tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-74887550812973966572024-03-26T08:29:57.562-07:00MassachusettsA non-profit corporation opposed to assisted suicide, euthanasia and other forms of imposed death, worldwideUnknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger74125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7488755081297396657.post-35641949083585577342024-03-21T18:50:00.000-07:002024-03-21T18:50:12.199-07:00A Short History of Assisted Suicide; Not Dead Yet; Is Canadian Style Assisted Suicide/Euthanasia Coming to California?<p><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">By Diane Coleman </span></p><div class="post-body entry-content" id="post-body-8246362281231758074" style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px; line-height: 1.4; position: relative; width: 470px;"><div class="post-body entry-content" id="post-body-790597904319638186" style="font-family: Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px; line-height: 1.4; position: relative; width: 470px;"><p></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiNRHCXjLtwhGsokLoJhcrV9cW7AfYCrFJpG1QPDkAkphS61eFa-wsyiQMv6NzGjzsUefh-gTotGuLD6tapJYVj5RoaKbGr2umFbAhvJyNw6bt6RfxULMIpNLBKkOEt6sIMQfP83tERZMU6aRoa6Dhwnor9-q_E4epee4l4I1kOOx-VpBGhFkLjhpj-IxQ/s150/Photo%20Diane%20cute%20brown%20jacket.jpg" style="clear: right; color: #5b84ed; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em; text-decoration-line: none;"><img border="0" data-original-height="150" data-original-width="150" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiNRHCXjLtwhGsokLoJhcrV9cW7AfYCrFJpG1QPDkAkphS61eFa-wsyiQMv6NzGjzsUefh-gTotGuLD6tapJYVj5RoaKbGr2umFbAhvJyNw6bt6RfxULMIpNLBKkOEt6sIMQfP83tERZMU6aRoa6Dhwnor9-q_E4epee4l4I1kOOx-VpBGhFkLjhpj-IxQ/s1600/Photo%20Diane%20cute%20brown%20jacket.jpg" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; border: 1px solid rgb(157, 184, 78); box-shadow: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.1) 1px 1px 5px; padding: 5px; position: relative;" width="150" /></a></div>A California State Senator, Catherine Blakespear, introduced a bill (SB 1196) earlier this month that resembles Canada’s law and, here in the U.S., reflects the broad agenda openly espoused by the Hemlock Society and Final Exit Network. The agenda of these organizations has long included eligibility for people with non-terminal conditions and disabilities.<p></p><p></p><p>When Not Dead Yet activists joined me in attending Jack “Dr. Death” Kevorkian’s trial in the late 1990s, Hemlock’s executive director Faye Girsh was there supporting him. Two thirds of his body count consisted of people with non-terminal disabilities. Girsh also advocated eligibility for people with cognitive disabilities and dementia, with or without consent. Leaders also advocated active euthanasia and “mercy killing.”<span></span></p><a name='more'></a><p></p><a name="more"></a><p></p><a name="more"></a><p>In time, these organizations evolved, split, regrouped and from them emerged Compassion and Choices, eclipsing the remains of the other organizations. Compassion and Choices was smarter and took a step-by-step approach to changing public policy. As their first executive director, Barbara Coombs Lee (who did not publicly support Kevorkian) has said, eligibility expansions are “an issue for another day.” Their focus has been on passing Oregon-style assisted suicide bills in more states which, as written, require nothing to address the reasons people request assisted suicide and preclude gathering data on how many people are coloring how far outside the lines. Nothing to see here. Please pass more bills.</p><p></p><p></p><blockquote>So it surprised me a little to see a California Senator introduce a bill (SB 1196) in a state where assisted suicide is already legal, a bill that would blow eligibility wide open by replacing the term “terminal disease” with [a] “grievous and irremediable medical condition,” defined as a medical condition that (1) is a serious and incurable illness or disease, (2) has placed the individual in a state of irreversible decline in capability, (3) is causing the individual to endure physical or psychological suffering due to the illness, disease, or state of decline that is intolerable to the individual and cannot be relieved in a manner the individual deems acceptable, and (4) after taking into account all of the individual’s medical circumstances, it is reasonably foreseeable that the condition will become the individual’s natural cause of death.**</blockquote><p></p><p>So much for us here at NDY, and millions of disabled people. No more suicide prevention for us. It’s been, well, a generation since assisted suicide proponents in the U.S. have made it so very obvious that disabled people are targeted by these laws. They’ve been trying to claim it’s not about us. They say disability alone is not enough to be eligible. Never mind that everyone who gets lethal drugs is disabled. Never mind that disability related concerns are people’s reasons for requesting assisted suicide. Nothing to see here. It looks like Blakespear didn’t get the memo.</p><p>As with the Kevorkian situation, Compassion and Choices has already announced opposition to Blakespear’s bill, noting that the current California assisted suicide law comes up for renewal in 2031.</p><p>So far, Blakespear is the only sponsor. It had best stay that way.</p><p>___</p><p>* Bill Summary</p><p>** Relevant terms "death with dignity," assisted suicide, Compassion & Choices, Faye Girsh, final exit network, Kevorkian, assisted suicide expansion, Barbara Coombs Lee, Final Exit Network, Hemlock Society, medical aid in dying, and Diane Coleman.</p></div></div>Adminhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13314132820263802243noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7488755081297396657.post-51480368767390914992023-10-20T21:32:00.000-07:002024-03-08T18:49:58.248-08:00Anita Cameron Testifies In Person Before Joint Committee on Public Health<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhWP23JKxorW-iNPtNs0QfpU7Gfkl1sRvwIf9YcXB26ucUerfOtyG-16bABMf9kM9pDLrCS6EashcYRhNG8fx9_GyIRgEnR6phYbU9tQfQs_-C4eBXMlJFj3J4a4THVExOwg64mavnUoBPK030st6BmUxrjhnM50Tzix2gszEB_2oTQ701E1cau98_Pqtxy/s1800/AnitaCameron.webp" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1800" height="125" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhWP23JKxorW-iNPtNs0QfpU7Gfkl1sRvwIf9YcXB26ucUerfOtyG-16bABMf9kM9pDLrCS6EashcYRhNG8fx9_GyIRgEnR6phYbU9tQfQs_-C4eBXMlJFj3J4a4THVExOwg64mavnUoBPK030st6BmUxrjhnM50Tzix2gszEB_2oTQ701E1cau98_Pqtxy/w164-h125/AnitaCameron.webp" width="164" /></a></div>
Nationally renowned disability activist Anita Cameron testified at a hearing this morning before the Joint Committee on Public Health of the Massachusetts legislature, in opposition to a proposed bill seeking to legalize assisted suicide.<p></p><p>
Witnesses were given two minutes each. This is her testimony:</p><p></p><p>
</p><blockquote>I’m Anita Cameron, Director of Minority Outreach for Not Dead Yet, a national disability rights organization opposed to medical discrimination, healthcare rationing, euthanasia and assisted suicide.
I am here in opposition to H. 2246 & S. 1331, the End of Life Options Act<p></p><p></p></blockquote>
<blockquote></blockquote><blockquote>These laws are dangerous because though they are supposed to be for people with six months or less to live, doctors are often wrong about a terminal diagnosis. My mother, while living in Washington state, was determined to be terminal and was placed in hospice.<p></p><p>
She didn’t die, but lived almost 12 years!</p><p></p><p>
Please vote NO.</p></blockquote><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p>Adminhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13314132820263802243noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7488755081297396657.post-15586989648955260052023-03-20T21:30:00.000-07:002024-03-08T19:06:02.465-08:00Press Release: Not Dead Yet Opposed to End of Life Options Act<div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj2n37WdBSfskhNK3WRW80udf6g_pH0JH50XYSXDeAdG6NNVwdrQKQEdno927lDEdUAWr0-yqc6mJwEe6sU6mVCtJ-n1iLjJj_uSrCpu_xGDgyLji0a3h_-b7CjtuAlH0T06-7Olxfn8n5B0mCV1CHvOU1st0lEH5fn95fxW7FwGCmSeaEWEDoAopZdCAM/s164/AnitaCameron.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="109" data-original-width="164" height="109" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj2n37WdBSfskhNK3WRW80udf6g_pH0JH50XYSXDeAdG6NNVwdrQKQEdno927lDEdUAWr0-yqc6mJwEe6sU6mVCtJ-n1iLjJj_uSrCpu_xGDgyLji0a3h_-b7CjtuAlH0T06-7Olxfn8n5B0mCV1CHvOU1st0lEH5fn95fxW7FwGCmSeaEWEDoAopZdCAM/s1600/AnitaCameron.jpg" width="164" /></a></div>Nationally renowned disability activist Anita Cameron testified at a hearing this morning before the Joint Committee on Public Health of the Massachusetts legislature in opposition to a proposed law to legalize assisted suicide. Witnesses were given only two minutes each. This is her written testimony: </div><div><br /></div><div>I’m Anita Cameron, Director of Minority Outreach for Not Dead Yet, a national disability rights organization opposed to medical discrimination, healthcare rationing, euthanasia and assisted suicide.
I am here in opposition to H. 2246/S. 1331, the End of Life Options Act, I live with intractable pain. I have multiple disabilities. Two are degenerative. One will take my life. One of my conditions, though chronic, can become terminal if I lose access to treatment. <span><a name='more'></a></span></div><div><br /></div><div>These laws are dangerous because though they are supposed to be for people with six months or less to live, doctors are often wrong about a terminal diagnosis. My mother, while living in Washington state, was determined to terminal and was placed in hospice. She didn’t die, but lived almost 12 years! </div><div><br /></div><div>[The proposed] law will put sick people, seniors and disabled people, especially, at risk due to the view of doctors that we have a lower quality of life, therefore leading them to devalue our lives. Now add race and racial disparities in healthcare to this. Blacks, in particular, receive inferior health care compared to whites in the areas of cardiac care, diabetes, cancer and pain management.</div><div><br /></div><div>What’s especially dangerous is that in states where it’s legal, if you lose access to healthcare, turning your chronic condition into a terminal one, you can request assisted suicide. It’ll be cheaper to kill you than to care for you.
As long as disability discrimination and racial disparities in healthcare exist, assisted suicide laws have no place in Massachusetts.
Please vote no on H. 2246/S. 1331.
###</div><div></div>Adminhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13314132820263802243noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7488755081297396657.post-58162609894622276712022-12-19T17:27:00.006-08:002022-12-19T20:22:20.566-08:00Major Assisted Suicide Win in Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court<p><span style="background-color: white; font-family: inherit;">By Barbara Lyons</span></p><div class="post-body entry-content" id="post-body-2813630596601760599" style="background-color: white; font-family: Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px; line-height: 1.4; position: relative; width: 470px;"><div><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi8iJkgNPVhp3PaF94Rmv9rK9ipRJv6_re8kG2TtB-fS9nVYzjoqDbkOq3G_PuOskR76whXAmN5S6E-FzibWwLbOYFCdyCMdKrEkBNZCan9-qiT9MLNhH2Zt-O2tlcx6gTYdF0TIDW4YwpuA1MKHOzhJVSCLNl0VX7zpcVhNStdIkoeVx31e6wrIXXq/s1835/iStock-180538869.jpg" style="clear: right; color: #5b84ed; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em; text-decoration-line: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1633" data-original-width="1835" height="156" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi8iJkgNPVhp3PaF94Rmv9rK9ipRJv6_re8kG2TtB-fS9nVYzjoqDbkOq3G_PuOskR76whXAmN5S6E-FzibWwLbOYFCdyCMdKrEkBNZCan9-qiT9MLNhH2Zt-O2tlcx6gTYdF0TIDW4YwpuA1MKHOzhJVSCLNl0VX7zpcVhNStdIkoeVx31e6wrIXXq/w175-h156/iStock-180538869.jpg" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; border: 1px solid rgb(157, 184, 78); box-shadow: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.1) 1px 1px 5px; padding: 5px; position: relative;" width="175" /></span></a></div></div><div><span style="font-family: inherit;">We are thrilled to announce that a favorable decision was reached in <i>Kligler v. Healy</i> by the Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts which rejected the notion that there is a right to assisted suicide in the Massachusetts Constitution. </span></div><div><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: inherit;">Here is a key phrase from the decision:</span></div><div><blockquote><span style="font-family: inherit;">Although we recognize the paramount importance and profound significance of all end-of-life decisions, after careful consideration, we conclude that the Massachusetts Declaration of Rights does not reach so far as to protect physician-assisted suicide.3 We conclude as well that the law of manslaughter may prohibit physician-assisted suicide, and does so, without offending constitutional protections.<span><a name='more'></a></span><a name="more"></a></span></blockquote></div><div><span style="font-family: inherit;">Nineteen disability rights organizations filed a brief in opposition to this case. If the decision had gone the other way, expectations were that similar cases would be filed in states that prohibit assisted suicide. </span></div></div><div style="clear: both;"></div></div><div class="post-footer" style="background-color: white; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(157, 184, 78); color: #303030; font-family: Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 10.8px; line-height: 1.6; margin: 20px -2px 0px; padding: 5px 10px;"></div>Adminhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13314132820263802243noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7488755081297396657.post-69398953424483184412022-05-09T23:14:00.000-07:002024-03-08T17:48:04.416-08:00The Legislature Should Reject S1384, Which Despite Its Name Does Not Provide Dying People "End-of-life Options."By John Kelly<div><br /></div><div>Over the last 15 years, the Massachusetts's legislature and, in 2012, the people of the state, have wisely
rejected the legalization of assisted suicide as too dangerous. The legislature should likewise
reject S1384, which despite its name does not provide dying people "end-of-life options."<p></p><p>
The tragic reality is that under legalized assisted suicide, some people's lives will be ended
without their true consent, through misdiagnosis, persuasion, coercion and abuse, insurance
denials and depression. No safeguards have ever been enacted or proposed that can prevent this
outcome, which can never be undone.</p><p></p><p>
NPR reported five years ago that up to 20% of people who enter hospice outlive their six months
prognosis. In Oregon, 4% of people who enter the assisted suicide program are alive at the end of
six months. The difference between 4% and 20% is the percent of people and their families who
may have lost months, years, and in some cases decades of meaningful life.</p><span><a name='more'></a></span><p>There is no way to contain eligibility to a narrow set of people. Anorexia nervosa and diabetes
now qualify as terminal conditions in other states. Disabled people like me are eligible in
Canada, and some predict disabled people will be eligible here.</p><p></p><p>
Proponents always talk about pain and suffering, but the end-of-life concerns in Oregon show
that people are upset about depending on other people and are feeling like a burden.</p><p></p><p>
Just as many people disqualify me from full humanity because of my disability, some people
disqualify themselves and are disqualified by others when they need help.</p><p></p><p>
The state of Massachusetts must not sponsor people's suicides because other people consider
them a burden, because they believe they are dying when they are not, and because they have
been denied the treatment and support services that would keep them alive.</p><p></p><p>
//
