Latest news with #Dilbert
Yahoo
06-06-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
The assisted dying movement is gaining momentum. These opponents are pushing back
What does it mean to die well, with dignity? The question is at the heart of the contentious debate over whether legalizing physician-assisted death for terminally ill patients is an act of compassion, upholding an individual's dignity, or a troubling step toward devaluing human life. The debate has recently returned to the spotlight in New York, where the state Assembly passed a bill in April that would allow terminally ill patients with a prognosis of six months or less to live to request life-ending medication. It also came up in May, when 'Dilbert' cartoonist Scott Adams revealed that he only has a few months to live and indicated that he might take advantage of California's End of Life Option Act. New York's proposal requires confirmation from two doctors, who must verify the diagnosis and ensure the patient is mentally sound. The measure passed narrowly — 81 to 67 — after more than four hours of debate. Its fate now rests with the state Senate, where it needs 32 votes to pass and currently has 26 co-sponsors. Currently, 12 jurisdictions — including Oregon, Colorado and the District of Columbia — permit what's commonly known as 'medical assistance in dying' (MAiD) or 'assisted suicide.' On May 20, Delaware became the latest state to legalize medical assistance in dying, and at least 19 other states are considering similar laws. Canada, Switzerland, Belgium and the Netherlands have adopted MAiD laws, some extending eligibility to people without terminal illnesses. The United Kingdom is also reviewing a similar bill, with a vote expected later in June. 'Passing this bill is about love, compassion, and reducing needless suffering. No one should have to endure agony when there is a better, humane choice available. This is not a political issue — it's a human issue, and we owe it to New Yorkers to pass the Medical Aid in Dying Act,' said the bill's sponsor, Assemblymember Amy Paulin, D-Westchester, in a press release. Supporters argue that allowing patients to choose death in the face of unbearable suffering respects their dignity and autonomy. For those speaking out against the bill, legalizing physician-assisted suicide devalues life and puts vulnerable populations at risk, including people with disabilities, poor people and people with mental illness. Dr. Lydia Dugdale, a physician and ethicist at Columbia University, wrote in a recent New York Times op-ed that the debate isn't about dying well. 'It is about relieving society — government, medical systems, even families — of the responsibility to care for those who need the most help: the mentally ill, the poor, the physically disabled,' she wrote. Opponents worry about a 'slippery slope,' arguing that vague eligibility requirements could lead to the kind of expansion seen in Canada, where assisted suicide has become available to people suffering not only from terminal illness, but also from conditions like loneliness, eating disorders and mental illness. 'I cannot get through a day ... It's physical torture,' said a Canadian woman with a series of nonterminal diagnoses, whose journey seeking, and receiving, MAiD is the focus of a recent New York Times story. 'Once we go down this road, there is no going back,' said Ed Mechmann, the director of public policy at the Archdiocese of New York, speaking at a recent event in New York hosted by Communion and Liberation, a Catholic lay movement, along with other opponents of physician-assisted suicide. 'It will change the nature of health care, of living and dying forever,' Mechmann said. The terms 'physician-assisted death' or 'assisted suicide' typically refer to a medical practice in which a terminally ill person is provided a lethal dose of medication they can take to end their life. The term 'medical assistance in dying' is commonly used in U.S. and Canada policy discussions and often refers to both assisted suicide and euthanasia. Euthanasia, by contrast, involves a medical professional administering a life-ending medication, typically by injection, at the patient's request. Euthanasia is not legal in the states that have legalized MAiD, whereas countries like Canada and the Netherlands allow both. Although the proponents of MAiD often frame assisted suicide as a matter of personal autonomy, those who oppose it believe that in reality, it would accomplish the opposite and endanger vulnerable patients who struggle to access care and support. 