Dementia sufferers may have a 'duty to die'

Elderly people suffering from dementia should consider ending their lives because they are a burden on the NHS and their families, according to the British influential medical ethics expert Baroness Warnock. The veteran Government adviser said pensioners in mental decline are "wasting people's lives" because of the care they require and should be allowed to opt for euthanasia even if they are not in pain.

She insisted there was "nothing wrong" with people being helped to die for the sake of their loved ones or society. The 84-year-old added that she hoped people will soon be "licensed to put others down" if they are unable to look after themselves.

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The human cost of austerity

Rates of suicide and depression are on the rise in Spain as the unemployment figures there hit a record high as Europe struggles to contain its debt crisis. New figures show that one-in-four Spanish workers are now without a job. Only Greece has a higher unemployment rate in the European Union (EU).

But as austerity measures bite, there is growing concern that the cuts are taking a more worrying toll. Health groups say there has been a sharp rise in mental health problems at the same time that welfare services are being cut back.

And the Red Cross says a growing number of Europeans are now relying on food aid. Al Jazeera's Jonah Hull visited a charity-run soup kitchen in a hard-hit suburb of Madrid where hunger is a very real symptom of Spain's economic crisis. "Not long ago mainly poor immigrants sat down to lunch at these tables. Now an equal number of Spaniards does as well," he says.

Al Jazeera English

Ted Turner Thinks It's "Good" U.S. Troops are Killing Themselves

During an appearance on Piers Morgan Tonight, Ted Turner said he thinks it's "good" that U.S. soldiers are killing themselves.

Can nasal spray help prevent U.S. military suicides?

Could the solution to increasing suicide and depression rates among members of the U.S. military lie in a nasal spray? The Army hopes so.

In the midst of a crisis that saw its highest rate of suicide in July, the Army has greenlighted a grant for Dr. Michael Kubek, an Indiana University of Medicine professor, to dig deeper into whether a nasal spray could be a safe and effective way to administer a specific antidepressive neurochemical to the brain and help calm suicidal thoughts.

The Army counted 38 confirmed or suspected suicides in July, a tally that took into account both active- and non-active-duty members of the Army National Guard or Reserve. Three of those active-duty soldiers were deployed at the time of their deaths. Before July, the highest monthly level suicide rate for soldiers was 33 in June 2010 and July 2011, according to statistics released by the Army.

CNN.com Blogs

Woman Accused of Murder for Attempting Suicide While Pregnant

A Chinese immigrant who Indiana (USA) prosecutors say ate rat poison when she was eight months pregnant rejected a plea agreement Friday that would have negated a murder charge in her newborn baby's death.

Bei Bei Shuai turned down prosecutors' offer to drop a murder charge if she pleads guilty to a lesser charge of attempted feticide during a court hearing in Indianapolis, her lawyer and prosecutors said. If Shuai had accepted the deal, she could have faced six to 20 years in prison or even received a suspended sentence.

The 35-year-old Shanghai native, who was freed on bond in May after more than a year in jail, has until Aug. 31 to change her mind. Defense attorney Linda Pence said Shuai wants to clear her name and avoid the stigma of guilt. "She intends to fight these charges vigorously," Pence said. "She doesn't want any other woman to go through what she has gone through."

Several medical and women's rights groups have filed friend-of-the-court briefs supporting Shuai. Some briefs claim that a conviction in the case could set a precedent by which pregnant women could be prosecuted for smoking or other behavior that authorities deemed a danger to their unborn child. A lawyer with the New York-based National Advocates for Pregnant Women is assisting in Shuai's defense.

ABC News

Ernest Hemingway 'driven to suicide over FBI surveillance'

AE Hotchner said he believed the FBI's monitoring of the Nobel Prize-winning author, over suspicions of his links to Cuba, "substantially contributed to his anguish and his suicide" 50 years ago.

Hotchner wrote in The New York Times that he had "regretfully misjudged" his friend's fears of federal investigators, which were dismissed as paranoid delusions for years after his death. In 1983 the FBI released a 127-page file it had kept on Hemingway since the 1940s, confirming he was watched by agents working for J. Edgar Hoover, who took a personal interest in his case.

Hotchner described being met off a train by Hemingway in Ketchum, Idaho, in November 1960, for a pheasant shoot with their friend Duke MacMullen. Hemingway, struggling to complete his last work, complained "the feds" had "tailed us all the way" and that agents were poring over his accounts in a local bank that they passed on their journey.