John B. Kelly is Director of "Second Thoughts Massachusetts"</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p></div>Adminhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13314132820263802243noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7488755081297396657.post-19038844995113239812022-02-18T13:31:00.001-08:002022-02-18T13:31:59.279-08:00EPC - USA Files Brief to Massachusetts Supreme Court in the Kligler Assisted Suicide Case<p><span style="font-family: inherit;">Alex Schadenberg, </span>Executive Directive, Euthanasia Prevention Coalition</p><p><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjLpVnrRj9-JP7vHRuqdps0ZRF1mso1Ff0veWP6CO7WXvmWbpfNsWayTxds_s0wfSN4Je45ZaKR0RHR411aPmT3U02QV48w_1RFWfP6HXJcM51ubVBPxGwAxpcnW_AGR0sw0JVLLivN9EbksT6h_PbX_urW5_fyyS5plhwGOEkutgOp6GZQkbYg6ABBMw=s277" style="clear: right; color: blue; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em; text-decoration-line: none;"><img border="0" data-original-height="182" data-original-width="277" height="144" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjLpVnrRj9-JP7vHRuqdps0ZRF1mso1Ff0veWP6CO7WXvmWbpfNsWayTxds_s0wfSN4Je45ZaKR0RHR411aPmT3U02QV48w_1RFWfP6HXJcM51ubVBPxGwAxpcnW_AGR0sw0JVLLivN9EbksT6h_PbX_urW5_fyyS5plhwGOEkutgOp6GZQkbYg6ABBMw=w204-h144" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; border: 1px solid rgb(236, 236, 236); box-shadow: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.1) 1px 1px 5px; padding: 5px; position: relative;" width="204" /></a></span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: inherit;">In January 2020 the assisted suicide lobby appealed a </span><a href="https://alexschadenberg.blogspot.com/2020/01/assisted-suicide-lobby-appeal.html" style="font-family: inherit;" target="_blank">Massachusetts Superior court decision</a><span style="font-family: inherit;"> which found that there was no right to assisted suicide in Massachusetts. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: inherit;">Recently the Massachusetts Supreme Court agreed to hear the case and yesterday, EPC-USA submitted a brief in the Massachusetts Supreme Court in this case. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: inherit;">The case known as<i> Kligler</i> concerns Dr Roger Kligler, who is living with prostate cancer and seeking death by assisted suicide and Dr Alan Schoenberg, who is willing to prescribe lethal drugs for Kligler to die by assisted suicide. Kligler who claimed to be terminally ill when launching the case in 2016 remains alive today.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: inherit;">Kligler and Schoenberg are arguing that doctors cannot be prosecuted for prescribing lethal drugs for assisted suicide to a competent terminally ill person under the Massachusetts state constitution.<span></span></span></p><a name='more'></a><p></p><p><span style="font-family: inherit;">The EPC-USA brief argues the following:</span></p><p></p><ul><li><span style="font-family: inherit;">There is no fundamental right to physician-assisted suicide in the Massachusetts Constitution.</span></li></ul><p></p><p><span style="font-family: inherit;"></span></p><blockquote><i>The Appellants seek to establish a previously unrecognized right to “medical aid in dying,” where a doctor prescribes lethal medication for use in committing suicide. But the widespread prohibition—not acceptance—of assisted suicide is deeply rooted in Massachusetts’ and the Nation’s history and tradition. And the vast majority of states and secular medical associations oppose it today.</i></blockquote><p></p><p></p><ul><li><span style="font-family: inherit;">There is a fundamental difference between refusing medical treatment and assisted suicide.</span></li></ul><p></p><p><span style="font-family: inherit;"></span></p><blockquote><i>Creating a right to physician-assisted suicide would not be a mere expansion of the right to refuse life-saving treatment. The right to reject treatment is based on the common-law right to reject a battery. And death occurs, if at all, by natural causes. Assisted suicide is different: it invites the intrusion of a lethal agent into the patient’s body, intentionally causing death.</i></blockquote><p></p><p></p><ul><li><span style="font-family: inherit;">A right to assisted suicide cannot be a limited right as claimed by the appellants.</span></li></ul><p></p><p><span style="font-family: inherit;"></span></p><blockquote><i>Appellants are wrong to suggest a constitutional right to assisted suicide could be limited to a narrow class of people. And that would create problems courts are not equipped to solve.</i></blockquote><p></p><p><span style="font-family: inherit;">In other words, if there is a right to assisted suicide then it would be discriminatory to limit that right to certain groups of people, such as people who are terminally ill.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: inherit;"><a href="https://alexschadenberg.blogspot.com/2019/03/massachusetts-court-case-seeks-to.html" target="_blank">At the time,</a> of the lower court hearing, the Massachusetts Attorney General argued that this is a legislative not a judicial issue. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: inherit;">EPC-USA warns that this case could overturn the US Supreme Court Glucksberg decision which found that there was no right to assisted suicide but a State had the right to legislate on the issue.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: inherit;">EPC-USA worked with Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) to prepare the Amicus brief to the Massachusetts Supreme Court in this case.</span></p>Adminhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13314132820263802243noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7488755081297396657.post-86798793708344345512020-09-17T14:17:00.001-07:002020-09-27T20:40:08.526-07:00John Kelly Testifies At Massachusetts Health Equity Task Force Public Hearing<p><a href="http://notdeadyet.org/2020/09/john-kelly-testifies-at-massachusetts-health-equity-task-force-public-hearing.html">http://notdeadyet.org/2020/09/john-kelly-testifies-at-massachusetts-health-equity-task-force-public-hearing.html</a></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhh4GD8eyP3QTI4rpe2yuFdpt2uLxN5QBsjfP64QQH4PHGd9xGmee3O1UqOlbNFTcy8q3XsNs-4Ld4A0vHJy0If5xO5sooLKThMlYr0HaxYINbUfeT1wHeE88eSz-2nSUNoNimqRQDPpY4/s192/Photo+thinker+144+x+192.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="192" data-original-width="144" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhh4GD8eyP3QTI4rpe2yuFdpt2uLxN5QBsjfP64QQH4PHGd9xGmee3O1UqOlbNFTcy8q3XsNs-4Ld4A0vHJy0If5xO5sooLKThMlYr0HaxYINbUfeT1wHeE88eSz-2nSUNoNimqRQDPpY4/s0/Photo+thinker+144+x+192.jpg" /></a></div><p><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: white;">On Wednesday, September 16, a public hearing was held by the </span><a href="https://malegislature.gov/Commissions/Detail/512" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #bc360a;">Health Equity Task Force</a><span style="background-color: white;"> </span><span style="background-color: white;">of the Massachusetts Public Health Committee. The legislative website stated that “[t]he virtual hearing is to receive testimony from the public on findings and recommendations that address health disparities for underserved or underrepresented populations during the COVID-19 pandemic, pursuant to the Health Equity Task Force established by section 2 of Chapter 93 of the Acts of 2020.”</span></span></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">John Kelly testified on behalf of Second Thoughts Massachusetts:</span></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Thank you. My name is John Kelly and I am the director of Second Thoughts MA: disability rights advocates against assisted suicide. We also oppose policies, actions, and media that demean the lives of disabled people, such as the state’s Crisis Standards of Care and lack of attention to suicide prevention services for disabled people.<span></span></span></p><a name='more'></a><p></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Under pressure from advocates, the Department of Public Health has dropped from its Crisis Standards of Care some of the discriminatory criteria for triage decision-making. But it continues to insist on using estimated five-year survival rates against disabled people ....</span></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">The Office of Civil Rights confirmed this discrimination in its settlement with Utah, writing that “Survivability is a factor that can be fraught with speculation, mistaken stereotypes, and assumptions about the quality of life and lifespan of people with disabilities.” In a triage situation, Utah, and thus Massachusetts, can only consider “short-term mortality.” Massachusetts must make an individualized assessment based on the most objective information available.</span></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">DPH must also consider disabled people worthy of suicide prevention services. In May, I attended DPH’s annual suicide prevention conference, and was shocked to hear a presentation wholly centered on assisted suicide, including a timeline stretching from Socrates to Emile Durkheim to Jack Kevorkian!</span></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">But three quarters of Kevorkian’s victims were not terminally ill. They were disabled and depressed. In Oregon, the reported end-of-life concerns are all about existential distress regarding disability. People ashamed about depending on others, humiliated by feeling like an undignified burden, or who are traumatized by incontinence get only suicide completion services.</span></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">In this state, suicide prevention organizations tacitly support assisted suicide by not taking a position against it. The State’s suicide prevention plan offers almost nothing to us.</span></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">DPH should adopt Connecticut’s commitment to preventing disabled people’s suicides. Its plan acknowledges that assisted suicide negatively impacts disabled people, because of its operating principle that disability is a fate worse than death. We disabled people have a right to and demand responsive suicide prevention services.</span></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">To conclude, disabled people in this state, as much as anyone, deserve equal medical care and suicide prevention services. We disabled people are human beings who demand full respect from our state. Thank you.</span></p>Adminhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13314132820263802243noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7488755081297396657.post-26450093392161536812020-06-12T21:31:00.003-07:002020-06-14T22:08:32.149-07:00Bill Timing Is "Wrong"<div style="text-align: right;">
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T<span style="font-family: inherit;">o view full press release on Not Dead Yet, <a href="https://notdeadyet.org/2020/06/second-thoughts-press-release-on-continuing-danger-of-massachusetts-assisted-suicide-bill.html">click here</a> </span></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">John Kelly</td></tr>
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<a href="https://www.second-thoughts.org/" style="font-family: inherit;" target="_blank">Second Thoughts Massachusetts</a><span style="font-family: inherit;"> issues the following statement in opposition to the favorable report given by the state legislature’s Joint Committee on Public Health to Bill S.2745 (replacing prior versions), legislation that would legalize assisted suicide in Massachusetts.</span></div>
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Assisted suicide legislation sends a message of ‘better dead than disabled’ while completely immunizing doctors, heirs, and caregivers who can encourage or even engineer a person’s death without fear of prosecution,” said Second Thoughts Director John B. Kelly.<br />
<a name='more'></a></div>
“It is wrong to move a bill at a time when those who will be harmed are on lockdown due to COVID-19, depriving us of the opportunity to fully address in person this threat to our health and well-being,” Kelly continued.<br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Five months ago, Suffolk Superior court Judge Mary K. Ames in <em style="box-sizing: border-box;">Kligler, et al. v. Healey, et al.</em> ruled against any state constitutional right for assisted suicide, holding that at the point of a patient ingesting the lethal drugs, they would be vulnerable to improper persuasion. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">“The Massachusetts legislature should heed this warning by the court. If assisted suicide is legal, some people’s lives will be ended without their consent, through insurance denials, mistakes, and abuse. No safeguards have ever been enacted, or even proposed, that can prevent this outcome which can never be undone once it is put into effect,” Kelly concluded.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Second Thoughts Massachusetts is a group of disability rights advocates opposed to the legalization of assisted suicide. We testified against the bill S.1208 at the hearing in June of 2019 and held a well-attended legislative briefing a few days after. It is the state affiliate of Not Dead Yet, the national grassroots group opposed to assisted suicide and life and death discrimination against disabled people.</span></div>
Adminhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13314132820263802243noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7488755081297396657.post-10419068727796868582020-06-03T23:03:00.002-07:002020-06-03T23:03:26.852-07:00Massachusetts Euthanasia Bills Have Reportedly Moved Out of Committee<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgVx-dFbUEXo9FONFfLl1aF-adR1EF-dttR6PtdElmDTPvPqS2X4p7Mh1r0Rob6T9NrVGQvUlzyVP43AexmpQoWJRwEg-gxvPl6V1SNCIzLmfHfwMa2YGVGrV1OrQVmnOEG55UaEZ-0VbE/s1600/Mass+State+House.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="183" data-original-width="269" height="136" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgVx-dFbUEXo9FONFfLl1aF-adR1EF-dttR6PtdElmDTPvPqS2X4p7Mh1r0Rob6T9NrVGQvUlzyVP43AexmpQoWJRwEg-gxvPl6V1SNCIzLmfHfwMa2YGVGrV1OrQVmnOEG55UaEZ-0VbE/s200/Mass+State+House.jpg" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 12.8px; text-align: center;">State House</td></tr>
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According to unconfirmed sources, the Massachusetts "End of Life Options Act," seeking to legalize assisted suicide and euthanasia, has advanced out of the Joint Committee on Public Health to the Healthcare Finance Committee (S. 1208/H. 1926).<br />
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To learn more about problems with the Act, please see the legal/policy analysis below. If you have further information as to the exact status of the bills, please write me at margaretdore @ margaretdore.com Thank you.<br />
<br />
Margaret Dore, Esq.<br />
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<a name='more'></a><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: "verdana" , "geneva" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px;"><b>Reject End of Life Option Act, H.1926 and S.1208</b></span><br />
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<a href="https://choiceisanillusion.files.wordpress.com/2019/10/memo-appendix-h-1926-s-1208-06-24-19.pdf" style="color: #3d85c6;" target="_blank">Click here</a> to view pdf version.<br />
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<b>I.<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span>INTRODUCTION</b><br />
<br />
I am an attorney in Washington State where assisted suicide is legal.[1] The proposed bills seek to legalize <span style="text-align: right;">“aid in dying,” a traditional euphemism for active euthanasia and physician-assisted suicide.[2]</span><br />
<br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiIB48xSA6okBLycf5mo3ivjqN4FnbEkcSKcgZDYDuOdfQ5eLYcMgQUOloAWD1aBHg48r13hYmQIqZ_yCtK0gMOHhPZrITmoLlEmW2D4hLNqUHhFnbvdLNg2zvRKrkdDo_VLjpHUJxCoekH/s1600/BostonCapital.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; color: #3d85c6; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="216" data-original-width="319" height="135" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiIB48xSA6okBLycf5mo3ivjqN4FnbEkcSKcgZDYDuOdfQ5eLYcMgQUOloAWD1aBHg48r13hYmQIqZ_yCtK0gMOHhPZrITmoLlEmW2D4hLNqUHhFnbvdLNg2zvRKrkdDo_VLjpHUJxCoekH/s200/BostonCapital.jpg" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; border: 1px solid rgb(157, 184, 78); box-shadow: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.1) 1px 1px 5px; padding: 5px; position: relative;" width="200" /></a>Most states reject these practices.[3] Other states have strengthened their laws against them.[4] If enacted, the bills will apply to people with years or decades to live. Individuals with money, meaning the middle class and above, will be especially at risk. I urge you to reject the proposed bills.<br />
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<a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" name="more"></a><br />
<b>II.<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span>DEFINITIONS (TRADITIONAL)</b><br />
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<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span><b>A.<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Physician-Assisted Suicide, Assisted Suicide and Euthanasia</b><span style="white-space: pre;"> </span><br />
<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span><br />
The American Medical Association defines physician-suicide as occurring when “a physician facilitates a patient’s death by providing the necessary means and/or information to enable the patient to perform the life-ending act.”[5] For example: <span style="white-space: pre;"> </span><br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
[T]he physician provides sleeping pills and information about the lethal dose, while aware that the patient may commit suicide.[6]</blockquote>
</blockquote>
Assisted suicide is a general term in which an assisting person is not necessarily a physician. Euthanasia is the administration of a lethal agent by another person.[7]<br />
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<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span><b>B. Withholding or Withdrawing Treatment</b><br />
<br />
Withholding or withdrawing treatment (“pulling the plug”) is not euthanasia if the purpose is to remove burdensome treatment, as opposed to an intent to kill the patient. More importantly, the individual will not necessarily die. Consider this quote from Washington State regarding a man removed from a ventilator: <span style="white-space: pre;"> </span><br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
[I]nstead of dying as expected, [he] slowly began to get better.[8]</blockquote>
</blockquote>
<b>III. ASSISTING PERSONS CAN HAVE AN AGENDA</b><br />
<span style="white-space: pre;"><br /></span>Persons assisting a suicide or euthanasia can have an agenda. Consider Tammy Sawyer, trustee for Thomas Middleton in Oregon. Two days after his death by legal assisted suicide, she sold his home and deposited the proceeds into bank accounts for her own benefit.[9] Consider also Graham Morant, convicted of counseling his wife to kill herself in Australia, to get the life insurance.[10] The Court found:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
[Y]ou counselled and aided your wife to kill herself because you wanted ... the 1.4 million.[11]</blockquote>
</blockquote>
Medical professionals too can have an agenda. New York physician, Michael Swango, got a thrill from killing his patients.[12] Consider also Harold Shipman, a doctor in the UK, who not only killed his patients, but stole from them and in one case made himself a beneficiary of the patient’s will.[13]<br />
<b><br /></b><b>IV. PATIENTS WILL HAVE YEARS OR DECADES TO LIVE</b><br />
<br />
The bills apply to persons who are “terminally ill,” which is defined as an illness or condition expected to cause death within six months.[14] Such persons may in fact have years or decades to live. This is true due to actual mistakes (the test results got switched) and because predicting life expectancy is not an exact science.[15]<br />
<br />
Indeed, doctors can sometimes be very wrong. Consider John Norton, who testified before this body in 2012. Diagnosed with ALS at age 18, he was told that he would get progressively worse (be paralyzed) and die in three to five years.[16] Instead, the disease progression stopped on its own. His affidavit states:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
