com/news/article/t…
In 2021, 517 people were euthanized without explicit request in the Netherlands. This is the future of #assisteddying #assistedsuicide. opendata.cbs.nl/statline/#/CBS…
13 July 1935 | Czech Jewish boy, Jiří Treichlinger, was born in Prague. He was deported to #Auschwitz from #Theresienstadt ghetto on 1 February 1943. He was murdered in a gas chamber with his sister Eva after the arrival selection.
Once you lose a right it is virtually impossible to recover it. If trial by jury goes the same way as the right to silence we will have the dishonourable distinction of being the generation that threw away perhaps our greatest constitutional inheritance.
Labour MPs need to think very carefully about why they came to Parliament and if they want to be remembered as part of the government that substantially removed the right to trial by jury
To be tried by one’s peers before the imposition of a serious criminal penalty is a fundamental constitutional right long recognised by the common law. It shouldn’t be tossed aside as a supposed quick fix for a creaking justice system.
8 July 1942 | A French Jewish girl, Denise Repper, was born in Paris to Alexander and Madeleine. In December 1943 she was deported to #Auschwitz. After the selection she was murdered in a gas chamber.
bbc.co.uk/news/articles/… There goes another one.Message loud & clear: @_Government_UK will fund your assisted death but not your palliative care. Whoever thinks that assisted suicide is compatible with palliative care, look around. @SarahCoombesWB @OurDutyOfCare @AlexBallingerMP
8 July 1939 | A Polish Jewish girl, Ruzia Fajwlowicz, was born in Czeladź. In May 1943 she was deported from the ghetto in Czeladź to #Auschwitz and murdered in a gas chamber.
A blank check promise to fund assisted dying. No funding for hospices which are being forced to close because no funding. Choice? bbc.co.uk/news/articles/…
8 July 1936 | Dutch Jewish girl, Henderika Oudgenoeg, was born in Delfzijl. She arrived at Auschwitz on 4 November 1942 in a transport of 954 Jews deported from #Westerbork. She was murdered in a gas chamber with her brother Markus.
7 July 1942 | A Hungarian Jewish girl, Zsuzsanna Gerstl, was born. In 1944 she was deported to #Auschwitz ana murdered in a gas chamber.