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Indian farmers commit suicide due to devastation caused by GM crops

Foundational changes that have taken place in the agriculture sector of India have led to a epidemic of farmer suicides over the past 16 years, according to a new report. Released by the Center for Human Rights and Global Justice at New York University's (NYU) Law School, the report explains that, on average, one Indian farmer commits suicide every 30 minutes in response to the devastation caused by the effects of globalization on agriculture, and genetically-modified organisms (GMO) in particular.

The report, entitled, "Every Thirty Minutes: Farmer Suicides, Human Rights and the Agrarian Crisis in India," explains that Indian policy has stripped many farmers of their livelihoods by greatly decreasing the value of their crops. Combined with the introduction of GM crops that trap farmers into an endless cycle of debt without providing any substantial benefits, and you end up with a society marked by despair, hopelessness, and an increase in suicides.

What was once an agricultural system based on the diverse cultivation of natural, beneficial food and use crops has morphed into a system of unsustainable cash-crop agriculture. Countless millions of farmers began to adopt crops like Monsanto's Bt cotton, which recent studies have shown provide no benefits, but that lock farmers into a perpetual system of dependence that ends up bankrupting them.
Learn more on naturalnews.com

'Nuclear Ninjas' Suicide Mission

A handful of "heroes" working to avert a total meltdown at Japan's crippled nuclear plant have told loved ones not to expect them to return home.

The Japanese media have dubbed the elite squad of 180 technicians the "Samurai Warriors" and even the "Nuclear Ninjas" as they try to save their country.

Police officers wore protective suits as they drove near the nuclear plant.

One man, having already been exposed to dangerous levels of radiation, told his wife: "Please continue to live well, I cannot be home for a while." Nuclear experts have said the men are on a suicide mission and that not even their airtight suits can save them from contamination. And if they survive, they will face a lifetime of health problems.

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Billy Connolly and Suicide Bombers

'Arabising' the Chechens for maximum effect

In the aftermath of the suspected suicide bombing at Domodedovo airport which killed over 35 people and injured many others -  a grizzly image has appeared on Russian NTV television showing a photograph of what seems to be the severed head of the suspected suicide bomber.

It's said to be of a "man aged 30 to 35 and of North Caucasus or Arab appearance" according to the Moscow Times. Curiously, there's a big difference between the two, as there are big physical differences even among Arabs, for example between a Lebanese and a Yemeni or a Palestinian and a Northern Sudanese.

To say, "North Caucasus or Arab appearance" implies they are one and the same. I am no expert on genetics, but there is no doubt a reason why "white" people in general are referred to as "Caucasian". Chechens, are from the North Caucasus. Caucasus - Caucasian. No?

Blue and green eyes, pale white skin and somewhat Slavic features makes them look much like their Russian countrymen (Chechnya is an autonomous state within Russia and the fighters want it to separate completely), and I was informed once by a translator that large parts of their languages are mutually intelligible.

During the Chechen wars, scores of Arab jihadi fighters did join the Chechens in opposing Moscow's rule - but if they were referring to possible foreign fighters within Chechnya, might NTV and the Moscow Times not have been more specific?

It's quite likely that fighters from Chechnya, Dagestan or Ingushetia may have carried out the horrendous attack - especially those wanting the region to become an "Islamic Emirate".

Al Jazeera Blogs

Stockholm suicide blast a terror attack

A spokesperson for Swedish security service Säpo labelled as a terror crime the suicide attack that shook central Stockholm on Saturday evening, leaving one person dead and wounding two others.

At a Sunday morning press conference, Säpo said it had taken over the investigation into the nearly simultaneous bombings from the Stockholm police. The investigation will be overseen by chief prosecutor Tomas Linstrand.
"We are opening an investigation into a terrorist crime under Swedish laws," Anders Thornberg, head of Säpo's security department, told a press conference, a day after the explosions targeted shoppers in the Swedish capital.
Thornberg called the incident “very serious”.

Shortly before the two explosions, which sent holiday shoppers scrambling in one of Stockholm's busiest commercial districts, Säpo and the TT news agency received an email in which the author cites cartoons by Swedish Lars Vilks which portray the prophet Mohammed as a dog as well as the Swedish military presence in Afghanistan.

The Local