If assisted suicide or euthanasia had been available to me in the 1950's, I would have missed the bulk of my life and my life yet to come.[17]</blockquote>
</blockquote>
<b>V. HOW THE BILLS WORK</b><br />
<br />
The bills have an application process to obtain the lethal dose, which includes a lethal dose request form. Once the lethal dose is issued by the pharmacy, there is no oversight. No doctor, not even a witness, is required to be present at the death.[18]<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span><br />
<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span><br />
<b>VI.<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span>THE BILLS ARE STACKED AGAINST THE INDIVIDUAL</b><br />
<b><br /></b>Proponents claim that bill passage will assure individual choice, which is not true. See below.<br />
<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span><br />
<b> A.<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Patient Protections Will Not Be Enforceable</b><br />
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The bills set forth multiple patient protections, for example, that the attending physician “shall” refer the patient to another physician prior to prescribing the lethal dose.[19] The bills also say that actions are to be carried out in “accordance” with the bills.[20]<br />
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The bills do not define “accordance.”[21] Dictionary definitions include “in the spirit of,” meaning in thought or intention.[22] In other words, a mere thought or intention to comply is good enough. The protections will not be enforceable.<br />
<br />
<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span><b>B.<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span>The Bills Will Allow Other People to Communicate on the Patient’s Behalf</b><br />
.<br />
The bills describe patients as being “capable.”[23] This is a specially defined term, in which other people will be allowed to communicate on the patient’s behalf during the lethal dose request process, as long as the communicating people are “familiar with the patient’s manner of communicating.” The bills state:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="white-space: pre;">"</span><i>Capable”</i> means having the capacity to make informed, complex health care decisions; understand the consequences of those decisions; and to communicate them to health care providers, including <i>communication through individuals familiar with the patient’s manner of communicating if those persons are available</i>. (Emphasis added).[24]</blockquote>
</blockquote>
Being familiar with a patient’s manner of communicating is an extremely low standard for something so important. Consider, for example, a doctor’s assistant who is familiar with the patient’s manner of communicating in Spanish, but she, herself, does not understand Spanish. That, however, would be good enough for her to communicate on his behalf during the lethal dose request process. The patient would not be in control of his fate.<br />
<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span><br />
<b> C.<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span>“Even If the Patient Struggled, Who Would Know?”</b><br />
<b><br /></b>The bills have no required oversight over administration of the lethal dose.[25] In addition, the drugs used are water and alcohol soluble, such that they can be injected into a sleeping or restrained person without consent.[26] Alex Schadenberg, Executive Director for the Euthanasia Prevention Coalition, puts it this way:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
With assisted suicide laws in Washington and Oregon [and with the proposed bills], perpetrators can . . . take a “legal” route, by getting an elder to sign a lethal dose request. <i>Once the prescription is filled, there is no supervision over administration. Even if a patient struggled, “who would know?”</i> (Emphasis added).[27]<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span></blockquote>
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<b>VII.<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span>THE BILLS WILL ALLOW EUTHANASIA AS TRADITIONALLY DEFINED</b><br />
<br />
The bills state that patients may choose to “self-administer” the lethal dose.[28] This is a specially defined term, which paradoxically allows other people to administer the lethal dose to the patient. The bills state:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<i>"Self-administer” means a qualified patient’s act of ingesting medication</i> [the lethal dose] ....(Emphasis added)[29]</blockquote>
</blockquote>
<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span>The bills do not define “ingest.”[30] Dictionary definitions include:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
[T]o take (food, drugs, etc.) <i>into the body, as by swallowing, inhaling, or absorbing.”</i> (Emphasis added).[31]</blockquote>
</blockquote>
With these definitions, someone else putting the lethal dose in a patient’s mouth qualifies as self-administration if the patient swallows the lethal dose, <i>i.e</i>., ingests it. Someone else placing a medication patch on the patient’s arm will similarly qualify as self-administration because the patient will then be “absorbing” the dose, <i>i.e.</i>, “ingesting” it. Gas administration initiated by another person will also qualify because the patient will be “inhaling” the dose, <i>i.e</i>., ingesting it.<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span>With self-administer defined as mere ingesting, someone else is allowed to administer the lethal dose to the patient, which is euthanasia as traditionally defined.<br />
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<b>VIII. LEGALLY, DEATHS WILL BE DUE TO A TERMINAL DISEASE, </b><b><span style="white-space: pre;"> </span>NOT EUTHANASIA OR HOMICIDE</b><br />
<br />
The bills require deaths via the lethal dose to be listed on the patient’s death certificate as caused by a terminal disease, not euthanasia or homicide. The bills state:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
The attending physician may sign the patient’s death certificate <i>which shall list the underling terminal disease as the cause of death.</i> (Emphasis added).[32]</blockquote>
</blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span>[and]</blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<i>Actions taken by health care providers and patient advocates supporting a qualified patient exercising his or her rights pursuant to this chapter</i>, including being present when the patient self-administers medication, <i>shall not for any purpose, constitute</i> elder abuse, neglect, assisted suicide, <i>mercy killing [euthanasia] or homicide</i> under any civil or criminal law or for purposes of professional disciplinary action. (Emphasis added).[33]<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span></blockquote>
</blockquote>
<b>IX.<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span>DEATH CERTIFICATES WILL REPORT DEATHS AS “NATURAL”</b><br />
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Massachusetts’ death certificates have seven categories for reporting the manner of death, five of which are substantive: natural cause; accident; homicide; suicide and therapeutic complication.[34]<br />
<br />
As noted in the previous section, euthanasia deaths will be reported as caused by a terminal disease, not euthanasia or homicide. The death is also not an accident due its being intentionally performed; it is not suicide due to it’s being performed by another person; it is not a therapeutic complication. This leaves “Natural.”<br />
<br />
With this situation, the manner of death for a traditional euthanasia must be reported on the death certificate as Natural. The significance is that doing so will create a legal inability to prosecute for murder. The official legal manner of death will be natural, not homicide, as a matter of law. The bills will create a perfect crime.<br />
<br />
<b>X. <span style="white-space: pre;"> </span>DR. SHIPMAN AND THE CALL FOR DEATH CERTIFICATE REFORM</b><br />
<b><br /></b>Per a 2005 article in the UK’s The Guardian newspaper, there was a public inquiry regarding Dr. Shipman’s conduct, which determined that he had “killed at least 250 of his patients over 23 years.”[35] The inquiry also found:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
that by issuing death certificates stating natural causes, the serial killer [Shipman] was able to evade investigation by coroners.[36] </blockquote>
</blockquote>
<span style="white-space: pre;">P</span>er a subsequent article in 2015, proposed reforms included having a medical examiner review death certificates, so as to improve patient safety.[37] Instead, the instant bills move in the opposite direction to require a legal coverup in which doctors and other perpetrators will be empowered to kill with impunity.<br />
<br />
<b>XI. <span style="white-space: pre;"> </span>PERPETRATORS WILL BE ALLOWED TO INHERIT</b><span style="white-space: pre;"> </span><br />
<br />
Slayer statutes block persons from receiving an inheritance when they murder a person from whom they stand to inherit.”[38] The rational is simple.[39] No one should financially benefit from his or her own crime.”[40]<br />
<br />
In Massachusetts, the slayer statute applies when there is a murder conviction for homicide. Actions taken pursuant to the bills, however, are not homicide.[41] Again, the bills state:<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span><br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<i>Actions taken</i> by health care providers and patient advocates supporting a qualified patient exercising his or her rights pursuant to this chapter, including being present when the patient self-administers medication, <i>shall not for any purpose, constitute</i> elder abuse, neglect, assisted suicide, mercy killing [euthanasia] or <i>homicide under any civil or criminal law or for purposes of professional disciplinary action</i>. (Emphasis added).[42]</blockquote>
</blockquote>
With this situation, the slayer statute will not apply to deaths pursuant to the bills because legally there will be no homicide, and therefore no murder. It won’t matter that the lethal dose was administered to the decedent against his or her will or that he or she was tricked into taking it. Perpetrators will be allowed to inherit.<br />
<br />
<b>XII. PARTICIPANTS WILL BE TRAUMATIZED</b><br />
<b><br /></b><span style="white-space: pre;"> </span><b>A.<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span>The Swiss Study: Physician-Assisted Suicide Can Be Traumatic for Family Members</b><br />
<br />
A European research study addressed trauma suffered by persons who witnessed legal physician-assisted suicide in Switzerland.[43] The study found that one out of five family members or friends present at an assisted suicide was traumatized. These people,<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span><br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
experienced full or sub-threshold PTSD [Post Traumatic Stress Disorder] related to the loss of a close person through assisted suicide.[44]</blockquote>
</blockquote>
<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span><b>B.<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span>My Clients Suffered Trauma in Oregon and Washington State</b><br />
<br />
<span style="white-space: pre;">I </span>have had two cases where my clients and their family members suffered severe emotional trauma due to legal assisted suicide. One case was in Oregon, the other case was in Washington State.<br />
<br />
In the first case, one side of the family wanted the father/patient to take the lethal dose, while the other side did not. The father spent the last months of his life caught in the middle and torn over whether or not he should kill himself. My client, his adult daughter, was severely traumatized. The father did not take the lethal dose and died a natural death.<br />
<br />
In the other case, it’s not clear that administration of the lethal dose was voluntary. My client, although he was not present, was severely affected by the incident and also by the sudden loss of his father.<br />
<br />
<b>XII. CONCLUSION</b><br />
<b><br /></b>If enacted, the bills will apply to people with years or decades to live. Some assisting persons, including doctors and family members, will have an agenda, with the more obvious reasons being inheritance and life insurance, but also, as in the case of Dr. Swango, the thrill of seeing someone die.<br />
<br />
The bills’ lack of required oversight at the death, coupled with the mandatory falsification of the death certificate will provide cover for murder and create a perfect crime. Families and individuals will be traumatized.<br />
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I urge you to vote “No” on H. 1926 and S. 1208.<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span><br />
<span style="white-space: pre;"><br /></span><span style="white-space: pre;">Margaret Dore, Esq., MBA</span><br />
<span style="white-space: pre;">Law Offices of Margaret K Dore, P.S.</span><br />
<span style="white-space: pre;">Choice is an Illusion, a nonprofit corporation</span><br />
<span style="white-space: pre;"><a href="http://www.margaretdore.com/" style="color: #3d85c6;">www.margaretdore.com</a></span><br />
<span style="white-space: pre;"><a href="http://www.choiceillusion.org/" style="color: #3d85c6;">www.choiceillusion.org</a></span><br />
<span style="white-space: pre;"><br /></span><span style="white-space: pre;"><b>Footnotes:</b></span><br />
<span style="white-space: pre;"><b><br /></b></span><span style="white-space: pre;">[1] </span><span style="white-space: pre;">A copy of my bio is in <a href="https://choiceisanillusion.files.wordpress.com/2019/10/mass-appendix-h1926-s1208.pdf" style="color: #3d85c6;" target="_blank">the appendix</a>, at page A-1.</span><br />
<span style="white-space: pre;">[2] Craig A. Brandt, Model Aid-in-Dying Act, <i>Iowa Law Review</i>, </span><br />
<span style="white-space: pre;">1989 O</span><span style="white-space: pre;">ct; 75(1): 125-215, </span><span style="white-space: pre;">(“Subject: <i>Active Euthanasia</i> ....”); and </span><br />
<span style="white-space: pre;">Maria T. C</span><span style="white-space: pre;">eloCruz, “Aid-in-Dying: Should We Decriminalize </span><br />
<i><span style="white-space: pre;">P</span><span style="white-space: pre;">hysician-Assisted </span></i><span style="white-space: pre;"><i>Suicide</i> and Physician-Committed Euthanasia?,” </span><br />
<span style="white-space: pre;">summary pages, </span><span style="white-space: pre;">in </span><a href="https://choiceisanillusion.files.wordpress.com/2019/10/mass-appendix-h1926-s1208.pdf" style="color: #3d85c6; white-space: pre;" target="_blank">the appendix</a><span style="white-space: pre;">, </span><span style="white-space: pre;">at A-2 & A-2A.</span><br />
<span style="white-space: pre;">[3] Patient’s Rights Council, “Assisted Suicide Laws in the United States,” </span><br />
<span style="white-space: pre;"><a href="http://www.patientsrightscouncil.org/site/assisted-suicide-state-laws/" style="color: #3d85c6;">http://www.patientsrightscouncil.org/site/assisted-suicide-state-laws/</a></span><br />
[4] In the last nine years, at least eight states have strengthened their laws against assisted suicide and/or euthanasia. These states include: Alabama, Arizona, Georgia, Idaho, Louisiana, New Mexico, Ohio and Utah. See backup documentation in <span style="white-space: pre;">in </span><a href="https://choiceisanillusion.files.wordpress.com/2019/10/mass-appendix-h1926-s1208.pdf" style="color: #3d85c6; white-space: pre;" target="_blank">the appendix</a><span style="white-space: pre;">, </span>at pages A-3 to A-7. See also <a href="https://www.choiceillusionnewmexico.org/2016/07/new-mexico-upholds-assisted-suicide.html" style="color: #3d85c6;">https://www.choiceillusionnewmexico.org/2016/07/new-mexico-upholds-assisted-suicide.html</a> (regarding a New Mexico Supreme Court decision overruling legal assisted suicide); <a href="http://codes.ohio.gov/orc/3795" style="color: #3d85c6;">http://codes.ohio.gov/orc/3795</a> (regarding Ohio’s statute) and <a href="https://le.utah.gov/~2018/bills/static/HB0086.html" style="color: #3d85c6;">https://le.utah.gov/~2018/bills/static/HB0086.html</a> (regarding Utah bill).<br />
[5] The AMA Code of Medical Ethics, Opinion 5.7, <span style="white-space: pre;">in </span><a href="https://choiceisanillusion.files.wordpress.com/2019/10/mass-appendix-h1926-s1208.pdf" style="color: #3d85c6; white-space: pre;" target="_blank">the appendix</a><span style="white-space: pre;">, </span>page A-8.<br />
<div>
[6] Id.<br />
[7] Opinion 5.8, “Euthanasia,” attached <span style="white-space: pre;">in </span><a href="https://choiceisanillusion.files.wordpress.com/2019/10/mass-appendix-h1926-s1208.pdf" style="color: #3d85c6; white-space: pre;" target="_blank">the appendix</a><span style="white-space: pre;">,</span> at page A-9.<br />
[8] Nina Shapiro, “Terminal Uncertainty: Washington’s new ‘Death With Dignity’ law allows doctors to help people commit suicide—once they’ve determined that the patient has only six months to live. But what if they’re wrong?,” <i>Seattle Weekly</i>, 01/13/09, attached <span style="white-space: pre;">in </span><a href="https://choiceisanillusion.files.wordpress.com/2019/10/mass-appendix-h1926-s1208.pdf" style="color: #3d85c6; white-space: pre;" target="_blank">the appendix</a><span style="white-space: pre;">, </span>at pp. A-10 to A-12; quote at A-12.<br />
[9] "Sawyer Arraigned on State Fraud Charges," <a href="http://ktvz.com/" style="color: #3d85c6;">KTVZ.COM</a>, 08/16/16, attached in the <span style="white-space: pre;">in </span><a href="https://choiceisanillusion.files.wordpress.com/2019/10/mass-appendix-h1926-s1208.pdf" style="color: #3d85c6; white-space: pre;" target="_blank">the appendix</a><span style="white-space: pre;">,</span> at page A-13.<br />
[10] <i>R v Morant</i> [2018] QSC 251, Order, 11/02/18, excerpts <span style="white-space: pre;">in </span><a href="https://choiceisanillusion.files.wordpress.com/2019/10/mass-appendix-h1926-s1208.pdf" style="color: #3d85c6; white-space: pre;" target="_blank">the appendix</a><span style="white-space: pre;">,</span> at pp. A-14 and A-15. Full opinion available here: <a href="https://www.blogger.com/R%20v%20Morant%20[2018]%20QSC%20251,%20Order,%2011/02/18,%20excerpts%20in%20the%20appendix%20at%20pp.%20A-14%20and%20A-15.%20%20Full%20opinion%20available%20here:%20%20https://archive.sclqld.org.au/qjudgment/2018/QSC18-251.pdf" style="color: #3d85c6;">https://archive.sclqld.org.au/qjudgment/2018/QSC18-251.pdf</a><br />