'As a practicing physician, I will tell you this does not become a matter of choice for most people,' said Dugdale, author of the 2020 book 'The Lost Art of Dying,' speaking at the New York event. 'The concern is that once you have a choice legalized for the privileged few, it will then threaten life for many others who find it difficult to maintain life for a variety of reasons.' Weak safeguards of the laws and ambiguous definitions would likely contribute to eventually including a wide range of chronic conditions, including diabetes, heart disease, cancer and even mental health disorders like anorexia, Mechmann noted. In such cases, choosing death may not reflect true autonomy but rather systemic neglect, he said. In Colorado, for instance, patients with anorexia have already qualified for assisted death on the grounds that the condition can be fatal if untreated. In 2024, Quebec, a province in Canada, established the right for a person with a serious and incurable illness to choose a medically assisted death in advance. Also in Canada, patients with a mental illness as an underlying medical condition will be eligible for MAiD in 2027. But even with long-term patients, it can be difficult to determine whether a desire to die stems from informed decision-making or untreated depression, Dugdale said. 'The people who tend to seek to end their lives through lethal prescription, who want assisted suicide, are at high risk for depression demographically,' Dugdale said. Among those groups are older adults with advanced cancer, especially white men. Depression is often overlooked or misdiagnosed, despite being treatable. In Oregon, where MAiD has been legal the longest, less than 1% of patients requesting lethal prescriptions are referred for psychological evaluation. 'This is a major oversight that fails to protect depressed people from making flawed decisions,' Dugdale wrote in her op-ed. Opponents also challenge the popular narrative of MAiD as a carefully considered choice made by an informed patient with a long-trusted physician. 'Very few patients have a doctor they call their own anymore, or a doctor who knows them,' said Dr. Eve Slater, a physician and Columbia University professor at an online event hosted by Plough, a Christian magazine, on June 2. Slater, who previously served as assistant secretary for Health and Human Services, said that for many today, especially in New York, care is fragmented, which makes it more challenging to make intimate and ethically sound decisions. She added that legalizing physician-assisted death could further erode the foundational trust between doctor and patient. Physicians also often misjudge how long terminally ill patients will live, according to Slater. 'I've been thankfully proved wrong on many occasions,' Slater said. ' I think there is a fallacy in the premise that you qualify if you have less than six months to live, because any doctor who declares that is assuming a crystal ball that they don't have.' In reality, legalizing assisted death risks creating a new social norm — one that pressures vulnerable individuals, especially those who are alone, seriously ill or unsupported, into feeling like death is their best or only option. In 2019, Kate Connolly, a communications professional in New York City, received a call that her mother had been rushed to the hospital with a brain aneurysm, she recalled while speaking alongside Dugdale and Mechmann. For the next four and a half years, her mother remained confined to her bed and wheelchair, on a feeding tube, unable to do much without assistance. Yet, even in a severely disabled state, her mother's presence was cherished by her family before she died, Connolly said. 'Her family's role, which was also a great sacrifice, was to be steward, not dictators, but respectful stewards of a precious gift,' Connolly said. Around the same time, Connolly learned her unborn son had developed a cystic hygroma — a condition often considered incompatible with life. Both with her mother and her son, Connolly described pressure from medical professionals to end their life prematurely — through abortion or withdrawal of care, which were presented as practical and compassionate choices. She chose to continue her pregnancy, giving birth to a son and holding him after he died. Although hastening death may sometimes seem like a more compassionate and pragmatic decision, this mindset fosters a view of suffering lives as disposable, Connolly said. 