Episode 13 - Jeremy Ervine - documentary filmmaker - producer FADE TO BLACK

Our guest today is Jeremy Ervine. Jeremy is an Australian film producer whose latest project is Fade to Black, a documentary featuring former Shell / Coles Express CEO, Peter Short, a fellow Australian who died of oesophageal cancer in 2014.

The purpose of Jeremy’s documentary was to open up a conversation about dying and allow people to see the arguments for and against and make up their own mind about whether they supported the assisted dying legislation. Jeremy shot over a hundred hours of footage and interviewed dozens of people for his documentary.

Please donate any amount you can to help Jeremy complete his documentary, which is currently in post-production, by contacting Jeremy through the film’s Facebook Page @fadetoblackdoco.

Click HERE for a link to his Indiegogo fundraising page

Click HERE for and a link to Peter Short’s blog

Listen to Jeremy's interview on iTunes HERE

Jeremy and Peter Short

Episode 12: Dr. David Swanton, Ethical Rights

Our guest on this episode is Dr. David Swanton, director of the organisation Ethical Rights. To quote from their website, “Ethical Rights has been established to challenge people to think more rationally about important ethical, human rights, scientific and related issues’. 

Dr Swanton has a doctorate in theoretical chemistry, he is a euthanasia advocate, ethicist, atheist, humanist, scientist, writer and outspoken opponent of discrimination. He is also a chapter coordinator for Dr Philip Nitschke’s voluntary euthanasia organisation Exit International.

The website for Dr. Swanton’s Ethical Rights organisation is www.ethicalrights.com

You can find the link to Dr. Swanton's interview on www.euthanasiaproandcon.com or on iTunes HERE

Episode 11: Brian Green Adams-Founder of the Atheist Community of Toronto

Our guest today is Brian Green Adams. Brian is a labour lawyer and atheist community activist in Toronto Canada. Brian has a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Theatre and a Bachelor of Laws. He hosts the counter apologetics podcast A Salmon of Doubt and he is co-founded the Atheist Community of Toronto.

You can listen to his interview on iTune HERE or click on the link on our webpage www.euthanasiaproandcon.com

Episode 10: Dr. Philip Nitschke - Founder of Exit International

Our guest on this episode is Dr. Philip Nitschke, Founder of Exit International.

In 1996, Philip became the first doctor in the world to administer a legal, lethal voluntary injection under the short-lived Rights of the Terminally Ill Act 1995 (NT).

Four of Philip’s terminally ill patients used this law to end their suffering before the law was overturned in March 1997 by the Australian Parliament.

That same year, Philip formed the Voluntary Euthanasia Research foundation (now called Exit International). Ongoing pressure from the Australian Medical Board led him to hand in his medical registration in 2015, and he now works full time developing end of life options for the sick and elderly and publishing details through his on-line Peaceful Pill Handbook. 

Philip's autobiography entitled  Damned If I Do was published by Melbourne University Press in 2013. The website for Exit International is www.exitinternational.net

You can find the link to Philip's interview HERE or on iTunes HERE

Episode 9: Ted Leck - Pastor, Church in the City

Ted Leck is pastor at the Church in the City, an urban-based church located in Toronto. Ted has been married for 24 years, he has 3 daughters. Ted grew up in Sudbury, Ontario and has been a pastor for 23 years.

You can listen to Ted's interview on iTunes HERE

You will find the website Church in the City HERE

Episode 8: Ian Wood, Christians Supporting Choice for Voluntary Euthanasia

Rev. Trevor Bensch, together with fellow Christian Ian Wood, decided to establish a group to allow Christians to voice their support, and Christians Supporting Choice for Voluntary Euthanasia was born in February 2009. Christians Supporting Choice for Voluntary Euthanasia is based in Australia.  The website for their group is www.christiansforve.org.au

Ian is the National Coordinator for the group.

You can find this interview on our website HERE or on iTunes HERE

Podcast epsode 7: Senator Betty E. Unger

Our guest on Episode 7 is the Honourable Betty E. Unger. Senator Unger represents the province of Alberta Canada. Before becoming a Senator, Betty E. Unger worked as a Registered Nurse for several years.

Senator Unger has served on several provincial and community boards including the Western Catholic Reporter, the Greater Edmonton Foundation and she was a member of the Finance and Administration Committee of St. Joseph’s Basilica.

In November 2005, Ms. Unger was awarded the Alberta Centennial Medal for service to the Province of Alberta and to Albertans.

Ms. Unger was appointed to the Senate of Canada in January 2012. She is the first woman Senator in Canadian history to be elected by a province and appointed by the Prime Minister. In 2012, Senator Unger was awarded the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee Medal. 

Listen to the interview with Senator Unger HERE

Episode 6: Ruth von Fuchs, Right to Die Society of Canada

Our guest today is Ruth von Fuchs, President of the Right to Die Society of Canada. Quoting from their website… We inform/advise regulators (e.g. elected or appointed officials) and policy-makers (e.g. medical associations and governing bodies).