[11] <i>Morant</i> opinion, ¶ 78, attached <span style="white-space: pre;">in </span><a href="https://choiceisanillusion.files.wordpress.com/2019/10/mass-appendix-h1926-s1208.pdf" style="color: #3d85c6; white-space: pre;" target="_blank">the appendix</a><span style="white-space: pre;">,</span> at A-15.<br />
[12] Charlie Leduff, “Prosecutors Say Doctor Killed to Feel a Thrill,” <i>The New York Times</i>, 09/07/00, attached <span style="white-space: pre;">in </span><a href="https://choiceisanillusion.files.wordpress.com/2019/10/mass-appendix-h1926-s1208.pdf" style="color: #3d85c6; white-space: pre;" target="_blank">the appendix</a><span style="white-space: pre;">,</span> at pages A-16 to A-18, <a href="https://www.blogger.com/Charlie%20Leduff,%20%E2%80%9CProsecutors%20Say%20Doctor%20Killed%20to%20Feel%20a%20Thrill,%E2%80%9D%20The%20New%20York%20Times,%2009/07/00,%20attached%20in%20the%20appendix%20at%20pages%20A-16%20to%20A-18,%20https://choiceisanillusion.files.wordpress.com/2019/03/ny-times-killed-to-feel-a-thrill-1.pdf%20(%E2%80%9CBasically,%20Dr.%20Swango%20liked%20to%20kill%20people.%20%20By%20his%20own%20admission%20in%20his%20diary,%20he%20killed%20because%20it%20thrilled%20him.%E2%80%9D)%20%20See%20also:%20CBSNEWS.COM%20STAFF,%20%E2%80%9CLife%20in%20Jail%20for%20Poison%20Doctor,%E2%80%9D%2007/12/00,%20https://www.cbsnews.com/news/life-in-jail-for-poison-doctor" style="color: #3d85c6;">https://choiceisanillusion.files.wordpress.com/2019/03/ny-times-killed-to-feel-a-thrill-1.pdf </a>(“Basically, Dr. Swango liked to kill people. By his own admission in his diary, he killed because it thrilled him.”) See also: CBSNEWS.COM STAFF, “Life in Jail for Poison Doctor,” 07/12/00, <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/life-in-jail-for-poison-doctor" style="color: #3d85c6;">https://www.cbsnews.com/news/life-in-jail-for-poison-doctor</a><br />
[13] David Batty, “Q & A: Harold Shipman,” <i>The Guardian</i>, 08/25/05, at <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/society/2005/aug/25/health.shipman" style="color: #3d85c6;">https://www.theguardian.com/society/2005/aug/25/health.shipman</a>. (Attached <span style="white-space: pre;">in </span><a href="https://choiceisanillusion.files.wordpress.com/2019/10/mass-appendix-h1926-s1208.pdf" style="color: #3d85c6; white-space: pre;" target="_blank">the appendix</a><span style="white-space: pre;">,</span> at A-19 to A-21). See also Fiona Guy, “Healthcare Serial Killers: Doctors and Nurses Who Kill,” Crime Traveler, (2015, Sept 09), available at <a href="https://www.blogger.com/David%20Batty,%20%E2%80%9CQ%20&%20A:%20Harold%20Shipman,%E2%80%9D%20The%20Guardian,%2008/25/05,%20at%20https://www.theguardian.com/society/2005/aug/25/health.shipman.%20%20(Attached%20hereto%20at%20A-19%20to%20A-21).%20%20See%20also%20Fiona%20Guy,%20%E2%80%9CHealthcare%20Serial%20Killers:%20Doctors%20and%20Nurses%20Who%20Kill,%E2%80%9D%20Crime%20Traveller,%20(2015,%20Sept%2009),%20available%20at%20https://choiceisanillusion.files.wordpress.com/2019/03/doctors-and-nurses-who-kill.pdf" style="color: #3d85c6;">https://choiceisanillusion.files.wordpress.com/2019/03/doctors-and-nurses-who-kill.pdf </a><br />
[14] The bills state:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
“Terminally ill" means having a terminal illness or condition which can reasonably be expected to cause death within 6 months, whether or not treatment is provided.</blockquote>
H. 1926 and S. 1208, lines 78 to 79. A copy of H. 1926 is <span style="white-space: pre;">in </span><a href="https://choiceisanillusion.files.wordpress.com/2019/10/mass-appendix-h1926-s1208.pdf" style="color: #3d85c6; white-space: pre;" target="_blank">the appendix</a><span style="white-space: pre;">,</span> at pages A-22 to A-38.<br />
[15] See: Jessica Firger, “12 Million Americans Misdiagnosed Each Year,” CBS NEWS, April 17, 2014, attached <span style="white-space: pre;">in </span><a href="https://choiceisanillusion.files.wordpress.com/2019/10/mass-appendix-h1926-s1208.pdf" style="color: #3d85c6; white-space: pre;" target="_blank">the appendix</a><span style="white-space: pre;">,</span> at A-39; and Nina Shapiro, “Terminal Uncertainty ...,” supra, excerpts attached hereto <span style="white-space: pre;">in </span><a href="https://choiceisanillusion.files.wordpress.com/2019/10/mass-appendix-h1926-s1208.pdf" style="color: #3d85c6; white-space: pre;" target="_blank">the appendix</a><span style="white-space: pre;">, </span>at A-10 to A-12.<br />
[16] Affidavit of John Norton, attached <span style="white-space: pre;">in </span><a href="https://choiceisanillusion.files.wordpress.com/2019/10/mass-appendix-h1926-s1208.pdf" style="color: #3d85c6; white-space: pre;" target="_blank">the appendix</a><span style="white-space: pre;">,</span> at A-40 to A-42.<br />
[17] Id., ¶ 5.<br />
[18] See the bills in their entirety, which are currently identical. Bill H. 1926 is attached in <span style="white-space: pre;">in </span><a href="https://choiceisanillusion.files.wordpress.com/2019/10/mass-appendix-h1926-s1208.pdf" style="color: #3d85c6; white-space: pre;" target="_blank">the appendix</a><span style="white-space: pre;">,</span> at pages A-22 to A-38.<br />
[19] The bills, § 6, lines 151 to 179, attached in <span style="white-space: pre;">in </span><a href="https://choiceisanillusion.files.wordpress.com/2019/10/mass-appendix-h1926-s1208.pdf" style="color: #3d85c6; white-space: pre;" target="_blank">the appendix</a><span style="white-space: pre;">,</span> at A-30 & A-31.<br />
[20] The bills state:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
(1) <i>The attending physician shall</i>: ...</blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
(k) ensure that all appropriate steps are <i>carried out in accordance with this chapter</i> before writing a prescription for medication for a qualified patient .... (Emphasis added).</blockquote>
The bills, line 152, and lines 178 to 179, attached <span style="white-space: pre;">in </span><a href="https://choiceisanillusion.files.wordpress.com/2019/10/mass-appendix-h1926-s1208.pdf" style="color: #3d85c6; white-space: pre;" target="_blank">the appendix</a><span style="white-space: pre;">,</span> at A-30 and A-31.<br />
[21] See the bills in their entirety.<br />
[22] Definitions attached <span style="white-space: pre;">in </span><a href="https://choiceisanillusion.files.wordpress.com/2019/10/mass-appendix-h1926-s1208.pdf" style="color: #3d85c6; white-space: pre;" target="_blank">the appendix</a><span style="white-space: pre;">,</span> at pages A-45 to A-46.<br />
[23] The bills, § 1, lines 14-17. (Attached <span style="white-space: pre;">in </span><a href="https://choiceisanillusion.files.wordpress.com/2019/10/mass-appendix-h1926-s1208.pdf" style="color: #3d85c6; white-space: pre;" target="_blank">the appendix</a><span style="white-space: pre;">,</span> at A-23).<br />
[24] Id.<br />
[25] See the bills in their entirety.<br />
[26] In Oregon and Washington State, reported drugs include Secobarbital, Pentobarbital, Phenobarbital and Morphine Sulfate, which are water and/or alcohol soluble. See excerpts from Oregon’s and Washington’s annual reports, in <span style="white-space: pre;">in </span><a href="https://choiceisanillusion.files.wordpress.com/2019/10/mass-appendix-h1926-s1208.pdf" style="color: #3d85c6; white-space: pre;" target="_blank">the appendix</a><span style="white-space: pre;">,</span> at pp. A-43 and A-44. See also <a href="http://www.drugs.com/pr/seconal-sodium.html" style="color: #3d85c6;">http://www.drugs.com/pr/seconal-sodium.html</a>, <a href="http://www.drugs.com/pro/nembutal.html" style="color: #3d85c6;">http://www.drugs.com/pro/nembutal.html</a> and <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2977013" style="color: #3d85c6;">https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2977013</a><br />
[27] Alex Schadenberg, Letter to the Editor, “Elder abuse a growing problem,” <i>The Advocate</i>, Official Publication of the Idaho State Bar, October 2010.<br />
[28] The bills, Section 1, line 10, attached <span style="white-space: pre;">in </span><a href="https://choiceisanillusion.files.wordpress.com/2019/10/mass-appendix-h1926-s1208.pdf" style="color: #3d85c6; white-space: pre;" target="_blank">the appendix</a><span style="white-space: pre;">,</span> at A-22<br />
[29] Id., lines 76 to 77.<br />
[30] See the bills in their entirety.<br />
[31] Attached <span style="white-space: pre;">in </span><a href="https://choiceisanillusion.files.wordpress.com/2019/10/mass-appendix-h1926-s1208.pdf" style="color: #3d85c6; white-space: pre;" target="_blank">the appendix</a><span style="white-space: pre;">,</span> at A-47.<br />
[32] The bills, §6(2), lines 189 to 190, attached <span style="white-space: pre;">in </span><a href="https://choiceisanillusion.files.wordpress.com/2019/10/mass-appendix-h1926-s1208.pdf" style="color: #3d85c6; white-space: pre;" target="_blank">the appendix</a><span style="white-space: pre;">,</span> at A-32.<br />
[33] The bills, lines 252 to 256.<br />
[34] See Massachusetts “Death Certificate Medical Certifier Worksheet,” attached <span style="white-space: pre;">in </span><a href="https://choiceisanillusion.files.wordpress.com/2019/10/mass-appendix-h1926-s1208.pdf" style="color: #3d85c6; white-space: pre;" target="_blank">the appendix</a><span style="white-space: pre;">,</span> at A-48.<br />
[35] David Batty, attached <span style="white-space: pre;">in </span><a href="https://choiceisanillusion.files.wordpress.com/2019/10/mass-appendix-h1926-s1208.pdf" style="color: #3d85c6; white-space: pre;" target="_blank">the appendix</a><span style="white-space: pre;">,</span> at A-19.<br />
[36] Id., attached hereto at A-21.<br />
[37] Press Association, “Death Certificate Reform Delays ‘Incomprehensible,” <i>The Guardian</i>, January 21, 2015, attached <span style="white-space: pre;">in </span><a href="https://choiceisanillusion.files.wordpress.com/2019/10/mass-appendix-h1926-s1208.pdf" style="color: #3d85c6; white-space: pre;" target="_blank">the appendix</a><span style="white-space: pre;">,</span> at A-49 to A-50.<br />
[38] Cushing and Dolan, PC, Attorneys at Law, “What are Slayer Statutes,” January 28, 2015, <span style="white-space: pre;">in </span><a href="https://choiceisanillusion.files.wordpress.com/2019/10/mass-appendix-h1926-s1208.pdf" style="color: #3d85c6; white-space: pre;" target="_blank">the appendix</a><span style="white-space: pre;">, </span>at A-51 to A-52.<br />
[39] Ilene S. Cooper and Jaclene D’Agostino, Forfeiture and New York’s “Slayer Rule,” <i>NYSBA Journal</i>, March/April 2015, attached <span style="white-space: pre;">in </span><a href="https://choiceisanillusion.files.wordpress.com/2019/10/mass-appendix-h1926-s1208.pdf" style="color: #3d85c6; white-space: pre;" target="_blank">the appendix</a><span style="white-space: pre;">,</span> at A-55.<br />
[40] Id.<br />
[41] Cushing and Dolan, <span style="white-space: pre;">in </span><a href="https://choiceisanillusion.files.wordpress.com/2019/10/mass-appendix-h1926-s1208.pdf" style="color: #3d85c6; white-space: pre;" target="_blank">the appendix</a><span style="white-space: pre;">,</span> at A-52. See also “Taking from deceased victim’s estate prohibited,” attached <span style="white-space: pre;">in </span><a href="https://choiceisanillusion.files.wordpress.com/2019/10/mass-appendix-h1926-s1208.pdf" style="color: #3d85c6; white-space: pre;" target="_blank">the appendix</a><span style="white-space: pre;">,</span> at A-53. The bar to inheritance applies “only to murder in the first degree, murder in the second degree or manslaughter.”<br />
[42] The bills, lines 252 to 256.<br />
[43] “Death by request in Switzerland: Post-traumatic stress disorder and complicated grief after witnessing assisted suicide,” B. Wagner, J. Muller, A. Maercker; European Psychiatry 27 (2012) 542-546, available at <a href="https://www.blogger.com/%E2%80%9CDeath%20by%20request%20in%20Switzerland:%20Posttraumatic%20stress%20disorder%20and%20complicated%20grief%20after%20witnessing%20assisted%20suicide,%E2%80%9D%20B.%20Wagner,%20J.%20Muller,%20A.%20Maercker;%20European%20Psychiatry%2027%20(2012)%20542-546,%20available%20at%20http://choiceisanillusion.files.wordpress.com/2012/10/family-members-traumatized-eur-psych-2012.pdf%20%20(Cover%20page%20attached%20hereto%20at%20A-56)" style="color: #3d85c6;">http://choiceisanillusion.files.wordpress.com/2012/10/family-members-traumatized-eur-psych-2012.pdf </a> (Cover page attached <span style="white-space: pre;">in </span><a href="https://choiceisanillusion.files.wordpress.com/2019/10/mass-appendix-h1926-s1208.pdf" style="color: #3d85c6; white-space: pre;" target="_blank">the appendix</a><span style="white-space: pre;">,</span> at A-56).<br />
[44] Id.</div>
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Adminhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13314132820263802243noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7488755081297396657.post-69105860370320242872020-01-15T17:57:00.001-08:002020-01-15T17:57:32.830-08:00Disability Group Welcomes Ruling Against Right to Assisted Suicide in Massachusetts<h3 class="post-title entry-title" style="background-color: white; font-family: Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0.75em 0px 0px; position: relative;">
<span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 13.2px;">To view whole article,</span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 13.2px;"> </span><a href="https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/disability-group-welcomes-ruling-against-right-to-assisted-suicide-in-mass-10166" style="color: #5b84ed; font-family: inherit; font-size: 13.2px; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank">click here</a><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 13.2px;">.</span></span></h3>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 10.56px; text-align: center;">John Kelly, Second Thoughts</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span class="noticia_byline">Boston, Mass., Jan 14, 2020 / 05:01 pm (<a href="https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/" style="color: #006699; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_self">CNA</a>)</span>.- Second Thoughts Massachusetts, a disability rights group, has praised a recent ruling that there is not a right to assisted suicide in the state's law or its constitution.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">In <a href="https://d279m997dpfwgl.cloudfront.net/wp/2020/01/Superior-Court-Decision-Order%5E12-31-19.pdf" style="color: #006699; text-decoration-line: none;">a decision dated Dec. 31, 2019</a>, Justice Mary Ames of the Suffolk Superior Court ruled that physicians who prescribe lethal medication for assisted suicide in Massachusetts can be prosecuted for involuntary manslaughter, but that physicians may provide information and advice on assisted suicide to terminally ill, competent adults.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">“We are gratified that the court reaffirmed the law against assisted suicide, and referred the matter to the legislature where lawmaking belongs. Disability rights advocates will continue to press the legislature that assisted suicide is just too dangerous,” John Kelly, director of Second Thoughts, commented Jan. 13.</span></div>
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Adminhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13314132820263802243noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7488755081297396657.post-17902730549331640652019-06-24T17:08:00.000-07:002019-10-29T19:35:42.564-07:00Reject End of Life Option Act, H.1926 and S.1208<a href="https://choiceisanillusion.files.wordpress.com/2019/10/memo-appendix-h-1926-s-1208-06-24-19.pdf" target="_blank">Click here</a> to view pdf version.<br />
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<b>I.<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span>INTRODUCTION</b><br />
<br />
I am an attorney in Washington State where assisted suicide is legal.[1] The proposed bills seek to legalize <span style="text-align: right;">“aid in dying,” a traditional euphemism for active euthanasia and physician-assisted suicide.[2]</span><br />
<br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiIB48xSA6okBLycf5mo3ivjqN4FnbEkcSKcgZDYDuOdfQ5eLYcMgQUOloAWD1aBHg48r13hYmQIqZ_yCtK0gMOHhPZrITmoLlEmW2D4hLNqUHhFnbvdLNg2zvRKrkdDo_VLjpHUJxCoekH/s1600/BostonCapital.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="216" data-original-width="319" height="135" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiIB48xSA6okBLycf5mo3ivjqN4FnbEkcSKcgZDYDuOdfQ5eLYcMgQUOloAWD1aBHg48r13hYmQIqZ_yCtK0gMOHhPZrITmoLlEmW2D4hLNqUHhFnbvdLNg2zvRKrkdDo_VLjpHUJxCoekH/s200/BostonCapital.jpg" width="200" /></a>Most states reject these practices.[3] Other states have strengthened their laws against them.[4] If enacted, the bills will apply to people with years or decades to live. Individuals with money, meaning the middle class and above, will be especially at risk. I urge you to reject the proposed bills.<br />
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<a name='more'></a><br />
<b>II.<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span>DEFINITIONS (TRADITIONAL)</b><br />
<br />
<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span><b>A.<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Physician-Assisted Suicide, Assisted Suicide and Euthanasia</b><span style="white-space: pre;"> </span><br />
<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span><br />
The American Medical Association defines physician-suicide as occurring when “a physician facilitates a patient’s death by providing the necessary means and/or information to enable the patient to perform the life-ending act.”[5] For example: <span style="white-space: pre;"> </span><br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
[T]he physician provides sleeping pills and information about the lethal dose, while aware that the patient may commit suicide.[6]</blockquote>
</blockquote>
Assisted suicide is a general term in which an assisting person is not necessarily a physician. Euthanasia is the administration of a lethal agent by another person.[7]<br />
