FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Choice is an Illusion, a nonprofit corporation opposed to assisted suicide, has launched a new website agianst the Massachusetts "death with dignity" initiative. The website's name is "Mass Against Assisted Suicide."
Margaret Dore, President of Choice is an Illusion and an elder law attorney, states: "The initiative's introduction declares that the process will be 'entirely voluntary' for the patient. The act, as written, does not deliver on this promise. The act is instead a recipe for elder abuse."
The proposed act has an application process to obtain a lethal dose for the purpose of causing the patient's death. The act allows the patient's heir, who will benefit financially from the death, to actively help the patient sign up for the lethal dose. Dore states: "The act allows an heir to participate as one of two witnesses on the lethal dose request form. The act also allows someone else to speak for the patient."
"This does not meet the stink test," said Dore. "Signing away your life under the proposed act has less protection than signing a will."
Dore explained that when signing a will, similar conduct can create a presumption of fraud and undue influence.
Dore also pointed out that there is no oversight once the lethal dose of has been filled under the proposed act.
"The death is not required to be witnessed by disinterested persons," Dore said. "Indeed, no one is required to be present."
"Without disinterested witnesses, the opportunity is created for an heir, or someone else who will benefit from the death, to administer the lethal dose to the patient without his consent. Who would know?"
This year in New Hampshire, a similar "death with dignity" act was defeated in the House of Representatives by a vote of 234 to 99.
Former New Hampshire State Representative Nancy Elliott said: "Assisted suicide laws empower heirs and others to pressure and abuse older people to cut short their lives. This is especially an issue when the older person has money. There is no assisted suicide bill that you can write to correct this huge problem."
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To view the new website, go here: http://www.massagainstassistedsuicide.org To learn more about "Choice" is an Illusion, visit: www.choiceillusion.org To learn about the New Hampshire bill that failed, go here: http://www.choiceillusionnewhampshire.org/2011/05/new-hampshire-defeats-assisted-suicide.html
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For a more in depth legal analysis, please click here
By Margaret DoreDecember 4, 2011
A ballot initiative to legalize physician-assisted suicide is pending in Massachusetts.[1]
Physician-assisted suicide is legal in just two states: Oregon and Washington. In both states, acts to legalize the practice were enacted via sound-bite ballot initiative campaigns.[2] In a third state, Montana, there is a court case that gives doctors a potential defense to prosecution for homicide. No such law has made it through the scrutiny of a legislature. Just this year, bills to legalize assisted suicide were defeated in Montana, New Hampshire and Hawaii.[3] Just this year, Idaho enacted a statute to strengthen its law against assisted suicide.[4]
The proposed Massachusetts act is a recipe for elder abuse. Key provisions include that an heir, who will benefit financially from a patient's death, is allowed to participate as a witness to help sign the patient up for the lethal dose. See Section 21 of the act, allowing one of two witnesses on the lethal dose request form to be an heir, available here. This situation invites undue influence and coercion.
Once the lethal dose is issued by the pharmacy, there is no oversight over administration of the dose to the patient. See entire proposed act, available here. For example, no witnesses are required. See act here. Without disinterested witnesses, an opportunity is created for an heir, or another person who will benefit from the patient's death, to administer the lethal dose to the patient without his consent. Even if he struggled who would know?
In Massachusetts, proponents are framing the issue as religious. In Washington state, proponents used a similar tactic and even religious slurs to distract voters from the pitfalls of legalization. What the proposed law said and did was all but forgotten.
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MMS Press Release: MMS Physicians Reaffirm Opposition to Physician-Assisted Suicide
December 3, 2011
http://www.massmed.org/AM/Template.cfm?Section=Online_Newsroom&TEMPLATE=/CM/ContentDisplay.cfm&CONTENTID=65342
Contact: Richard P. Gulla
Phone: (781) 434-7101 Email: rgulla@mms.org
Waltham, Mass. -- December 3, 2010 – The Massachusetts Medical Society, the statewide association of physicians with more than 23,000 members, today voted to reaffirm its opposition to physician-assisted suicide, with its House of Delegates voting by a wide margin to maintain a policy the Society has had in effect since 1996.