We participate in think tanks devoted to improving the availability of humane and reliable self-deliverance methods.

We present a complete range of options to people who are faced with intolerable suffering from an irremediable condition, always working to help them find the option which is best for them, whether or not that turns out to be bringing their life to an end. Their website is www.righttodie.ca

Even when she was a teenager, Ruth suspected that dying was often more horrible than it needed to be. She doubted that the standard approach to this problem, namely to avoid thinking about it, was the most effective tactic. There being no Canadian right-to-die organizations in those days, she joined an American group called the Euthanasia Educational Council.

For her B.A. Ruth majored in philosophy and psychology and later earned an M.A. in philosophy.

1991, Ruth and her husband joined the newly formed Right To Die Society of Canada and were active members from then on.

Listen to her interview on SoundCloud HERE or on iTunes HERE

Episode 5 - Alex Schadenberg, Euthanasia Prevention Coalition

Our guest on Episode 5 of Euthanasia: Pro and Con is...

 Alex Schadenberg, Executive Director and International Chair of the Euthanasia Prevention Coalition, an organization he established in 1999. Mr. Schadenberg is also a producer of videos, an author and a publisher. The website for the Euthanasia Prevention Coalition is www.epcc.ca

Listen to the interview with Mr. Schadenberg HERE

Podcast episode 4: Derek Humphry

Our guest today on Euthanasia: Pro and Con is Derek Humphry, an American journalist, author, principal founder in 1980 of the Hemlock Society USA and past president of the World Federation of Right to Die Societies, both of which support the notion of decriminalization of voluntary euthanasia. Mr. Humphry is also the president of the Euthanasia Research & Guidance Organization and advisor to the Final Exit Network. Mr. Humphry was awarded the Martin Luther King Memorial Prize in 1972 and the Saba Prize in 2000

Mr. Humphry’s first wife, Jean Humphry, ended her life on 29 March 1975, with her husband at her side, via an intentional overdose of medication. Mrs. Humphry was suffering from terminal breast cancer. Mr. Humphry told that story from his perspective in his best-selling novel titled Jean's Way. In 1991, Mr. Humphry wrote the suicide handbook titled, Final Exit. His website is www.ergo@efn.org

Listen to the podcast HERE or on iTunes

And email me with your stories, questions, and comments.

Welcome to the launch of my blog and podcast, "Euthanasia: Pro and Con"

My Mission: to make information available to you from both the PRO and CON side of the euthanasia and assisted suicide debate.

How?: through my weekly PODCAST, during which, I will interview politicians, ethicists, medical professionals, interest groups, religion experts, and terminally-ill patients.

Why?: because when my friend Jacobo Luis Fuchs was euthanaised two years ago I was surprised at the lack of information and misinformation floating around about euthanasia and physician-assisted suicide.

Who am I?: Well, I am a Canadian-based, 70 year old, retired corporate communications specialist with a journalism background. I have 5 children, 4 grandchildren and a wonderful wife. Although I have an opinion on the subject of euthanasia and physician-assisted suicide, I will neither share it with you nor will I inject my opinion on you - my listeners. I will also ensure that my position does not colour the questions I ask of my guests.

In addition to finding the links to my weekly podcasts on this blog, you will soon find my podcasts on iTunes HERE.

Please note: my podcast is not meant to be a one-way conversation. Please email me - euthanasiaproandcon@gmail.com - with your concerns, questions, stories, and comments

And finally:
This blog and podcast is dedicated to my friend Jacobo Luis Fuchs and dedicated to his son, Carlos Fox.

Just in case you missed the link to my podcast... HERE IT IS AGAIN

Our first two podcast guests are:

Sheila Duffy, a retired journalist, is Convener of FATE - Friends at the End, based in Glasgow Scotland.  FATE campaigns to have the law changed to legalise Assisted Suicide, and to allow those who want to, to end their own lives at a time of their choosing. www.friends-at-the-end.org.uk

Margaret Somerville is a Samuel Gale Professor of Law, Professor in the Faculty of Medicine, and Founding Director of the Centre for Medicine, Ethics and Law at McGill University, Montreal, where she has taught since 1978.

Professor Somerville has a distinguished academic record and an extensive national and international publishing and speaking record and is a frequent commentator in all forms of media.

Professor Somerville has also authored The Ethical Canary: Science, Society and the Human Spirit; Death Talk: The Case Against Euthanasia and Physician-Assisted Suicide;  and The Ethical Imagination: Journeys of the Human Spirit, which she delivered as the nationally broadcast CBC 2006 Massey Lectures. Her just released book is Bird on an Ethics Wire: Battles about Values in the Culture Wars.

Professor Somerville consults, nationally and internationally, to a wide variety of bodies including governments, NGO’s, UN agencies and the private corporations. She has received many honours and awards including the Order of Australia, eight honorary doctorates and is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada. In 2003 she was chosen by an international jury as the first recipient of the UNESCO Avicenna Prize for Ethics in Science; in 2013 she was awarded the Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal for services to higher education; and in 2014 she received the Jean Echlin Award for Ethics in Palliative Care.