<br />
<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span><b>B. Withholding or Withdrawing Treatment</b><br />
<br />
Withholding or withdrawing treatment (“pulling the plug”) is not euthanasia if the purpose is to remove burdensome treatment, as opposed to an intent to kill the patient. More importantly, the individual will not necessarily die. Consider this quote from Washington State regarding a man removed from a ventilator: <span style="white-space: pre;"> </span><br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
[I]nstead of dying as expected, [he] slowly began to get better.[8]</blockquote>
</blockquote>
<b>III. ASSISTING PERSONS CAN HAVE AN AGENDA</b><br />
<span style="white-space: pre;"><br /></span>
Persons assisting a suicide or euthanasia can have an agenda. Consider Tammy Sawyer, trustee for Thomas Middleton in Oregon. Two days after his death by legal assisted suicide, she sold his home and deposited the proceeds into bank accounts for her own benefit.[9] Consider also Graham Morant, convicted of counseling his wife to kill herself in Australia, to get the life insurance.[10] The Court found:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
[Y]ou counselled and aided your wife to kill herself because you wanted ... the 1.4 million.[11]</blockquote>
</blockquote>
Medical professionals too can have an agenda. New York physician, Michael Swango, got a thrill from killing his patients.[12] Consider also Harold Shipman, a doctor in the UK, who not only killed his patients, but stole from them and in one case made himself a beneficiary of the patient’s will.[13]<br />
<b><br /></b>
<b>IV. PATIENTS WILL HAVE YEARS OR DECADES TO LIVE</b><br />
<br />
The bills apply to persons who are “terminally ill,” which is defined as an illness or condition expected to cause death within six months.[14] Such persons may in fact have years or decades to live. This is true due to actual mistakes (the test results got switched) and because predicting life expectancy is not an exact science.[15]<br />
<br />
Indeed, doctors can sometimes be very wrong. Consider John Norton, who testified before this body in 2012. Diagnosed with ALS at age 18, he was told that he would get progressively worse (be paralyzed) and die in three to five years.[16] Instead, the disease progression stopped on its own. His affidavit states:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
If assisted suicide or euthanasia had been available to me in the 1950's, I would have missed the bulk of my life and my life yet to come.[17]</blockquote>
</blockquote>
<b>V. HOW THE BILLS WORK</b><br />
<br />
The bills have an application process to obtain the lethal dose, which includes a lethal dose request form. Once the lethal dose is issued by the pharmacy, there is no oversight. No doctor, not even a witness, is required to be present at the death.[18]<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span><br />
<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span><br />
<b>VI.<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span>THE BILLS ARE STACKED AGAINST THE INDIVIDUAL</b><br />
<b><br /></b>
Proponents claim that bill passage will assure individual choice, which is not true. See below.<br />
<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span><br />
<b> A.<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Patient Protections Will Not Be Enforceable</b><br />
<br />
The bills set forth multiple patient protections, for example, that the attending physician “shall” refer the patient to another physician prior to prescribing the lethal dose.[19] The bills also say that actions are to be carried out in “accordance” with the bills.[20]<br />
<br />
The bills do not define “accordance.”[21] Dictionary definitions include “in the spirit of,” meaning in thought or intention.[22] In other words, a mere thought or intention to comply is good enough. The protections will not be enforceable.<br />
<br />
<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span><b>B.<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span>The Bills Will Allow Other People to Communicate on the Patient’s Behalf</b><br />
.<br />
The bills describe patients as being “capable.”[23] This is a specially defined term, in which other people will be allowed to communicate on the patient’s behalf during the lethal dose request process, as long as the communicating people are “familiar with the patient’s manner of communicating.” The bills state:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="white-space: pre;">"</span><i>Capable”</i> means having the capacity to make informed, complex health care decisions; understand the consequences of those decisions; and to communicate them to health care providers, including <i>communication through individuals familiar with the patient’s manner of communicating if those persons are available</i>. (Emphasis added).[24]</blockquote>
</blockquote>
Being familiar with a patient’s manner of communicating is an extremely low standard for something so important. Consider, for example, a doctor’s assistant who is familiar with the patient’s manner of communicating in Spanish, but she, herself, does not understand Spanish. That, however, would be good enough for her to communicate on his behalf during the lethal dose request process. The patient would not be in control of his fate.<br />
<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span><br />
<b> C.<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span>“Even If the Patient Struggled, Who Would Know?”</b><br />
<b><br /></b>
The bills have no required oversight over administration of the lethal dose.[25] In addition, the drugs used are water and alcohol soluble, such that they can be injected into a sleeping or restrained person without consent.[26] Alex Schadenberg, Executive Director for the Euthanasia Prevention Coalition, puts it this way:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
With assisted suicide laws in Washington and Oregon [and with the proposed bills], perpetrators can . . . take a “legal” route, by getting an elder to sign a lethal dose request. <i>Once the prescription is filled, there is no supervision over administration. Even if a patient struggled, “who would know?”</i> (Emphasis added).[27]<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span></blockquote>
</blockquote>
<b>VII.<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span>THE BILLS WILL ALLOW EUTHANASIA AS TRADITIONALLY DEFINED</b><br />
<br />
The bills state that patients may choose to “self-administer” the lethal dose.[28] This is a specially defined term, which paradoxically allows other people to administer the lethal dose to the patient. The bills state:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<i>"Self-administer” means a qualified patient’s act of ingesting medication</i> [the lethal dose] ....(Emphasis added)[29]</blockquote>
</blockquote>
<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span>The bills do not define “ingest.”[30] Dictionary definitions include:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
[T]o take (food, drugs, etc.) <i>into the body, as by swallowing, inhaling, or absorbing.”</i> (Emphasis added).[31]</blockquote>
</blockquote>
With these definitions, someone else putting the lethal dose in a patient’s mouth qualifies as self-administration if the patient swallows the lethal dose, <i>i.e</i>., ingests it. Someone else placing a medication patch on the patient’s arm will similarly qualify as self-administration because the patient will then be “absorbing” the dose, <i>i.e.</i>, “ingesting” it. Gas administration initiated by another person will also qualify because the patient will be “inhaling” the dose, <i>i.e</i>., ingesting it.<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span>With self-administer defined as mere ingesting, someone else is allowed to administer the lethal dose to the patient, which is euthanasia as traditionally defined.<br />
<br />
<b>VIII. LEGALLY, DEATHS WILL BE DUE TO A TERMINAL DISEASE, </b><b><span style="white-space: pre;"> </span>NOT EUTHANASIA OR HOMICIDE</b><br />
<br />
The bills require deaths via the lethal dose to be listed on the patient’s death certificate as caused by a terminal disease, not euthanasia or homicide. The bills state:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
The attending physician may sign the patient’s death certificate <i>which shall list the underling terminal disease as the cause of death.</i> (Emphasis added).[32]</blockquote>
</blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span>[and]</blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<i>Actions taken by health care providers and patient advocates supporting a qualified patient exercising his or her rights pursuant to this chapter</i>, including being present when the patient self-administers medication, <i>shall not for any purpose, constitute</i> elder abuse, neglect, assisted suicide, <i>mercy killing [euthanasia] or homicide</i> under any civil or criminal law or for purposes of professional disciplinary action. (Emphasis added).[33]<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span></blockquote>
</blockquote>
<b>IX.<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span>DEATH CERTIFICATES WILL REPORT DEATHS AS “NATURAL”</b><br />
<br />
Massachusetts’ death certificates have seven categories for reporting the manner of death, five of which are substantive: natural cause; accident; homicide; suicide and therapeutic complication.[34]<br />
<br />
As noted in the previous section, euthanasia deaths will be reported as caused by a terminal disease, not euthanasia or homicide. The death is also not an accident due its being intentionally performed; it is not suicide due to it’s being performed by another person; it is not a therapeutic complication. This leaves “Natural.”<br />
<br />
With this situation, the manner of death for a traditional euthanasia must be reported on the death certificate as Natural. The significance is that doing so will create a legal inability to prosecute for murder. The official legal manner of death will be natural, not homicide, as a matter of law. The bills will create a perfect crime.<br />
<br />
<b>X. <span style="white-space: pre;"> </span>DR. SHIPMAN AND THE CALL FOR DEATH CERTIFICATE REFORM</b><br />
<b><br /></b>
Per a 2005 article in the UK’s The Guardian newspaper, there was a public inquiry regarding Dr. Shipman’s conduct, which determined that he had “killed at least 250 of his patients over 23 years.”[35] The inquiry also found:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
that by issuing death certificates stating natural causes, the serial killer [Shipman] was able to evade investigation by coroners.[36] </blockquote>
</blockquote>
<span style="white-space: pre;">P</span>er a subsequent article in 2015, proposed reforms included having a medical examiner review death certificates, so as to improve patient safety.[37] Instead, the instant bills move in the opposite direction to require a legal coverup in which doctors and other perpetrators will be empowered to kill with impunity.<br />
<br />
<b>XI. <span style="white-space: pre;"> </span>PERPETRATORS WILL BE ALLOWED TO INHERIT</b><span style="white-space: pre;"> </span><br />
<br />
Slayer statutes block persons from receiving an inheritance when they murder a person from whom they stand to inherit.”[38] The rational is simple.[39] No one should financially benefit from his or her own crime.”[40]<br />
<br />
In Massachusetts, the slayer statute applies when there is a murder conviction for homicide. Actions taken pursuant to the bills, however, are not homicide.[41] Again, the bills state:<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span><br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<i>Actions taken</i> by health care providers and patient advocates supporting a qualified patient exercising his or her rights pursuant to this chapter, including being present when the patient self-administers medication, <i>shall not for any purpose, constitute</i> elder abuse, neglect, assisted suicide, mercy killing [euthanasia] or <i>homicide under any civil or criminal law or for purposes of professional disciplinary action</i>. (Emphasis added).[42]</blockquote>
</blockquote>
With this situation, the slayer statute will not apply to deaths pursuant to the bills because legally there will be no homicide, and therefore no murder. It won’t matter that the lethal dose was administered to the decedent against his or her will or that he or she was tricked into taking it. Perpetrators will be allowed to inherit.<br />
<br />
<b>XII. PARTICIPANTS WILL BE TRAUMATIZED</b><br />
<b><br /></b>
<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span><b>A.<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span>The Swiss Study: Physician-Assisted Suicide Can Be Traumatic for Family Members</b><br />
<br />
A European research study addressed trauma suffered by persons who witnessed legal physician-assisted suicide in Switzerland.[43] The study found that one out of five family members or friends present at an assisted suicide was traumatized. These people,<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span><br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
experienced full or sub-threshold PTSD [Post Traumatic Stress Disorder] related to the loss of a close person through assisted suicide.[44]</blockquote>
</blockquote>
<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span><b>B.<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span>My Clients Suffered Trauma in Oregon and Washington State</b><br />
<br />
<span style="white-space: pre;">I </span>have had two cases where my clients and their family members suffered severe emotional trauma due to legal assisted suicide. One case was in Oregon, the other case was in Washington State.<br />
<br />
In the first case, one side of the family wanted the father/patient to take the lethal dose, while the other side did not. The father spent the last months of his life caught in the middle and torn over whether or not he should kill himself. My client, his adult daughter, was severely traumatized. The father did not take the lethal dose and died a natural death.<br />
<br />
In the other case, it’s not clear that administration of the lethal dose was voluntary. My client, although he was not present, was severely affected by the incident and also by the sudden loss of his father.<br />
<br />
<b>XII. CONCLUSION</b><br />
<b><br /></b>
If enacted, the bills will apply to people with years or decades to live. Some assisting persons, including doctors and family members, will have an agenda, with the more obvious reasons being inheritance and life insurance, but also, as in the case of Dr. Swango, the thrill of seeing someone die.<br />
<br />
The bills’ lack of required oversight at the death, coupled with the mandatory falsification of the death certificate will provide cover for murder and create a perfect crime. Families and individuals will be traumatized.<br />
<br />
I urge you to vote “No” on H. 1926 and S. 1208.<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span><br />
<span style="white-space: pre;"><br /></span>
<span style="white-space: pre;">Margaret Dore, Esq., MBA</span><br />
<span style="white-space: pre;">Law Offices of Margaret K Dore, P.S.</span><br />
<span style="white-space: pre;">Choice is an Illusion, a nonprofit corporation</span><br />
<span style="white-space: pre;"><a href="http://www.margaretdore.com/">www.margaretdore.com</a></span><br />
<span style="white-space: pre;"><a href="http://www.choiceillusion.org/">www.choiceillusion.org</a></span><br />
<span style="white-space: pre;"><br /></span>
<span style="white-space: pre;"><b>Footnotes:</b></span><br />
<span style="white-space: pre;"><b><br /></b></span>
<span style="white-space: pre;">[1] </span><span style="white-space: pre;">A copy of my bio is in <a href="https://choiceisanillusion.files.wordpress.com/2019/10/mass-appendix-h1926-s1208.pdf" target="_blank">the appendix</a>, at page A-1.</span><br />
<span style="white-space: pre;">[2] Craig A. Brandt, Model Aid-in-Dying Act, <i>Iowa Law Review</i>, </span><br />
<span style="white-space: pre;">1989 O</span><span style="white-space: pre;">ct; 75(1): 125-215, </span><span style="white-space: pre;">(“Subject: <i>Active Euthanasia</i> ....”); and </span><br />
<span style="white-space: pre;">Maria T. C</span><span style="white-space: pre;">eloCruz, “Aid-in-Dying: Should We Decriminalize </span><br />
<i><span style="white-space: pre;">P</span><span style="white-space: pre;">hysician-Assisted </span></i><span style="white-space: pre;"><i>Suicide</i> and Physician-Committed Euthanasia?,” </span><br />
<span style="white-space: pre;">summary pages, </span><span style="white-space: pre;">in </span><a href="https://choiceisanillusion.files.wordpress.com/2019/10/mass-appendix-h1926-s1208.pdf" style="white-space: pre;" target="_blank">the appendix</a><span style="white-space: pre;">, </span><span style="white-space: pre;">at A-2 & A-2A.</span><br />
<span style="white-space: pre;">[3] Patient’s Rights Council, “Assisted Suicide Laws in the United States,” </span><br />
<span style="white-space: pre;"><a href="http://www.patientsrightscouncil.org/site/assisted-suicide-state-laws/">http://www.patientsrightscouncil.org/site/assisted-suicide-state-laws/</a></span><br />
[4] In the last nine years, at least eight states have strengthened their laws against assisted suicide and/or euthanasia. These states include: Alabama, Arizona, Georgia, Idaho, Louisiana, New Mexico, Ohio and Utah. See backup documentation in <span style="white-space: pre;">in </span><a href="https://choiceisanillusion.files.wordpress.com/2019/10/mass-appendix-h1926-s1208.pdf" style="white-space: pre;" target="_blank">the appendix</a><span style="white-space: pre;">, </span>at pages A-3 to A-7. See also <a href="https://www.choiceillusionnewmexico.org/2016/07/new-mexico-upholds-assisted-suicide.html">https://www.choiceillusionnewmexico.org/2016/07/new-mexico-upholds-assisted-suicide.html</a> (regarding a New Mexico Supreme Court decision overruling legal assisted suicide); <a href="http://codes.ohio.gov/orc/3795">http://codes.ohio.gov/orc/3795</a> (regarding Ohio’s statute) and <a href="https://le.utah.gov/~2018/bills/static/HB0086.html">https://le.utah.gov/~2018/bills/static/HB0086.html</a> (regarding Utah bill).<br />
