Category Archives: Death and dying

Bridget Phillipson says she is likely to vote against assisted dying bill

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Education secretary urges ministers to limit discussion on policy to behind the scenes after vocal opposition to bill by Wes Streeting

Bridget Phillipson, the education secretary, has said she is likely to vote against the bill to legalise assisted dying, as she urged ministerial colleagues to restrict their discussions about the policy to behind the scenes.

Under a policy of government neutrality towards the private member’s bill by the Labour MP Kim Leadbeater, which will get its first Commons vote this month, ministers are permitted to set a previously-known stance if asked but otherwise to keep out of the debate.

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Canada judge halts medically assisted death of woman in rare injunction

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Court order blocks Vancouver physician Ellen Wiebe from euthanizing Alberta resident due to lack of physical ailment

A British Columbia judge has issued a rare, last-minute injunction barring a woman from accessing euthanasia after physicians in her home province refused to approve the request.

The injunction, granted to the woman’s common law partner, blocks the Vancouver physician Ellen Wiebe, or any other medical professional, from “causing the death” of an Alberta woman within the next 30 days.

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Modern day grave robbers are using emojis and codewords to secretly trade real human bones

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The trade is flourishing online, experts say, as bone collectors exploit legal loopholes to buy and sell human remains

A modern form of “grave robbery” is flourishing online, experts say, as bone collectors exploit legal loopholes to buy and sell human remains.

In Australia, where it is illegal to buy or sell human remains (albeit with some exceptions), people sell photographs of the remains then add the bones as a “gift”.

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Assisted dying supporters court Tories to bolster cross-party appeal

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After all four would-be leaders spoke against law change, both sides seek to sway waverers

Supporters of an assisted dying law in England and Wales are ­battling to stop the issue from splitting along party political lines after all four Tory leadership candidates ­suggested they would vote against the historic change.

An all-important House of Commons vote on the issue could now be just weeks away after it was revealed that Labour MP Kim Leadbeater would be introducing a private member’s bill that would give some terminally ill adults the option of being helped to end their lives.

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Graves could be reused under proposals to tackle lack of space for the dead

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Law Commission also suggests reopening cemeteries declared full as part of England and Wales consultation

Graves could be reused and closed burial grounds reopened under proposals aimed at tackling a lack of space for the dead.

The Law Commission has suggested that cemeteries that have been declared full could be reused for new burials. The proposal is part of a public consultation by the commission on updating 170-year-old burial laws in England and Wales.

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Suspects in assisted dying cases wait far too long on prosecution decision, says ex-DPP

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Ex-director of public prosecutions in England and Wales says that of 27 cases he considered for potential charges only one met the threshold

The former director of public prosecutions Sir Max Hill has said a review of assisted dying laws should consider how bereaved suspects are forced to endure long waits before being told whether they face prosecution.

During his time as DPP for England and Wales, from 2018 to 2023, Hill said he considered 27 cases for potential charges involving assisted suicide. He considered only one met the evidential and public interest threshold for a prosecution.

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UK has once-in-a-generation chance to allow assisted dying, says Labour peer

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Lord Falconer reveals that Keir Starmer will not block Commons vote on giving terminally ill people choice of ending their lives

Parliament is facing a once-in-a-generation chance to hand the terminally ill a choice over ending their life, the Labour peer championing a change in the law has said.

Charlie Falconer, the former lord chancellor whose bill was introduced into the House of Lords last month, revealed he had been reassured by Downing Street that it would not stand in the way of a historic Commons vote on assisted dying should its advocates secure one.

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‘Celebrations of life’ increasingly replacing traditional funerals in UK, study shows

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Report by Co-op Funeralcare highlights shift towards unusual venues, pets at services and glittery coffins

Traditional sombre funerals in religious settings are increasingly being replaced by “celebrations of life” with personal touches held at more unusual locations in the UK, according to a study.

Dr Who-themed farewells, glittery coffins and mourners dressed in football shirts are among requests received by funeral directors.

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Life at the heart of Japan’s lonely deaths epidemic: ‘I would be lying if I said I wasn’t worried’

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Some 68,000 people are expected to die alone and unnoticed in Japan this year, police say, as the population continues to age

“We occasionally greet each other, but that’s all. If one of my neighbours died, I’m not sure I would notice,” says Noriko Shikama, 76. She lives alone in a flat Tokiwadaira, in Tokyo’s commuter belt and has come to the Iki Iki drop-in centre to catch up with residents over cups of coffee served by volunteers.

Here, amid the everyday discussions about the merits or otherwise of dyeing grey hair, people also share news about the latest lonely death, or kodokushi – officially defined as one in which “a person dies without being cared for by anyone, and whose body is found after a certain period”.

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How Oregon’s right-to-die law has inspired other US states and countries

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More than 3,000 people have used the law, inspiring legislation in Australia and Canada and debate in the UK, France and Japan

It’s three decades since Ann Jackson voted against the first assisted-dying law in the world.

