Word: britain
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This isn't the first time someone has challenged the clarity of Britain's assisted-suicide law. In a similar case eight years ago, Diane Pretty, who had motor neuron disease, wanted to know whether her husband would be prosecuted if he helped her die at home or accompanied her to an assisted-suicide clinic abroad. But the court rejected her request for clarification, and her illness took her life...
...thing is for sure, though: the clarified rules will deal only with people who travel overseas to assist with suicide and won't change the fact that helping someone die in Britain is illegal. And that, says Dominic Wilkinson, a medical-research fellow at Oxford University, raises other ethical considerations. "If we think it's O.K. for people to go overseas to end their lives, and it's not illegal for them to do it or for people to help them do it," he asks, "why do we think that people who want to do the same thing in this...
...influential panel of British politicians released a critical report on British involvement in Afghanistan, concluding that the effort to win the war has been hampered by unrealistic planning, a lack of coordination between the military and diplomatic corps and the absence of a clearly defined mission. The report says Britain's goal of fighting terrorists has been diluted by the competing aims of counterinsurgency, counternarcotics, protection of human rights and state-building. (See pictures of a British unit in Afghanistan...
...against these short-term military needs lie the questions of how long Britain must commit its troops to succeed in Afghanistan and what success will look like in a country rife with corruption and lawlessness. The head of the British army, Sir Richard Dannatt, has said before that the country should be committed to Afghanistan for the "long haul." On Sunday, Sir Nigel Sheinwald, Britain's ambassador to Washington, put the time frame as "decades...
...however. The buildup and execution of Operation Panther's Claw led to the bloodiest month to date for British forces in Afghanistan, with 22 British personnel killed in July. The financial cost of the campaign is mounting too: according to a report in the Times of London, spending on Britain's military operations in Afghanistan has more than trebled, from $1.3 billion in 2006-'07 to $4.4 billion in 2008-'09. And there are indications that the British public's patience is wearing thin. Last month a decision by the Ministry of Defense to try to reduce compensation paid...