[5] The AMA Code of Medical Ethics, Opinion 5.7, <span style="white-space: pre;">in </span><a href="https://choiceisanillusion.files.wordpress.com/2019/10/mass-appendix-h1926-s1208.pdf" style="white-space: pre;" target="_blank">the appendix</a><span style="white-space: pre;">, </span>page A-8.<br />
<div>
[6] Id.<br />
[7] Opinion 5.8, “Euthanasia,” attached <span style="white-space: pre;">in </span><a href="https://choiceisanillusion.files.wordpress.com/2019/10/mass-appendix-h1926-s1208.pdf" style="white-space: pre;" target="_blank">the appendix</a><span style="white-space: pre;">,</span> at page A-9.<br />
[8] Nina Shapiro, “Terminal Uncertainty: Washington’s new ‘Death With Dignity’ law allows doctors to help people commit suicide—once they’ve determined that the patient has only six months to live. But what if they’re wrong?,” <i>Seattle Weekly</i>, 01/13/09, attached <span style="white-space: pre;">in </span><a href="https://choiceisanillusion.files.wordpress.com/2019/10/mass-appendix-h1926-s1208.pdf" style="white-space: pre;" target="_blank">the appendix</a><span style="white-space: pre;">, </span>at pp. A-10 to A-12; quote at A-12.<br />
[9] "Sawyer Arraigned on State Fraud Charges," <a href="http://ktvz.com/">KTVZ.COM</a>, 08/16/16, attached in the <span style="white-space: pre;">in </span><a href="https://choiceisanillusion.files.wordpress.com/2019/10/mass-appendix-h1926-s1208.pdf" style="white-space: pre;" target="_blank">the appendix</a><span style="white-space: pre;">,</span> at page A-13.<br />
[10] <i>R v Morant</i> [2018] QSC 251, Order, 11/02/18, excerpts <span style="white-space: pre;">in </span><a href="https://choiceisanillusion.files.wordpress.com/2019/10/mass-appendix-h1926-s1208.pdf" style="white-space: pre;" target="_blank">the appendix</a><span style="white-space: pre;">,</span> at pp. A-14 and A-15. Full opinion available here: <a href="https://www.blogger.com/R%20v%20Morant%20[2018]%20QSC%20251,%20Order,%2011/02/18,%20excerpts%20in%20the%20appendix%20at%20pp.%20A-14%20and%20A-15.%20%20Full%20opinion%20available%20here:%20%20https://archive.sclqld.org.au/qjudgment/2018/QSC18-251.pdf">https://archive.sclqld.org.au/qjudgment/2018/QSC18-251.pdf</a><br />
[11] <i>Morant</i> opinion, ¶ 78, attached <span style="white-space: pre;">in </span><a href="https://choiceisanillusion.files.wordpress.com/2019/10/mass-appendix-h1926-s1208.pdf" style="white-space: pre;" target="_blank">the appendix</a><span style="white-space: pre;">,</span> at A-15.<br />
[12] Charlie Leduff, “Prosecutors Say Doctor Killed to Feel a Thrill,” <i>The New York Times</i>, 09/07/00, attached <span style="white-space: pre;">in </span><a href="https://choiceisanillusion.files.wordpress.com/2019/10/mass-appendix-h1926-s1208.pdf" style="white-space: pre;" target="_blank">the appendix</a><span style="white-space: pre;">,</span> at pages A-16 to A-18, <a href="https://www.blogger.com/Charlie%20Leduff,%20%E2%80%9CProsecutors%20Say%20Doctor%20Killed%20to%20Feel%20a%20Thrill,%E2%80%9D%20The%20New%20York%20Times,%2009/07/00,%20attached%20in%20the%20appendix%20at%20pages%20A-16%20to%20A-18,%20https://choiceisanillusion.files.wordpress.com/2019/03/ny-times-killed-to-feel-a-thrill-1.pdf%20(%E2%80%9CBasically,%20Dr.%20Swango%20liked%20to%20kill%20people.%20%20By%20his%20own%20admission%20in%20his%20diary,%20he%20killed%20because%20it%20thrilled%20him.%E2%80%9D)%20%20See%20also:%20CBSNEWS.COM%20STAFF,%20%E2%80%9CLife%20in%20Jail%20for%20Poison%20Doctor,%E2%80%9D%2007/12/00,%20https://www.cbsnews.com/news/life-in-jail-for-poison-doctor">https://choiceisanillusion.files.wordpress.com/2019/03/ny-times-killed-to-feel-a-thrill-1.pdf </a>(“Basically, Dr. Swango liked to kill people. By his own admission in his diary, he killed because it thrilled him.”) See also: CBSNEWS.COM STAFF, “Life in Jail for Poison Doctor,” 07/12/00, <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/life-in-jail-for-poison-doctor">https://www.cbsnews.com/news/life-in-jail-for-poison-doctor</a><br />
[13] David Batty, “Q & A: Harold Shipman,” <i>The Guardian</i>, 08/25/05, at <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/society/2005/aug/25/health.shipman">https://www.theguardian.com/society/2005/aug/25/health.shipman</a>. (Attached <span style="white-space: pre;">in </span><a href="https://choiceisanillusion.files.wordpress.com/2019/10/mass-appendix-h1926-s1208.pdf" style="white-space: pre;" target="_blank">the appendix</a><span style="white-space: pre;">,</span> at A-19 to A-21). See also Fiona Guy, “Healthcare Serial Killers: Doctors and Nurses Who Kill,” Crime Traveler, (2015, Sept 09), available at <a href="https://www.blogger.com/David%20Batty,%20%E2%80%9CQ%20&%20A:%20Harold%20Shipman,%E2%80%9D%20The%20Guardian,%2008/25/05,%20at%20https://www.theguardian.com/society/2005/aug/25/health.shipman.%20%20(Attached%20hereto%20at%20A-19%20to%20A-21).%20%20See%20also%20Fiona%20Guy,%20%E2%80%9CHealthcare%20Serial%20Killers:%20Doctors%20and%20Nurses%20Who%20Kill,%E2%80%9D%20Crime%20Traveller,%20(2015,%20Sept%2009),%20available%20at%20https://choiceisanillusion.files.wordpress.com/2019/03/doctors-and-nurses-who-kill.pdf">https://choiceisanillusion.files.wordpress.com/2019/03/doctors-and-nurses-who-kill.pdf </a><br />
[14] The bills state:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
“Terminally ill" means having a terminal illness or condition which can reasonably be expected to cause death within 6 months, whether or not treatment is provided.</blockquote>
H. 1926 and S. 1208, lines 78 to 79. A copy of H. 1926 is <span style="white-space: pre;">in </span><a href="https://choiceisanillusion.files.wordpress.com/2019/10/mass-appendix-h1926-s1208.pdf" style="white-space: pre;" target="_blank">the appendix</a><span style="white-space: pre;">,</span> at pages A-22 to A-38.<br />
[15] See: Jessica Firger, “12 Million Americans Misdiagnosed Each Year,” CBS NEWS, April 17, 2014, attached <span style="white-space: pre;">in </span><a href="https://choiceisanillusion.files.wordpress.com/2019/10/mass-appendix-h1926-s1208.pdf" style="white-space: pre;" target="_blank">the appendix</a><span style="white-space: pre;">,</span> at A-39; and Nina Shapiro, “Terminal Uncertainty ...,” supra, excerpts attached hereto <span style="white-space: pre;">in </span><a href="https://choiceisanillusion.files.wordpress.com/2019/10/mass-appendix-h1926-s1208.pdf" style="white-space: pre;" target="_blank">the appendix</a><span style="white-space: pre;">, </span>at A-10 to A-12.<br />
[16] Affidavit of John Norton, attached <span style="white-space: pre;">in </span><a href="https://choiceisanillusion.files.wordpress.com/2019/10/mass-appendix-h1926-s1208.pdf" style="white-space: pre;" target="_blank">the appendix</a><span style="white-space: pre;">,</span> at A-40 to A-42.<br />
[17] Id., ¶ 5.<br />
[18] See the bills in their entirety, which are currently identical. Bill H. 1926 is attached in <span style="white-space: pre;">in </span><a href="https://choiceisanillusion.files.wordpress.com/2019/10/mass-appendix-h1926-s1208.pdf" style="white-space: pre;" target="_blank">the appendix</a><span style="white-space: pre;">,</span> at pages A-22 to A-38.<br />
[19] The bills, § 6, lines 151 to 179, attached in <span style="white-space: pre;">in </span><a href="https://choiceisanillusion.files.wordpress.com/2019/10/mass-appendix-h1926-s1208.pdf" style="white-space: pre;" target="_blank">the appendix</a><span style="white-space: pre;">,</span> at A-30 & A-31.<br />
[20] The bills state:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
(1) <i>The attending physician shall</i>: ...</blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
(k) ensure that all appropriate steps are <i>carried out in accordance with this chapter</i> before writing a prescription for medication for a qualified patient .... (Emphasis added).</blockquote>
The bills, line 152, and lines 178 to 179, attached <span style="white-space: pre;">in </span><a href="https://choiceisanillusion.files.wordpress.com/2019/10/mass-appendix-h1926-s1208.pdf" style="white-space: pre;" target="_blank">the appendix</a><span style="white-space: pre;">,</span> at A-30 and A-31.<br />
[21] See the bills in their entirety.<br />
[22] Definitions attached <span style="white-space: pre;">in </span><a href="https://choiceisanillusion.files.wordpress.com/2019/10/mass-appendix-h1926-s1208.pdf" style="white-space: pre;" target="_blank">the appendix</a><span style="white-space: pre;">,</span> at pages A-45 to A-46.<br />
[23] The bills, § 1, lines 14-17. (Attached <span style="white-space: pre;">in </span><a href="https://choiceisanillusion.files.wordpress.com/2019/10/mass-appendix-h1926-s1208.pdf" style="white-space: pre;" target="_blank">the appendix</a><span style="white-space: pre;">,</span> at A-23).<br />
[24] Id.<br />
[25] See the bills in their entirety.<br />
[26] In Oregon and Washington State, reported drugs include Secobarbital, Pentobarbital, Phenobarbital and Morphine Sulfate, which are water and/or alcohol soluble. See excerpts from Oregon’s and Washington’s annual reports, in <span style="white-space: pre;">in </span><a href="https://choiceisanillusion.files.wordpress.com/2019/10/mass-appendix-h1926-s1208.pdf" style="white-space: pre;" target="_blank">the appendix</a><span style="white-space: pre;">,</span> at pp. A-43 and A-44. See also <a href="http://www.drugs.com/pr/seconal-sodium.html">http://www.drugs.com/pr/seconal-sodium.html</a>, <a href="http://www.drugs.com/pro/nembutal.html">http://www.drugs.com/pro/nembutal.html</a> and <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2977013">https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2977013</a><br />
[27] Alex Schadenberg, Letter to the Editor, “Elder abuse a growing problem,” <i>The Advocate</i>, Official Publication of the Idaho State Bar, October 2010.<br />
[28] The bills, Section 1, line 10, attached <span style="white-space: pre;">in </span><a href="https://choiceisanillusion.files.wordpress.com/2019/10/mass-appendix-h1926-s1208.pdf" style="white-space: pre;" target="_blank">the appendix</a><span style="white-space: pre;">,</span> at A-22<br />
[29] Id., lines 76 to 77.<br />
[30] See the bills in their entirety.<br />
[31] Attached <span style="white-space: pre;">in </span><a href="https://choiceisanillusion.files.wordpress.com/2019/10/mass-appendix-h1926-s1208.pdf" style="white-space: pre;" target="_blank">the appendix</a><span style="white-space: pre;">,</span> at A-47.<br />
[32] The bills, §6(2), lines 189 to 190, attached <span style="white-space: pre;">in </span><a href="https://choiceisanillusion.files.wordpress.com/2019/10/mass-appendix-h1926-s1208.pdf" style="white-space: pre;" target="_blank">the appendix</a><span style="white-space: pre;">,</span> at A-32.<br />
[33] The bills, lines 252 to 256.<br />
[34] See Massachusetts “Death Certificate Medical Certifier Worksheet,” attached <span style="white-space: pre;">in </span><a href="https://choiceisanillusion.files.wordpress.com/2019/10/mass-appendix-h1926-s1208.pdf" style="white-space: pre;" target="_blank">the appendix</a><span style="white-space: pre;">,</span> at A-48.<br />
[35] David Batty, attached <span style="white-space: pre;">in </span><a href="https://choiceisanillusion.files.wordpress.com/2019/10/mass-appendix-h1926-s1208.pdf" style="white-space: pre;" target="_blank">the appendix</a><span style="white-space: pre;">,</span> at A-19.<br />
[36] Id., attached hereto at A-21.<br />
[37] Press Association, “Death Certificate Reform Delays ‘Incomprehensible,” <i>The Guardian</i>, January 21, 2015, attached <span style="white-space: pre;">in </span><a href="https://choiceisanillusion.files.wordpress.com/2019/10/mass-appendix-h1926-s1208.pdf" style="white-space: pre;" target="_blank">the appendix</a><span style="white-space: pre;">,</span> at A-49 to A-50.<br />
[38] Cushing and Dolan, PC, Attorneys at Law, “What are Slayer Statutes,” January 28, 2015, <span style="white-space: pre;">in </span><a href="https://choiceisanillusion.files.wordpress.com/2019/10/mass-appendix-h1926-s1208.pdf" style="white-space: pre;" target="_blank">the appendix</a><span style="white-space: pre;">, </span>at A-51 to A-52.<br />
[39] Ilene S. Cooper and Jaclene D’Agostino, Forfeiture and New York’s “Slayer Rule,” <i>NYSBA Journal</i>, March/April 2015, attached <span style="white-space: pre;">in </span><a href="https://choiceisanillusion.files.wordpress.com/2019/10/mass-appendix-h1926-s1208.pdf" style="white-space: pre;" target="_blank">the appendix</a><span style="white-space: pre;">,</span> at A-55.<br />
[40] Id.<br />
[41] Cushing and Dolan, <span style="white-space: pre;">in </span><a href="https://choiceisanillusion.files.wordpress.com/2019/10/mass-appendix-h1926-s1208.pdf" style="white-space: pre;" target="_blank">the appendix</a><span style="white-space: pre;">,</span> at A-52. See also “Taking from deceased victim’s estate prohibited,” attached <span style="white-space: pre;">in </span><a href="https://choiceisanillusion.files.wordpress.com/2019/10/mass-appendix-h1926-s1208.pdf" style="white-space: pre;" target="_blank">the appendix</a><span style="white-space: pre;">,</span> at A-53. The bar to inheritance applies “only to murder in the first degree, murder in the second degree or manslaughter.”<br />
[42] The bills, lines 252 to 256.<br />
[43] “Death by request in Switzerland: Post-traumatic stress disorder and complicated grief after witnessing assisted suicide,” B. Wagner, J. Muller, A. Maercker; European Psychiatry 27 (2012) 542-546, available at <a href="https://www.blogger.com/%E2%80%9CDeath%20by%20request%20in%20Switzerland:%20Posttraumatic%20stress%20disorder%20and%20complicated%20grief%20after%20witnessing%20assisted%20suicide,%E2%80%9D%20B.%20Wagner,%20J.%20Muller,%20A.%20Maercker;%20European%20Psychiatry%2027%20(2012)%20542-546,%20available%20at%20http://choiceisanillusion.files.wordpress.com/2012/10/family-members-traumatized-eur-psych-2012.pdf%20%20(Cover%20page%20attached%20hereto%20at%20A-56)">http://choiceisanillusion.files.wordpress.com/2012/10/family-members-traumatized-eur-psych-2012.pdf </a> (Cover page attached <span style="white-space: pre;">in </span><a href="https://choiceisanillusion.files.wordpress.com/2019/10/mass-appendix-h1926-s1208.pdf" style="white-space: pre;" target="_blank">the appendix</a><span style="white-space: pre;">,</span> at A-56).<br />
[44] Id.</div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7488755081297396657.post-2434916928200014622019-02-12T14:41:00.002-08:002019-02-12T14:41:49.285-08:00Massachusetts Court Upholds Manslaughter Conviction for Woman Who Assisted Boyfriend's Suicide<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg7yje2sqgNfVqrrCn1R7sUdhw4bLFprJ_8okLbooIep8oACQoCsFkpVju_wdH7SfZ-SnlkXpqwgR3TOael-bP47lKZ8SgzTootFSewaRAV6QxODPmUqk8ncNquhijfssYlaT63dmrHSS8e/s1600/Conrad+Roy.jpg" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg7yje2sqgNfVqrrCn1R7sUdhw4bLFprJ_8okLbooIep8oACQoCsFkpVju_wdH7SfZ-SnlkXpqwgR3TOael-bP47lKZ8SgzTootFSewaRAV6QxODPmUqk8ncNquhijfssYlaT63dmrHSS8e/s1600/Conrad+Roy.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Conrad Roy </td></tr>
</tbody></table>
Alex Schadenberg<br />Executive Director - Euthanasia Prevention Coalition<br /><br />The Massachusetts High Court upheld the voluntary manslaughter conviction of Michelle Carter for assisting the suicide of Conrad Roy who was 18 at the time of his death. Carter, who was 17 at the time of the death, was sentenced to 15 months in prison.<br /><a name='more'></a><br />An article written by Laurel Sweet and <a href="https://www.bostonherald.com/2019/02/06/states-high-court-to-announce-decision-in-michelle-carter-suicide-by-text-case-today/">published in the Boston Herald</a> on February 6 states:<br /><br />The state’s highest court Wednesday upheld the involuntary manslaughter conviction of a 22-year-old Plainville woman facing 15 months in prison for coaxing teenage pal Conrad Roy III to kill himself nearly five years ago in a store parking lot. <br /><br />“The evidence against the defendant proved that, by her wanton or reckless conduct, she caused the victim’s death by suicide. Her conviction of involuntary manslaughter as a youthful offender is not legally or constitutionally infirm. The judgment is therefore affirmed,” the court ordered in a <a href="https://www.mass.gov/files/documents/2019/02/06/12502.pdf">33-page decision written by Justice Scott L. Kafker</a>, a former deputy chief legal counsel to Gov. William F. Weld.<br /><br />The Justices agreed that Carter pressured Roy to die by suicide, based on a plan that she assisted. The gruesome facts of the case do not need repeating. <br /><br />Carter's lawyer, Daniel Marx, indicated his intention to appeal the case to the Supreme Court. Marx, compared this case to other cases of assisted suicide. He said:<br /><br />“There are good reasons why nearly every other state has passed a law to address ‘assisted suicide,’ which inevitably involves complicated circumstances better addressed as a matter of policy by the Legislature than in any particular case by the court. We will evaluate all legal options for Michelle, including a possible appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court,”<br /><br />Similar to other assisted suicide cases, the person who dies is often coerced or encouraged to end life and pressured to complete the act.Adminhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13314132820263802243noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7488755081297396657.post-11855835495050237002018-09-21T17:10:00.001-07:002018-09-21T17:11:36.094-07:00"Death with Dignity" Collapses Under Scrutiny<div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhid2_7hLLyCSyrZqWEmLbPCCNP2jYm0MCFbCEtvMQhjXu4da4uKHJSeQRTmp9QqJbEbUrSrovBjFSmaEejEfdgU4CauV0yosuRI9vCEqvXL_pH81LC8W4WfvTyU5tMid3nKgZ0twBYVAw/s1600/Photo+John+Kelly+Head+Shot.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="200" data-original-width="133" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhid2_7hLLyCSyrZqWEmLbPCCNP2jYm0MCFbCEtvMQhjXu4da4uKHJSeQRTmp9QqJbEbUrSrovBjFSmaEejEfdgU4CauV0yosuRI9vCEqvXL_pH81LC8W4WfvTyU5tMid3nKgZ0twBYVAw/s200/Photo+John+Kelly+Head+Shot.jpg" width="133" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">John Kelly</td></tr>
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<a href="https://www.blogger.com/John%20Kelly%20%20https://www.berkshireeagle.com/stories/letter-case-for-death-with-dignitycollapses-under-scrutiny,550769" target="_blank">Click here</a> to read published version.<br />