But after watching two partners succumb to cancer, and fearing the prospect of a lingering death herself as she grapples with autoimmune diseases, Jackson is now a vigorous proponent of the Oregon legislation used by thousands of people to end their own lives, and providing a blueprint for other US states and countries considering similar laws, including the UK.

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‘Our culture is dying’: vulture shortage threatens Zoroastrian burial rites

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Inadvertent poisoning of scavengers across Indian subcontinent is forcing some communities to give up ancient custom

Traditional Zoroastrian burial rites are becoming increasingly impossible to perform because of the precipitous decline of vultures in India, Iran and Pakistan.

For millennia, Parsi communities have traditionally disposed of their dead in structures called dakhma, or “towers of silence”. These circular, elevated edifices are designed to prevent the soil, and the sacred elements of earth, fire and water, from being contaminated by corpses.

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UK membership of Dignitas soars by 24% as assisted dying in Scotland moves closer

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Bill being laid before Scottish parliament could, if approved, allow people in Britain to take their own lives within the law

UK membership of Dignitas, the Swiss assisted dying association, has jumped to 1,900 people – a 24% rise during 2023 – as an assisted dying bill is laid before the Scottish parliament.

People from the UK now make up the second largest group who have signed up to the organisation, which is based near Zurich and helps people take their own lives. The largest group is currently Germans, although they can now get help to end their lives at home after a 2020 court ruling.

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Jersey to debate allowing assisted dying for terminally ill

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Proposals deter ‘death tourism’ by requiring applicants to have lived on the island for at least 12 months

Jersey could legalise assisted dying for people who are terminally ill or have an incurable condition with unbearable suffering under proposals to be debated in the island’s parliament.

The proposals, published on Friday, may lead to Jersey becoming the first jurisdiction in the British Isles to allow assisted dying.

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Assisted dying law may soon diverge across British Isles, MPs warn

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Parliamentary inquiry highlights likelihood of Scotland, Jersey or Isle of Man passing new laws

Laws to allow assisted dying may pass in Scotland, Jersey and the Isle of Man in the next few years, leading to a divergence between different parts of the UK and British Isles, MPs have warned.

The government must consider the repercussions of this, a parliamentary inquiry into assisted dying has said.

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Teenage boy killed in fatal shark attack near Ethel Beach in South Australia

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Body recovered from ocean off Dhilba Guuranda-Innes national park on the Yorke Peninsula

A teenage boy has died after a shark attack near Ethel Beach in South Australia, police say.

At 1.30pm on Thursday police received reports of a shark attack in Dhilba Guuranda-Innes national park, on the Yorke Peninsula.

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NSW drowning deaths climb to four since Christmas as lifesavers send holiday warning

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Royal Life Saving Society chief says Australians may not be ‘as strong swimmers as we believe’ as December toll hits 22

Another person has drowned in New South Wales, adding to the rising drowning death toll that has prompted a warning from lifesavers at what is considered the deadliest time of year.

Four people were pulled from the water at Port Stephens on Wednesday afternoon, including a 33-year-old man who could not be revived and died at the scene.

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Majority of Scottish voters support assisted dying bill, poll reports

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YouGov finds 77% in favour of proposal to allow terminally-ill people to take their own lives

A large majority of Scottish voters support proposals to allow terminally-ill people to take their own lives, according to a poll released by campaigners for assisted dying laws.

A new bill to legalise assisted dying in Scotland is due to be published by the Scottish parliament later this year, in a fresh attempt by its supporters to get the measure enacted for the first time in the UK.

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‘Boil in the bag’ environmentally friendly funerals arrive in the UK

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With a lower carbon footprint than gas-fired cremation, the process is described as ‘gentler on the body and kinder on the environment’

For anyone uneasy at the thought of their body being consumed by flames or interred in an insect-teeming grave, a new funeral choice is about to become available: water cremation.

The process of dissolving a body in a bag in 160C water treated with an alkali will become available in the UK from this week – the first new legal method of disposing of cadavers since the Cremation Act of 1902. It has been described as a “boil in the bag” funeral.

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Hymns in and Monty Python out of UK funeral songs top 10

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Queen’s funeral credited for hymns’ revival while Time to Say Goodbye replaces You’ll Never Walk Alone at No 1

Hymns are back among the most popular funeral songs, boosted by the queen’s funeral, while the Monty Python song Always Look on the Bright Side of Life has slipped out of the top 10, funeral directors have said.

All Things Bright and Beautiful and Abide With Me are the first hymns in the top 10 for seven years, in the Co-op Funeralcare chart based on song selections at about 93,000 funerals.

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Ex-Colorado funeral home owner gets 20 year sentence for selling body parts

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Megan Hess and her mother Shirley Koch defrauded distraught families and dismembered bodies for illegal sale

A former Colorado funeral home owner was sentenced to 20 years in federal prison on Tuesday for defrauding relatives of the dead by dissecting 560 corpses and selling body parts without permission.

Megan Hess, 46, pleaded guilty to fraud in July. She operated a funeral home, Sunset Mesa, and a body parts entity, Donor Services, from the same building in Montrose, Colorado. The 20-year term was the maximum allowed under law.

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