'The truth is, from what I've seen, dying is not a problem to be solved,' she said. 'It is an experience to be lived and even embraced. It is a sacred time, truly set apart from any experience.' End-of-life decisions must involve thoughtful, peaceful conversations between patients, families and doctors, Connolly noted. 'What is the right course of action? What is reasonable or what is needlessly extending pain and suffering?' she said. 'You cannot ask these questions thoughtfully or with any real meaning when you're being pushed to just do the expedient thing and end the life in front of you.' According to studies from Canada, the top reasons that patients say they seek a lethal prescription are more social rather than physical. In Canada, the 2022 annual report revealed that the most commonly cited reasons for requesting MAiD were loss of ability to engage in meaningful activities (86%) and loss of ability to perform daily activities (81%). While supporters of MAiD often argue that alleviating pain is one of the main reasons for hastening the death of a patient, about 59% are concerned about 'controlling pain.' According to Oregon data, nearly 30% of MAiD-seeking patients cite current and future concerns about pain. 'So it's much more an issue of control,' Dugdale said, adding that the U.S. has robust pain control. 'Dying in pain is not an issue. It should not be an issue.' Instead, loss of independence and fear of being a burden often are. These fears should be met with care, not a prescription, Mechmann said. 'It's incumbent on us to make sure people don't feel (like a burden).' With her medical trainees, Dugdale observed a shift in attitudes toward physician-assisted dying. In recent conversations, she said, some trainees wondered, 'Why don't we just do away with our societal aversion to suicide altogether?' and embrace the view that if individuals wish to end their lives, they should be free to do so without interference. Once, she was asked whether assisted suicide can be a solution to the problem of loneliness. With this mindset, end-of-life decisions would be made through a utilitarian and individualistic lens. Many physicians are uneasy about appearing 'paternalist,' Dugdale said. 'And so to mitigate that, we defer everything to the patient,' she said. The core ethical principles of beneficence (doing good) and non-maleficence (avoiding harm) have, in practice, been overshadowed by an almost singular focus on autonomy, Dugdale said. For doctors, she continued, MAiD can offer a controlled intervention in the often unpredictable process of dying, providing a sense of agency amid uncertainty. 'There's already a growing pressure to sacrifice one's life for the so-called 'greater good' and to rid the world of expensive, hopeless cases,' she said. Normalizing the idea of choosing death, especially in a society already grappling with high health care costs and an aging population, may cause younger health care professionals to view seriously ill, expensive patients as burdens. A study from Oxford University points to a correlation between legalized assisted suicide and euthanasia and increased rates of more common forms of suicide in both the U.S. and Europe. 'Once it becomes widely acceptable that I can end my life on my own terms, that feeds a culture of death,' Dugdale said. In Canada, euthanasia is now the fifth most common cause of death. 'At some point, the vast majority of people in the state of New York are gonna be laying in a hospital bed. And when the doctor shows up, what are we gonna think? Is this my ally or is this my enemy?' Mechmann said. So what, then, is the way forward? Investing in meaningful relationships and community and maintaining deep personal connections through family, faith communities, clubs or friendships is a bulwark against loneliness and despair, experts agreed. It's human connection — not lethal prescriptions — that is the real antidote to suffering, participants in the event said. 'Suffering is inevitable,' Mechmann said. But the assisted suicide is a 'bad answer' to the problem of suffering. 'It's love, it's community, it's not despairing. It's being willing to embrace some of the suffering and to live with it and to walk with it.' Editor's note: This story deals with the practice of assisted suicide. If you or someone you know is struggling with thoughts of self-harm, the 988 Suicide and Crisis Line is always available. You can text or call 988 any time or chat at In Utah, you can also reach out to SafeUT, 833-372-3388, or download the SafeUT app.