<br style="box-sizing: border-box;" />
I write to respond to the oped by <span class="il">John</span> Berkowitz and three Western Massachusetts legislators in support of assisted suicide bill H.1994 (Eagle, Sept. 11).<br />
<br style="box-sizing: border-box;" />
Unsolvable problems with assisted suicide include the fact that terminal diagnoses are often wrong. Studies show that between 13 percent and 20 percent of people so diagnosed are not dying, and may live years or even decades longer. As examples, the late Sen. Ted Kennedy lived a full year longer than his terminal diagnosis of two to four months, while Florence resident <a href="http://www.massagainstassistedsuicide.org/2012/09/john-norton-cautionary-tale.html" target="_blank"><span class="il">John</span> Norton</a> credits the unavailability of assisted suicide for decades of good life after a mistaken prognosis.<br />
<a name='more'></a><br />
<br style="box-sizing: border-box;" />
Against the writers' claim that there hasn't been one documented case of abuse, I encourage readers to search for Oregonians <a href="http://www.choiceillusionmontana.org/2013/03/physician-assisted-suicide-part-of.html" target="_blank">Thomas Middleton</a> (financial abuse), Wendy Melcher (a trans woman), and Kathryn Judson (physician pressure).<br />
<br style="box-sizing: border-box;" />
The bill requires no independent witness at the death, so the supposed safeguard of "self-administration" is toothless. Especially vulnerable will be the 10 percent of Massachusetts seniors estimated to be abused every year, almost always by family members. A caregiver or heir to an estate can witness a person's request, pick up the prescription and then administer the lethal dose without worry of investigation — the bill immunizes everyone involved.<br />
<br style="box-sizing: border-box;" />
The Legislature should continue rejecting a bill that would push vulnerable people toward early deaths.<br />
<br style="box-sizing: border-box;" />
<i style="box-sizing: border-box;"><span class="il">John</span> B. <span class="il">Kelly</span>,</i><br />
<br style="box-sizing: border-box;" />
<i style="box-sizing: border-box;">Boston</i><br />
<br style="box-sizing: border-box;" />
<i style="box-sizing: border-box;">The author is director of Second Thoughts Massachusetts: Disability Rights Activists Against Assisted Suicide.</i></div>
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Adminhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13314132820263802243noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7488755081297396657.post-63867146160545720062018-08-11T16:52:00.000-07:002018-08-11T16:55:14.878-07:00Prosecutors argue why Michelle Carter's texting suicide conviction should not be overturned<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiKG0_m-xHM0sh1oBZKYvzqQea1gI3JJvlNtKrYErgM9bovlOj0o7188ifQJtclqw717VSl-euTVX2dS9Fbn785pbelUcAuh7dgNHk4pF3POWayxA4qGZ05TrwcOyjSXaUHF7CS6XurHEg/s1600/Photo+michelle+carter+RS+cropped.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="450" data-original-width="431" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiKG0_m-xHM0sh1oBZKYvzqQea1gI3JJvlNtKrYErgM9bovlOj0o7188ifQJtclqw717VSl-euTVX2dS9Fbn785pbelUcAuh7dgNHk4pF3POWayxA4qGZ05TrwcOyjSXaUHF7CS6XurHEg/s200/Photo+michelle+carter+RS+cropped.jpg" width="191" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Michelle Carter</td></tr>
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To view full article, <a href="https://www.masslive.com/expo/news/erry-2018/08/c135fb15dd980/prosecutors-argue-why-michelle.html" target="_blank">click here</a><br />
<br />
Bristol County Prosecutors have filed their response to the appeal of Michelle Carter, arguing that the Plainville woman was rightfully convicted of involuntary manslaughter for pressuring her boyfriend Conrad Roy III into killing himself.<br />
<br />
Roy died in 2014 after he turned on a gas-powered water pump in his truck and allowed the cabin to fill with carbon monoxide, following a lengthy battle with depression.<br />
<br />
But police found text messages on Carter's phone that led them to believe it was no simple suicide.<br />
<a name='more'></a><br />
<br />
In thousands of communications, Carter and Roy shared intimate details of their struggles with mental health problems. And in the weeks before Roy's death, Carter began urging him to follow through on plans to kill himself.<br />
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"I thought you wanted to do this. The time is right and you're ready, you just need to do it! You can't keep living this way," she wrote in one text.<br />
<br />
Phone records showed that Carter and Roy spoke on the phone for about 90 minutes the evening he died. In a later text to a friend she said he had gotten out of the car but that she told him to get back in, and that she had heard him die over the phone.<br />
<br />
Judge Lawrence Moniz found Carter guilty in June of last year, ruling that her verbal instruction for Roy to get back in the truck constituted the "wanton and reckless conduct" needed to prove a manslaughter charge." ...Adminhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13314132820263802243noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7488755081297396657.post-14946793804961380802018-02-07T00:13:00.000-08:002018-11-29T00:12:37.138-08:00"Do or Refer": Proponents Show Their True Nature<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgayFzLL2I7I2m9uClmKxxUp4LEeS4A8UbpK4R88KYEK5cCd5SIxIURqN-6kJ6NDWtg9bKPe45RLY1-Mhg5pZKze39O9cyOo7MIOF88z2e8h7yX8r8CRR-dBGosDE7EVaoVDQOlLMpOuos/s1600/photo+MD+brighter+headshot.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="148" data-original-width="154" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgayFzLL2I7I2m9uClmKxxUp4LEeS4A8UbpK4R88KYEK5cCd5SIxIURqN-6kJ6NDWtg9bKPe45RLY1-Mhg5pZKze39O9cyOo7MIOF88z2e8h7yX8r8CRR-dBGosDE7EVaoVDQOlLMpOuos/s1600/photo+MD+brighter+headshot.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Margaret Dore, Esq., MBA</td></tr>
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<span style="font-size: small;">By Margaret Dore Esq., MBA<br /><br />The Massachusetts bill seeking to legalize assisted suicide and euthanasia as traditionally defined, includes a provision requiring doctors to "do or refer," <i>i.e.</i>, to perform assisted suicide or euthanasia, by prescribing and/or administering the lethal dose, or to make an effective referral to another doctor, who <i>will</i> do it. (<a href="https://choiceisanillusion.files.wordpress.com/2018/02/hb-1194-sec-15.pdf" target="_blank">H 1194 Sec. 15(4)(a) & (b)(iv)</a>).*<br /><br />
The significance of do or refer is that it's anti-patient, by not allowing doctors to use their best judgment for the patient.</span><br />
<a name='more'></a><span style="font-size: small;"><br />Think of Oregonian Jeanette Hall. In 2000, she made a settled decision to use Oregon's assisted suicide law in lieu of being treated for cancer. Her doctor, Kenneth Stevens, who personally opposed assisted suicide, thought that her chances with treatment were good. He stalled her request for assisted suicide and finally convinced her to be treated for cancer.<br /><br />
Yes, Dr Stevens was against assisted suicide generally, but he also thought that Jeanette was a great candidate for treatment, and indeed she was. She has been cancer free for 17 years. In a article from last year, <a href="http://www.massagainstassistedsuicide.org/2018/02/if-dr-stevens-had-believed-in-assisted.html" target="_blank">Jeanette states</a>: </span><br />
<dl>
<dd>I wanted to do our law and I wanted Dr. Stevens to help me. Instead, he encouraged me to not give up and ultimately I decided to fight the cancer. I had both chemotherapy and radiation. I am so happy to be alive!
</dd></dl>
<span style="font-size: small;">With "do or refer," Dr Stevens would have been risking his license or even his livelihood to help Jeanette understand what her true options were.<br /><br />
Is this what we want for doctors, to have them be afraid of giving us their best judgment, for fear of losing their jobs?</span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><br />
This is a particularly sensitive issue for me because it happened to me, but in another context. <br /><br />
When I was in law school, I went to an optometrist who knew what was wrong with my vision and also where to refer me for treatment with another optometrist. He didn't refer me because he worked for ophthalmologists and had been previously disciplined for giving a similar referral.<br /><br />
I spent the next six months on a wild goose chase trying to find someone to help me so that I could get back to school. I finally found an optometrist who could help me, but with the delay, I had further damaged my eyes. I graduated from law school two years late.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><br />
As for assisted suicide, the proposed bill is promoted as safe, in part because it requires a second doctor to review each case. <br /><br />
But what is the purpose of the second doctor, if he or she can only say "yes." (Do or refer)<br /><br />
With "do or refer," assisted suicide proponents show us their true nature. They don't want to give us choice, they want to railroad us to death.<br /><br />
I hope that Massachusetts will reject the proposed bill. (HB 1194) </span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: small;">____________</span><br />
<br />
<span style="color: #3d85c6; font-size: small;">* The bill is sold as limited to assisted suicide. In the fine print, it also allows euthanasia as traditionally defined.<br /><br />
</span><span style="font-size: small;"><a href="http://www.margaretdore.org/">Margaret Dore</a> is an attorney in Washington State where assisted suicide is legal. She is also president of Choice is an Illusion, a nonprofit corporation opposed to assisted suicide and euthanasia worldwide. See <a href="http://www.choiceillusion.org/">www.choiceillusion.org</a> and <a href="http://www.margaretdore.org/">www.margaretdore.org</a> </span>Adminhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13314132820263802243noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7488755081297396657.post-89737374312610684352018-02-05T01:43:00.000-08:002019-07-16T22:50:53.677-07:00"If Dr. Stevens had believed in assisted suicide, I would be dead."<div style="text-align: right;">
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Jeanette Hall and her son Scott in 2000.</td></tr>
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By Jeanette Hall<br />
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I live in Oregon where assisted suicide is legal. Our law passed in 1997 by a ballot measure that I voted for.<br />
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In 2000, I was diagnosed with cancer and told that I had 6 months to a year to live. I knew that our law had passed, but I didn’t know exactly how to go about doing it. I tried to ask my doctor, Kenneth Stevens MD, but he didn’t really answer me. In hindsight, he was stalling me.<br />
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I did not want to suffer. I wanted to do our law and I wanted Dr. Stevens to help me. Instead, he encouraged me to not give up and ultimately I decided to fight the cancer. I had both chemotherapy and radiation. I am so happy to be alive!<br />
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This last July, it was 17 years since my diagnosis. If Dr. Stevens had believed in assisted suicide, I would be dead. Assisted suicide should not be legal.Adminhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13314132820263802243noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7488755081297396657.post-59842946530726507782017-09-28T14:46:00.001-07:002017-09-28T17:51:21.641-07:00'Death With Dignity' or Pressuring the Ill to Die<div class="MsoNormal">
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Representative Denise Provost,<br />
John Kelly and other<br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">"State Representative Denise Provost (D-Somerville), who opposes the bill, posited in her testimony that the committee should refer the proposal to the Joint Committee on the Judiciary 'since we would be changing the criminal laws of the commonwealth.'” </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">To read the full article, </span><a href="http://newbostonpost.com/2017/09/26/death-with-dignity-or-pressuring-the-ill-to-die-physician-assisted-suicide-bill-clash-on-beacon-hill/" style="font-family: inherit;" target="_blank">click here</a><span style="font-family: inherit;">.</span><span style="font-family: inherit;"> </span><br />
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By <a href="http://newbostonpost.com/author/evan-lips/" title="Posts by Evan Lips"><span style="color: blue;">Evan Lips</span></a> | September 26, 2017, 19:36 EDT</div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">BOSTON — The last time he traveled to Beacon Hill to testify against physician-assisted suicide legislation, Dr. William Lawton <a href="http://newbostonpost.com/2015/10/27/assisted-suicide-bill-draws-heartfelt-testimony-pro-and-con/" target="_blank"><span style="color: blue;">spoke as a</span></a> physician.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">On Tuesday, he spoke as a patient.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Lawton, 74, diagnosed with incurable pancreatic cancer just months ago, told New Boston Post after delivering his testimony to the Joint Committee on Public Health that his illness has not affected his stance....</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Meanwhile, inside the hearing room behind him, lawmakers were focused on the bill’s second hour of testimony. Dozens had spoken in favor of and against twin bills introduced by state Senator Barbara L’Italien (D-Andover) and state Representative Louis Kafka (D-Stoughton). The latest iteration of the bill marks the fifth try for Kafka, who said he was compelled to introduce it following the 2009 death of a constituent stricken with terminal stomach cancer....</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Yet others like Dr. William Toffler of Oregon countered that doctors “should not be steering vulnerable people towards suicide.” Physician-assisted suicide was legalized in Oregon nearly 20 years ago. Toffer described the prevalence inside his home state of a “subtle pressure to comply with state-sanctioned suicide.”<o:p></o:p></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Toffler said, however, that there has been a “profound shift in attitudes” in Oregon. He recalled an encounter with a patient — not his — who asked him about two opinions she had received from her oncologists.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">“She asked me, and this was the first time in my life I’ve been asked this, whether one of the doctors was a ‘death doctor’,” Toffler recalled. “This was a question that 20 years would be unheard of in the state of Oregon.”<o:p></o:p></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">State Representative Denise Provost (D-Somerville), who opposes the bill, posited in her testimony that the committee should refer the proposal to the Joint Committee on the Judiciary “since we would be changing the criminal laws of the commonwealth.”</span></div>
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Adminhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13314132820263802243noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7488755081297396657.post-9982421960527721142017-06-18T05:34:00.000-07:002017-12-31T18:30:54.002-08:00Michelle Carter Convicted of Involuntary Manslaughter Due to Assisting Suicide of Conrad Roy<h3 class="post-title entry-title" style="background-color: white; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0.75em 0px 0px; position: relative;">
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Conrad Roy III</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;"><a href="http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2017/06/16/533220739/text-messages-urging-suicide-result-in-involuntary-manslaughter-conviction?utm_source=npr_newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_content=20170618&utm_campaign=&utm_term=" target="_blank">NPR</a> </span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;"> A Massachusetts judge has found Michelle Carter guilty of involuntary manslaughter after, prosecutors say, the then-teenager sent a fellow teenager text messages that urged him to commit suicide.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">Juvenile Court Judge Lawrence Moniz decided the case, which Carter had opted to be heard by a judge rather than a jury. Even before Moniz read his verdict Friday, Carter, 20, was weeping and holding a tissue in the courtroom. The judge agreed with prosecutors that Carter's "wanton and reckless conduct" had resulted in the death of Conrad Roy III.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">The case stems from the death of Roy in July 2014, when Carter was 17 and Roy was 18. At the time, Carter was living in Plainville, Mass.; Roy was found dead about 50 miles away in a parking lot in Fairhaven, Mass., in a truck whose cab was filled with carbon monoxide by a generator.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">In text messages that were later entered as evidence, Carter told Roy he was ready to kill himself and asked him to promise he would go through with it. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">Prosecutors said during the trial that Carter had told Roy to get back in the truck after he told her he had gotten out and that she had failed to notify anyone that Roy was in danger.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">Moniz agreed with the prosecution, saying Friday that "Ms. Carter's actions, and also her failure to act, where she had a self-created duty to Mr. Roy, since she had put him into that toxic environment, constituted, each and all, wanton and reckless conduct."</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">Moniz said that Carter's "conduct caused the death of Mr. Roy."</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">Carter's defense attorney had maintained that the case was one of suicide, not homicide. Joseph Cataldo noted that Roy had previously attempted to kill himself.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">The trial was allowed to begin only after the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court ruled that the charge against Carter should stand, saying there was probable cause for charges based on the "coercive quality" of Carter's messages to Roy.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">To read the entire article, <a href="http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2017/06/16/533220739/text-messages-urging-suicide-result-in-involuntary-manslaughter-conviction?utm_source=npr_newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_content=20170618&utm_campaign=&utm_term=" target="_blank">click here</a></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">To read Conrad Roy's obituary, <a href="http://www.currentobituary.com/member/obit/143229" target="_blank">click here</a></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">To read about the similar case of William Melchert-Dinkel, <a href="http://www.choiceillusionminnesota.org/2014/09/melchert-dinkel-convicted.html" target="_blank">click here</a></span></div>
