Viva la muerte!
/sarc

Twins' deaths prompt community soul-searching (Australia)

The twins were not known to child protection agencies in Queensland, but questions are being asked about why no-one acted sooner.

And people are asking themselves how two children could die in a quiet suburban street and their deaths go unnoticed for more than a week.

Charity investigated for helping teen in abortion (Virginia)

RICHMOND, Va. - Federal authorities are investigating whether a Richmond-based Catholic charity caring for an underage illegal immigrant violated state law by helping the teenager get an abortion last winter. [Catholic? They frown on that. What
gives?--Amanda]

Record numbers of abortions in under-age girls. (UK)

The number of under age girls having abortions has risen by 10 per cent in one year, official figures have revealed.

In total there were 205,600 abortions carried out in England and Wales in 2007 a 2.2 per cent rise on the previous year.

Of those 4,376 were carried out on girls too young to legally have sex.

Women aged 19 were the most likely to have an abortion in 2007 with 36 procedures carried out for every 1,000 19-year-olds.

Abortion rate up in 2007 (New Zealand)

In his judicial review released last week High Court Justice Forrest Miller questioned how the law was being implemented.

The review was initiated by Right to Life New Zealand, which argued New Zealand had an unlawful "abortion on demand" system.

Statistics New Zealand acting government statistician Dallas Welch said 18,380 abortions were performed in New Zealand in the year ending December 2007 -- 2.5 per cent more than 2006. The general abortion rate (abortions per 1000
women aged 15-44 years) also increased from 19.6 in 2006 to 20.1, Mrs Welch
said.

Michigan abortion ban vetoed, new bill on deck

Despite successfully passing through both the Republican-controlled Senate and Democrat-controlled House, Gov. Jennifer Granholm (D-Lansing) vetoed a bill banning partial-birth abortion last Friday.

"I think the governor's veto was extremely unrealistic and economical with the truth," said Sen. Nancy Cassis (R-Novi), who co-sponsored the bill. "The title of this is to stop the killing of the children who are partially born. I don't think there are any more horrendous acts of murder than this being done. I don't believe in killing children when that child is fully formed and ready to be alive. It's murder, pure and simple. It's murder. The governor has gone along with contributing to the murder of children. This would have safeguarded the life of the mother and life of the child."

Elderly suicides surge in Japan

Suicides involving people over the age of 60 rose by almost 9% to 12,107, making up nearly 40% of all cases in Japan, the National Police Agency said.

Japan's elderly are increasingly concerned about money and rising health care costs. Nationwide, the number of suicides rose by 2.9% to 33,093, the second-highest figure since records began in 1978.

Why I'm uneasy about 'assisted suicide' campaigners (UK)

One reason is Miss Purdy's threat that unless she's given an assurance that her husband will escape prosecution, she will go to Switzerland by herself to end her life, while she's still able and 'before I'm ready'.

Now, I have great sympathy for anyone suffering MS - and I know that it's all very well me sitting here, in full health, passing judgment on a woman who is going through something I can barely imagine.

But when Miss Purdy makes such a lurid threat - tantamount to telling the judges 'you'll have my blood on your hands if you don't find in my favour' - I wonder if she's being as dispassionately reasonable as she would like to appear.

MS victim wins assisted suicide review (UK)

LONDON (Reuters) - A woman with multiple sclerosis has won the right to mount a challenge in the High Court to force the country's top prosecutor to clarify the law on assisted suicide.

Switzerland Euthanasia Center Kills Nearly 900 Since Opening, More Brits

The euthanasia center has killed 868 in assisted suicides since it began and 335 people in the last two years alone. About 85 percent of the people who die there are foreign nationals with the rest hailing from Switzerland.

Assisted suicide is bad medicine (Washington)

Consider the following. We are told by backers that assisted suicide should be restricted to cases of unbearable suffering. Yet, current legislation in California and Vermont to legalize assisted suicide contains no such requirement; nor does the law in Oregon, where doctors who assist suicides report that most patients do not seek death because of pain, but because they fear being a burden, can no longer engage in enjoyable activities, and/or fear losing dignity.

Don't get me wrong: These are important issues that cry out for proper care. Thankfully, we have hospice care — the true death with dignity — to treat these needs. Indeed, studies show that when these problems are addressed, suicidal desires almost always disappear, even in people who are imminently dying.

Wash. Considers Assisted Suicide Measure

Voters in Washington state may get a chance to consider a measure allowing physicians to end the life of a terminally ill patient of supporters collect enough signatures by next month.Supporters need 225,000 valid voter signatures by July 3 to get the "Washington Death with Dignity Initiative" on the November ballot. Oregon is the only other state in the nation with such a law.

Mercy-killing death: women found guilty

In a blow to the euthanasia movement, a jury has found one women guilty of the manslaughter and another an accessory to the manslaughter of Alzheimer's sufferer and former Qantas pilot Graeme Wylie.

I'm not EVEN going into the depths of depravity taking place in the Netherlands.