Yahoo
23-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Dilbert cartoonist reveals Trump personally reached out following his terminal cancer announcement
"Dilbert" cartoonist Scott Adams said that President Donald Trump personally reached out to him after he revealed his cancer diagnosis this week. Adams, 67, announced on his web show on Monday that he had metastatic prostate cancer, the same type that former President Joe Biden was diagnosed with. "I have the same cancer that Joe Biden has. I also have prostate cancer that has also spread to my bones," Adams said on "Coffee with Scott Adams" on Monday. "My life expectancy is maybe this summer. I expect to be checking out from this domain sometime this summer." On Thursday, Adams revealed Trump personally called him afterward to offer support. 'Dilbert' Creator Scott Adams Reveals Prostate Cancer Diagnosis, Predicts He Has Only Months To Live The cartoonist said he didn't pick up at first when Trump called because he didn't recognize the Florida-based number. But he later discovered the president had left him a message. Read On The Fox News App "And a little bit later I thought, I better check that voicemail and see if that was anything I need to deal with. And the first sentence in the transcription, cause you know the phone gives you the text version of the voicemail as well, the first sentence is, 'This is your favorite president,'" Adams recalled. "And I thought to myself, 'No,'" he said while chuckling. "'Did I just send the most important person in the world to voicemail?' And it turns out that I had!" Adams said the president left a "somewhat lengthy" voicemail saying he was checking in to see how Adams was doing because he had heard about his cancer diagnosis. Trump Calls Biden's Cancer Diagnosis 'Very Sad' While Questioning Timeline: 'Wasn't Informed' He said Trump left his phone number for Adams to call him back, but he didn't take the president up on his offer, feeling that Trump was just being courteous and it would be "ridiculous" to bother him with a call. "It was just a nice thing for him to say," Adams explained. "It's not like he's sitting at the Resolute Desk, waiting for my call. I thought whatever it is he's doing has got to be more important than randomly taking a call from me," he added. Adams said later the same day his phone rang, and he saw it was a call from Florida again. Trump Surprises 104-Year-old Wwii Veteran With Birthday Message After Viral Tiktok Invite "And I thought to myself, no f---ing way, there's no way he's calling me again, and I answer it, and it's Trump!" he said. Adams said Trump asked him questions about his diagnosis and whether he was getting the treatments he needed. "At the end, the strangest thing happened at the end of the call, you know, when he found out the situation was kind of dire, and I was still checking out some things that might help, he said, 'If you need anything, I'll make it happen,'" he said. "And he meant it," Adams said in disbelief. "He was completely aware of our, let's say, parallel journeys from 2015. He mentioned it, and it was just the most incredible, weird, hard to understand situation, but boy, was it fun." The White House did not immediately return Fox News Digital's request for comment. Adams is most known for creating the popular office comedy comic strip "Dilbert," which poked fun at office culture with satirical humor and social commentary. Fox News' Greg Norman contributed to this article source: Dilbert cartoonist reveals Trump personally reached out following his terminal cancer announcement
Yahoo
23-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
‘Dilbert' Creator Reveals Details of Trump Call After Announcing His Cancer Diagnosis
Dilbert creator Scott Adams has revealed the details of a surprise phone call with President Donald Trump in the wake of the illustrator's cancer diagnosis. Adams, 67, revealed on a Rumble stream Monday that he is dying from the same aggressive form of prostate cancer that former President Joe Biden has been diagnosed with. He said he expects to 'check out from this domain sometime this summer.' However, the MAGA scribbler revealed on X on Thursday that a call with the commander-in-chief buoyed his spirits—but he almost ignored it. Adams, whose comic strip was dropped by hundreds of newspapers in 2023 after he called Black Americans a 'hate group,' said that a few days after his cancer bombshell, he received a call from a 'number from Florida' that he didn't recognise. He let it go straight to voicemail and his jaw dropped when he checked it out. 'The first sentence in the [voicemail] transcription… is, 'This is your favorite president,'' Adams said. 'Did I just send the most important person in the world to voicemail?' Trump left a number for Adams to call him back. 'Now obviously I don't call him back because that would be ridiculous. It just was a nice thing for him to say,' he explained. 'I thought to myself, 'No f---ing way,'' he then said, after explaining that a Florida number called him again just a few hours later. 