A prominent British medical ethicist is advocating the legalization of euthanasia, including for patients incapable of consent. Len Doyal , emeritus professor of medical ethics at Queen Mary, University of London, writes in this month's issue of Clinical Ethics that physicians cause some patients to suffer a "slow and distressing death" by withdrawing feeding tubes. [...]
The US House of Representatives has voted 379-35 to pass the Broadcast Decency Enforcement Act , a bill which would increase the maximum indecency fines levied by the Federal Communications Commission from $32,500 to $325,000 per station for each violation. The House version approved late Wednesday Tuesday is identical to the version passed by the [...]
A federal judge in Oregon allowed a sexual abuse lawsuit against the Catholic Church to move forward Wednesday, rejecting the Vatican's bid to dismiss the suit for lack of jurisdiction. The ruling allows a Seattle-area man to continue with his claim that the Holy See is liable for transferring the Rev. Andrew Ronan from Ireland [...]
Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki announced Thursday that Iraq's parliament has approved his nominee for the country's controversial Interior Ministry, ending a three-week stalemate between Shiite and Sunni political blocs. Nominees for the defense and national security ministries were also approved, completing the formation of Maliki's new government. The new Interior Minister taking charge of [...]
Carla Del Ponte , chief prosecutor for the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia has said that she will ask the UN Security Council to grant the ICTY power to apprehend former Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic and his military commander Ratko Mladic . Speaking Wednesday at a Security Council meeting, Del Ponte expressed [...]
Gen. Michael Hagee , commandant of the US Marine Corps, has said he will not resign amid investigations into whether Marines killed Iraqi civilians in unprovoked attacks, adding that he is responsible for the training of his troops and will ensure those involved are held accountable if the allegations are true. In a Pentagon briefing [...]
JURIST Special Guest Columnist Nathan Brown, Professor of Political Science and International Affairs at George Washington University and a Senior Associate at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, says that despite recent pressure by reformist judges for political reform in Egypt, judges are unlikely agents of fundamental change and their efforts are much more likely [...]
A Guantanamo Bay detainee from Yemen involved in a clash with guards in May told his defense lawyer that guards had instigated the incident when they tried to handle Korans owned by detainees, the defense lawyer said Wednesday. The Yemen detainee's account contradicts reports given by Guantanamo guards and Navy Cmdr. Robert Durand, spokesman for [...]
A military court in Syria has sentenced writer Mohammad Ghanem to six months in prison for "insulting the Syrian president, discrediting the Syrian government and fomenting sectarian unrest," a human rights group said Wednesday. The charges stem from Ghanem's articles published on a website he edits, Surion , that call on the Baathist ruling party [...]
Alleged secret detentions and unlawful inter-state transfers involving Council of Europe member states, Legal Affairs Committee of the Council of Europe, June 7, 2006 . Read the full text of the report. Reported in JURIST's Paper Chase here.
