X-Message-Number: 4543
From:  (David Stodolsky)
Subject: Fwd: [ (John Hofsess)]A Chosen Death
Date: Sat, 24 Jun 95 13:10:05 +0200 (CET DST)

Forward of article <> () by  (John Hofsess):
From:  (John Hofsess)
Newsgroups: sci.med.aids
Subject: A Chosen Death
Date: 19 Jun 1995 10:22:19 -0500

Most readers of Sci.med.aids are concerned with how to best
survive with HIV-related symptoms and maintain the highest quality of life
as long as possible. That is what one of the reasons why we provide information
from our online WEB site, DeathNET (http://www.islandnet.com/~deathnet)
on a wide variety of AIDS-related WEB resources.

DeathNET houses over 500 files relating to illness, caregiving,
"living wills" palliative care, assisted suicide and euthanasia; and it
provides more than 100 links to other information sites of value (examples,
Parkinson's WEB, Breast Cancer Research, HIV trials, to name a few).
Most of these links are found in the archive known as
LAST RIGHTS OnlIne Library.

There comes a point however, when some seriously ill people wish
to become better informed about their "choices in dying" -
and they want honest answers to frank questions. 

Many people with AIDS find candor in rare supply
from their doctors. They are not told honestly what is likely
to happen to them nor are they advised that they have *any* options
except to suffer whatever misery their illness may
inflict upon them as it runs its course.

That is another reason why DeathNET exists.
DeathNET is a collaborative effort between The Right to Die Society
of Canada and Derek Humphry (founder of the National Hemlock Society
in the U.S. in 1980 and author of the international best-seller "Final Exit"
in 1991).
DeathNET came online January 10, and already has received over
17,000 visits. (On average, someone contacts DeathNET every 12 minutes,
round the clock.)
The site is currently nominated for two Canadian Internet Awards,
and was recently mentioned in TIME magazine
(June 12). It is one of the recommended sites in the upcoming book,
Dr. Tom Linden's Guide to Online Medicine (to be published this fall
by McGraw Hill).

Discover for yourself what DeathNET has to offer -
and if there are any suggestions you care to make, please let us know.
If you value honesty and freedom of choice, you will find much
of interest here.

 We are one of the few sources of complete texts
involving current legal cases in the U.S. (Compassion in Dying's
constitutional challenges in the states of Washington and New York,
Oregon's Measure 16, etc);
we provide online version of international newsletters such as that of VESS
(Voluntary Euthanasia Society of Scotland); the complete texts of new
legislation (such as the recently passed "euthanasia law" in the Northern
Territory of Australia) and much else besides.

Of special interest:  We are also a source of new
and authoritative publications such as "Departing Drugs" and "Beyond Final
Exit" which are NOT sold in bookstores and which are intended to protect
the terminally ill from the hazards of "back-alley attempted suicides"
which often end in failure. If we can be of assistance, please let us know.

john hofsess
editor, "Last Rights"
DeathNET (http://www.islandnet.com/~deathnet)
email: 

David S. Stodolsky      Euromath Center     University of Copenhagen
   Tel.: +45 38 33 03 30   Fax: +45 38 33 88 80 (C)


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