'I answer it, and it's Trump,' Adams said. 'He was just checkin' on me and he wanted to make sure that I was getting everything I needed.' He said when Trump learned the extent of Adams' situation, he offered to help. 'At the end, the strangest thing happened. At the end of the call, when he found out that the situation was kinda dire,' Adams explained, 'He said, 'If you need anything, I'll make it happen.' And he meant it.' He said Trump was 'aware' of their 'parallel journeys from 2015.' Adams became a vocal Trump supporter after he announced his first White House bid. Adams predicted he would win the race because of his persuasion skills. His interest in Trump grew and grew, and culminated in the book Win Bigly. The illustrator, who created Dilbert in 1989, said earlier last week that he's 'had it [cancer] longer than [Biden] has had it' before adding, 'Well, longer than he's admitted to having it.' The artist, who is also an author, said that 'every day is a nightmare' with prostate cancer. 'The disease is already intolerable. I can tell you that I don't have good days,' Adams said. 'So if you are wondering, 'Hey Scott, do you have any good days?' Nope. Nope. Every day is a nightmare, and evening is even worse.' Adams defended his 2023 comments about race on his podcast at the time, saying, 'You should absolutely be racist whenever it's to your advantage.' He later defended these comments, saying they were intended as hyperbole. In 2020, Trump retweeted an episode of the podcast Real Coffee with Scott Adams, where the host mocked Joe Biden. Adams discussed his call with Trump in the wake of former President Joe Biden's revelation that he has aggressive prostate cancer that has spread to his bones. His announcement spawned a MAGA inquisition into just when he fell ill, and whether it was covered up when he was in office.
Yahoo
23-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
‘Dilbert' creator reveals call with President Trump after cancer diagnosis: ‘Did I just send the president to voicemail?'
He's the Commander in Mensch. 'Dilbert' creator and online pundit Scott Adams received not one, but two phone calls — and a voicemail — from President Trump following the beloved cartoonist's shocking cancer announcement. The 'Reframe Your Brain' author, 67, revealed Monday that he, like former President Joe Biden, has been diagnosed with prostate cancer that has spread to his bones. Days after the announcement, Adams received a call from a 'number from Florida' that he didn't recognize and sent straight to voicemail, he revealed in a video shared on X Thursday. 'The first sentence of the [voicemail] transcription…is 'This is your favorite president,'' Adams said, chuckling, adding, 'Did I just send the most important person in the world to voicemail?'President Trump left a 'semi-lengthy' voicemail checking in on Adams that included a number the 'Dilbert Principle' writer was to use to call him back. 'Now obviously I don't call him back because that would be ridiculous. It was just a nice thing for him to say,' the celebrated scrawler rationalized. Several hours later, Adams gets another call from a 'Florida number' he doesn't recognize — 'I thought to myself, 'No f—king way.'' 'I answer it and it's Trump,' Adams recounted, still in disbelief. 'He was just checkin' on me and he wanted to make sure I was getting everything I needed,' he said. The 'Win Bigly' author has been a Trump booster since the 2015 Republican Primary and a vocal online pundit for the two-time president on his daily internet show 'Coffee with Scott Adams.' 'At the end, the strangest thing happened. At the end of the call, when he found out that the situation was kinda dire,' Adams recalled, 'He said, 'If you need anything, I'll make it happen.'' 'And he meant it,' he added, laughing in disbelief. In the wake of Biden's dramatic health news announced earlier this week, Adams revealed that he has the same diagnosis and that he expects to die in the coming months. 'I have the same cancer that Joe Biden has. I also have prostate cancer that has also spread to my bones,' Adams said during an episode of 'Coffee with Scott Adams' on Monday. 'My life expectancy is maybe this summer,' he added. 'I expect to be checking out from this domain sometime this summer.' Biden, 82, announced through a spokesperson Sunday that he has 'aggressive' prostate cancer that spread to the bones, which was supposedly discovered just this month. 'Last week, President Joe Biden was seen for a new finding of a prostate nodule after experiencing increasing urinary symptoms,' a statement from Biden's personal office read. 'On Friday, he was diagnosed with prostate cancer, characterized by a Gleason score of 9 (Grade Group 5) with metastasis to the bone.' President Trump has expressed doubt regarding the claim that Biden just found out about the ghastly Stage 9 cancer diagnosis. 'I'm surprised the public wasn't notified a long time ago,' Trump said to reporters in the Oval Office Monday. 'This is dangerous for our country,' he added.