Opposition to physician-assisted suicide was part of a larger policy statement that includes recognition of patient dignity at the end of life and the physician’s role in caring for terminally-ill patients. The policy was approved by more than 75 percent of the Society’s delegates.
Lynda Young, M.D., president of the Society, said that “Physicians of our Society have clearly declared that physician-assisted suicide is inconsistent with the physician’s role as healer and health care provider. At the same time we recognize the importance of patient dignity and the critical role that physicians have in end-of-life care.”
Dr. Young said the policy goes beyond a single statement of opposition to physician-assisted suicide to include “support for patient dignity and the alleviation of pain and suffering at the end of life.” Additionally, it includes the Society’s commitment to “provide physicians treating terminally-ill patients with the ethical, medical, social, and legal education, training, and resources to enable them to contribute to the comfort and dignity of the patient and the patient’s family.”
The policy was one of several reaffirmed and adopted at the Society’s 2011 Interim Meeting, which brings hundreds of physicians from across the state to examine and consider specific resolutions on public health policy, health care delivery, and organizational administration by the Society’s House of Delegates, its policy-making body. Resolutions adopted by the delegates become policies of the organization. . . .
The Massachusetts Medical Society, with more than 23,000 physicians and student members, is dedicated to educating and advocating for the patients and physicians of Massachusetts. The Society publishes the New England Journal of Medicine, a leading global medical journal and web site, and Journal Watch alerts and newsletters covering 13 specialties. The Society is also a leader in continuing medical education for health care professionals throughout Massachusetts, conducting a variety of medical education programs for physicians and health care professionals. Founded in 1781, MMS is the oldest continuously operating medical society in the country. For more information, visit www.massmed.org, www.nejm.org, or www.jwatch.org.
November 27, 2011
To Massachusetts Medical Society
Dear House of Delegates Officers and Other Interested Parties:
I understand that the Massachusetts Medical Association will be voting on changing its policy against physician-assisted suicide. I have been a cancer doctor in Oregon for more than 40 years. The combination of assisted-suicide legalization and prioritized medical care based on prognosis has created a danger for my patients on the Oregon Health Plan (Medicaid).
The Plan limits medical care and treatment for patients with a likelihood of a 5% or less 5-year survival. My patients in that category, who say, have a good chance of living another three years and who want to live, cannot receive surgery, chemotherapy or radiation therapy to obtain that goal. The Plan guidelines state that the Plan will not cover “chemotherapy or surgical interventions with the primary intent to prolong life or alter disease progression.” The Plan WILL cover the cost of the patient’s suicide.
Under our law, a patient is not supposed to be eligible for voluntary suicide until they are deemed to have six months or less to live. In the well publicized cases of Barbara Wagner and Randy Stroup, neither of them had such diagnoses, nor had they asked for suicide. The Plan, nonetheless, offered them suicide.
In Oregon, the mere presence of legal assisted-suicide steers patients to suicide even when there is not an issue of coverage. One of my patients was adamant she would use the law. I convinced her to be treated. Eleven years later she is thrilled to be alive. Please, don’t let assisted suicide come to Massachusetts.
[Support for this letter regarding Barbara Wagner and Randy Stroup can be found in these articles: http://www.katu.com/news/26119539.html & http://abcnews.go.com/Health/story?id=5517492&page=1 My patient’s letter in the Boston Globe describing her being alive 11 years later can be read here: http://articles.boston.com/2011-10-04/bostonglobe/30243525_1_suicide-doctor-ballot-initiative ]
Kenneth R.Stevens, Jr., MD
Sherwood, OR Professor Emeritus and former Chair, Radiation Oncology Department, Oregon Health & Science University, Portland, Oregon