New York Post
23-05-2025
- Politics
- New York Post
‘Dilbert' creator reveals call with President Trump after cancer diagnosis: ‘Did I just send the president to voicemail?'
He's the Commander in Mensch. 'Dilbert' creator and online pundit Scott Adams received not one, but two phone calls — and a voicemail — from President Trump following the beloved cartoonist's shocking cancer announcement. The 'Reframe Your Brain' author, 67, revealed Monday that he, like former President Joe Biden, has been diagnosed with prostate cancer that has spread to his bones. Advertisement 4 President Trump called Dilbert creator Scott Adams twice after he revealed his cancer diagnosis. Collin Rugg/X Days after the announcement, Adams received a call from a 'number from Florida' that he didn't recognize and sent straight to voicemail, he revealed in a video shared on X Thursday. 'The first sentence of the [voicemail] transcription…is 'This is your favorite president,'' Adams said, chuckling, adding, 'Did I just send the most important person in the world to voicemail?' President Trump left a 'semi-lengthy' voicemail checking in on Adams that included a number the 'Dilbert Principle' writer was to use to call him back. Advertisement 'Now obviously I don't call him back because that would be ridiculous. It was just a nice thing for him to say,' the celebrated scrawler rationalized. Several hours later, Adams gets another call from a 'Florida number' he doesn't recognize — 'I thought to myself, 'No f—king way.'' 'I answer it and it's Trump,' Adams recounted, still in disbelief. 4 President Donald Trump attends a Make America Healthy Again (MAHA) Commission Event in the East Room of the White House, Thursday, May 22, 2025. AP Advertisement 'He was just checkin' on me and he wanted to make sure I was getting everything I needed,' he said. The 'Win Bigly' author has been a Trump booster since the 2015 Republican Primary and a vocal online pundit for the two-time president on his daily internet show 'Coffee with Scott Adams.' 'At the end, the strangest thing happened. At the end of the call, when he found out that the situation was kinda dire,' Adams recalled, 'He said, 'If you need anything, I'll make it happen.'' 'And he meant it,' he added, laughing in disbelief. Advertisement 4 The 'Reframe Your Brain' author, 67, revealed Monday that he, like former President Joe Biden, has been diagnosed with prostate cancer that has spread to his bones. Collin Rugg/X In the wake of Biden's dramatic health news announced earlier this week, Adams revealed that he has the same diagnosis and that he expects to die in the coming months. 'I have the same cancer that Joe Biden has. I also have prostate cancer that has also spread to my bones,' Adams said during an episode of 'Coffee with Scott Adams' on Monday. 'My life expectancy is maybe this summer,' he added. 'I expect to be checking out from this domain sometime this summer.' 4 Adams poses for a portrait with the Dilbert character in his studio in Dublin, Calif., Oct. 26, 2006. AP Biden, 82, announced through a spokesperson Sunday that he has 'aggressive' prostate cancer that spread to the bones, which was supposedly discovered just this month. 'Last week, President Joe Biden was seen for a new finding of a prostate nodule after experiencing increasing urinary symptoms,' a statement from Biden's personal office read. 'On Friday, he was diagnosed with prostate cancer, characterized by a Gleason score of 9 (Grade Group 5) with metastasis to the bone.' President Trump has expressed doubt regarding the claim that Biden just found out about the ghastly Stage 9 cancer diagnosis. Advertisement 'I'm surprised the public wasn't notified a long time ago,' Trump said to reporters in the Oval Office Monday. 'This is dangerous for our country,' he added.