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Adminhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13314132820263802243noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7488755081297396657.post-79559826291171605492017-04-14T21:55:00.000-07:002017-04-14T21:55:10.489-07:00John Kelly, Boston Based Disability Rights Activist, Published in New Mexico<h3 class="post-title entry-title" itemprop="name" style="background-color: white; font-family: Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0.75em 0px 0px; position: relative;">
Assisted suicide bill - it deserved to die</h3>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEghqXq5Jua0iKUWFsC6yk4DWLZLFZx0KafYy-R2CIns-1vV72Hc87i5hHmNN6xq2dtAsyy2_FvCywZ77EQvzfEAAXR3-YK0Ti_94h7snaLwPARsbcU4sjBdhFEt8n_MUJbbKjkTVSWjis0/s1600/Photo+John+Kelly+Head+Shot.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; color: #5d4b18; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-decoration-line: none;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEghqXq5Jua0iKUWFsC6yk4DWLZLFZx0KafYy-R2CIns-1vV72Hc87i5hHmNN6xq2dtAsyy2_FvCywZ77EQvzfEAAXR3-YK0Ti_94h7snaLwPARsbcU4sjBdhFEt8n_MUJbbKjkTVSWjis0/s200/Photo+John+Kelly+Head+Shot.jpg" style="background: transparent; border: none; box-shadow: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.0980392) 0px 0px 0px; padding: 0px; position: relative;" width="133" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 10.56px; text-align: center;">John Kelly</td></tr>
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<a href="http://www.santafenewmexican.com/opinion/my_view/reader-view-assisted-suicide-bill-it-deserved-to-die/article_249e9f50-bd12-5cd1-ba9c-33f689ca9534.html" style="color: #5d4b18; text-decoration-line: none;">http://www.santafenewmexican.com/opinion/my_view/reader-view-assisted-suicide-bill-it-deserved-to-die/article_249e9f50-bd12-5cd1-ba9c-33f689ca9534.html</a><br /><br />By John Kelly | Posted: Monday, March 20, 2017 7:00 pm<br /><br />Thanks to the state Senate’s rejection of the assisted suicide bill, Senate Bill 252, residents of New Mexico can breathe easier. As Sen. Craig Brandt said during last week’s debate, “This bill is dangerous. Doctors make mistakes every day.”<a name='more'></a><br /><br />CBS News reported in 2014 that 12 million Americans are misdiagnosed yearly. About 15 percent of people given less than six months to live are not “terminally ill.” Thousands of people “graduate” from hospice yearly. Assisted suicide programs turn the best result under hospice — learning that you weren’t “terminal” after all — into the tragedy of dying with years or decades of life remaining. This reality alone should be enough to stop any assisted suicide proposal cold. We cannot predict the future. The “choice” promised by assisted suicide is an illusion.<br /><br />Assisted suicide hit the news in 2011, when two doctors petitioned District Court Judge Nan G. Nash to declare assisted suicide constitutional. A few months later, Santa Fe resident Aja Riggs joined the lawsuit after doctors gave her slim chance of surviving aggressive uterine cancer. Judge Nash’s 2014 ruling for the plaintiffs was overturned on appeal. Then the state Supreme Court unanimously ruled that there was no constitutional right to assisted suicide. More than five years later, Aja Riggs’ cancer is in remission.<br /><br />During the Senate debate, senators warned that “undue influence” would lead to wrongful deaths. One out of every 10 older New Mexicans is estimated to be abused every year, mostly by adult children and spouses. A caregiver or heir to an estate could help sign a person up, pick up the prescription and then administer the lethal dose without worry of investigation. To receive immunity, they could simply claim to have acted in “good faith.”<br /><br />With no official witness required at the death, we can’t know whether someone self-administered the drugs.<br /><br />As a progressive, I am heartened that seven Democrats joined Republicans in defeating the measure.<br /><br />John B. Kelly is a Boston-based disability rights activist and writer. He is the director of Second Thoughts Massachusetts: Disability Rights Advocates against Assisted Suicide. The group’s website is <a href="http://www.second-thoughts.org/" style="color: #5d4b18; text-decoration-line: none;">www.second-thoughts.org</a>.</div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7488755081297396657.post-20064718896868262372016-07-09T13:48:00.000-07:002016-11-07T23:29:33.025-08:00Worldwide Theatre Protest: 'Me Before You' Paints Dangerous Picture of Disabled Life<h2 class="date-header" style="background-color: white; font-family: Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif; font-stretch: normal; margin: 0px 0px 1em; min-height: 0px; position: relative; text-transform: uppercase;">
<span style="font-size: 13.2px; line-height: 1.4;">BY JOHN KELLY</span></h2>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 10.56px; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small; text-align: start;">"It was heartening at our protests to receive<br />so much support from moviegoers and passersby."</span></td></tr>
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Every evening for the past month, you’ve been able to watch me get euthanized at the Regal Fenway Stadium 13. Not to worry, it’s my choice, and neither fantastic wealth nor mutual love with a beautiful woman dissuade me.<br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">This is the outline of the movie Me Before You, in which the audience gets plenty of laughs along the way as I—in the movie, my name is Will (Sam Claflin)—teach Louisa (Emilia Clarke), hired by my parents to cheer me up, to love life and soon enough, to love me. And when I/Will stay true to my desire to die, audiences have a good cry. Some theaters even supply patrons with Kleenex.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: inherit;">I use the first person because it’s my disability, shared with fictional Will, that is on the chopping block.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: inherit;">Our disability is iconic, a powerful eliciter of suicidal urgings. I was talking by telephone to a reporter a few months ago, trying to explain why disability rights groups oppose legalized assisted suicide, when she blurted out, “I know I would want it if I was ever paralyzed from the neck down.” She didn’t notice when I told her those words are used to describe me.</span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><img border="0" height="193" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi5JAnznq5OcF4x7qXBju5fJvWzMGbxqFY4vSEpLOhfPQhhoH69RsKPUkEFPL6x3dp96ZJICF0W5qJBlNaCxOa4XlO-371kZqx3MM9QauSUAIyiB8jxJuO37ytTYhshffYwO92OYMkgOYg/s320/Photo+Nice+looking+JBK+cropped.jpg" style="background: transparent; border: none; box-shadow: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.0980392) 0px 0px 0px; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; padding: 0px;" width="320" /></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 10.56px; text-align: center;">John Kelly and friends at Fenway Regal Cinemas</td></tr>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi5JAnznq5OcF4x7qXBju5fJvWzMGbxqFY4vSEpLOhfPQhhoH69RsKPUkEFPL6x3dp96ZJICF0W5qJBlNaCxOa4XlO-371kZqx3MM9QauSUAIyiB8jxJuO37ytTYhshffYwO92OYMkgOYg/s1600/Photo+Nice+looking+JBK+cropped.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; color: #3d85c6; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"></span></a><span style="font-family: inherit;">Some percentage of people who see me think they would rather be dead, and a few have told me so directly. People get to have their opinions, of course, but this prejudice is broadcast again and again. So we defend our lives.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: inherit;">In 2005, we protested the Oscar winner for Best Picture Million Dollar Baby, which along with Best Foreign Picture The Sea Inside presented disabled characters clamoring for death. I heard that some audiences cheered when Clint Eastwood’s Frankie murdered Hilary Swank’s Maggie.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: inherit;">Thanks to social media, this time around we’ve been able to organize multiple protests, across the US and in Britain and Australia, against the “better dead than disabled” message of Me Before You. Over the first four </span><span style="font-family: inherit;">weekends of June, groups of disabled people and allies gathered outside the Regal Fenway 13 and Boston Common 19 to hand out flyers and hold a banner calling the film a “disability snuff movie.”</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: inherit;">The fallback line for suicide proponents, which we heard occasionally during our actions, is “choice,” as in every (disabled) individual should have the right to choose. But the “choice” presented in Me Before</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">You belongs solely to the screenwriter and author of the book by the same name, JoJo Moyes. From observing a couple of disabled family members, Moyes said “qualityof-life was very high in my mind.” She told another interviewer, “At what point does the quality become meaningless? At what point do you give </span><span style="font-family: inherit;">someone the right to decide for themselves?” </span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgBwKu_iQIKt2j9ZNL4Ri3vpBGIXCzP_foaccub4JWGfLudi8xDpBTwHp-eONvj10tXU7gjzDLw8pI5SoR5HqM8DpS-oiqnjjcdmX9d-LYI_qwoiWcg2Qq3Xe2wPLrRveRmaCpQ2s5jcjs/s1600/john+kelly+testifying.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; color: #3d85c6; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-decoration: none;"><img border="0" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgBwKu_iQIKt2j9ZNL4Ri3vpBGIXCzP_foaccub4JWGfLudi8xDpBTwHp-eONvj10tXU7gjzDLw8pI5SoR5HqM8DpS-oiqnjjcdmX9d-LYI_qwoiWcg2Qq3Xe2wPLrRveRmaCpQ2s5jcjs/s200/john+kelly+testifying.jpg" style="background: transparent; border: none; box-shadow: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.0980392) 0px 0px 0px; padding: 0px; position: relative;" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 10.56px; text-align: center;">John Kelly testifying at<br />
legislative hearing</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">I object to being told that my life is “meaningless,” and think JoJo Moyes is a bigot. Unfortunately for me and disabled people, the bigot wrote a book that sold millions and got made into a Hollywood movie.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: inherit;">Moyes constructed everything in Will’s life to be as wonderful as could be—except for that quality-of-life-killing disability. Moyes has Will tell Louisa at the end of the book that his death will free her. “I don’t want you to be tied to me, to my hospital appointments, to the restrictions on my life. I don’t want you to </span><span style="font-family: inherit;">miss out on all the things that someone else could give you.”</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: inherit;">Will’s death is presented as a sacrifice of sorts, a death that gives life. Will leaves Louisa a lot of money so </span><span style="font-family: inherit;">that she can go forth and “live boldly.” That phrase, used without irony, is the tag line of the movie. Living boldly, it seems, is for the nondisabled.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: inherit;">Like Will, I was depressed two years after my injury, but it was the peer support and solidarity of other disabled people that got me through that time. I shudder to think of newly injured people hearing about this movie. I want them to learn, as I did, that we all have the ability to adjust to circumstances as long as we are provided with love, support, and opportunities.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: inherit;">We disabled people proclaim that suicidal people, disabled or not, deserve the same suicide-prevention services as teenagers, the only target of most states’ anti-suicide programs.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: inherit;">It was heartening at our protests to receive so much support from moviegoers and passersby. People took pictures of us, decided to ditch the film after talking to us, and a few even passed out flyers with us. As one young couple said leaving the Fenway theaters, “you were right, it was terrible!”</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: inherit;">John Kelly is a longtime East Fens resident and disability rights advocate. He founded Neighborhood Access Group (NAG) in 2000 and is now director of <a href="http://www.second-thoughts.org/" style="color: #3d85c6; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">Second Thoughts Massachusetts: Disability Rights</a></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><a href="http://www.second-thoughts.org/" style="color: #3d85c6; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">Advocates against Assisted Suicide</a>.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: xx-small; font-weight: normal;"><span style="line-height: 1.4;">TO VIEW ARTICLE AS A PDF, CLICK HERE, LOOK AT THE LOWER HALF OF THE PAGE: </span><a href="https://choiceisanillusion.files.wordpress.com/2016/07/john-kelly-fenway-news-me-b4u-w-highlight-july_2016_screen.pdf" style="color: #3d85c6; line-height: 1.4; text-decoration: none;">HTTPS://CHOICEISANILLUSION.FILES.WORDPRESS.COM/2016/07/JOHN-KELLY-FENWAY-NEWS-ME-B4U-W-HIGHLIGHT-JULY_2016_SCREEN.PDF</a></span></h2>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7488755081297396657.post-2753415218736879082016-06-30T15:27:00.000-07:002016-06-30T15:27:24.428-07:00Assisted Suicide Bill Dies in Committee!<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi6bAr3q4o4araHeNPrOd8wJ8BuzTcc88gGLsk0tk01RNcaeXffidZdDy_M4lqMuXIS54sBShrt28EuKWzDR1IBsnASbF6K4xz6cZTVYdltSm16IDaSJJA0tsOAOUSf2Z4qLLv5dLTwOnE/s1600/Photo+Mass+Capital+straight+on.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="149" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi6bAr3q4o4araHeNPrOd8wJ8BuzTcc88gGLsk0tk01RNcaeXffidZdDy_M4lqMuXIS54sBShrt28EuKWzDR1IBsnASbF6K4xz6cZTVYdltSm16IDaSJJA0tsOAOUSf2Z4qLLv5dLTwOnE/s200/Photo+Mass+Capital+straight+on.jpg" width="200" /></a>From <a href="http://www.second-thoughts.org/" target="_blank">Second Thoughts, Massachusetts</a>, People with Disabilities Opposing the Legalization of Assisted Suicide:<br />
<br />
Today, the Joint Committee on Public Health, of the Massachusetts Legislature, "declined to advance H.1999 the latest assisted suicide bill, H 1991, euphemistically titled 'An act affirming a terminally ill patient's right to compassionate aid in dying.' Disability rights advocates, along with representatives from medicine and members of the public, testified and lobbied against the bill."<br />
<br />
The <a href="http://www.massagainstassistedsuicide.org/2015/10/dore-memo-opposing-h1991.html" target="_blank">written testimony</a> of Margaret Dore, president of <a href="http://www.choiceillusion.org/" target="_blank">Choice is an Illusion</a>, is summarized below:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="line-height: 1.4;">H.1991 is similar to Ballot Question 2, which was defeated by a vote of the people in 2012. This</span><span style="line-height: 1.4;"> </span><a href="https://choiceisanillusion.files.wordpress.com/2015/10/h-1991-memo.pdf" style="color: #3d85c6; line-height: 1.4; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">memo</a><span style="line-height: 1.4;"> </span><span style="line-height: 1.4;">and its</span><span style="line-height: 1.4;"> </span><a href="https://choiceisanillusion.files.wordpress.com/2015/10/h-1991-attachments.pdf" style="color: #3d85c6; line-height: 1.4; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">attachments</a><span style="line-height: 1.4;"> </span><span style="line-height: 1.4;">discuss why H.1991 is a recipe for elder abuse. Passage will also cause family trauma, and encourage people with years to live to throw away their lives.... Even if you are for the concept of assisted suicide, H.1991 is the wrong bill.</span></span></blockquote>
Thank you to everyone who helped make this defeat possible!<br />
<br />
Please consider a generous donation to <a href="http://www.second-thoughts.org/donate" target="_blank">Second Thoughts</a>, <a href="https://donate.firstgiving.com/secure/donate/6296D3CA-77DF-4306-B40E-EF9880D1C47E/648991e9-9b71-4bb2-95f9-d3168d4282e4?parentPath=http://www.massagainstassistedsuicide.org/" target="_blank">Choice is an Illusion</a> or your local group fighting against the legalization of assisted suicide and euthanasia.<br />
<br />
We are need your support!<br />
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Choice is an IllusionUnknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7488755081297396657.post-72479378837407849642015-10-26T03:01:00.000-07:002015-10-26T03:01:42.054-07:00Dore Letter to Joint Committee on Public Health<span style="font-size: small;">I am a lawyer in Washington State where assisted suicide is legal. I am also president of Choice is an Illusion, a nonprofit corporation opposed to assisted suicide and euthanasia. <br /><br />
H.1991 is a promoted as assuring patient control, which it doesn't do. Key problems include the following:
</span><br />
<ul>
<li>Someone else is allowed to speak for the patient during the lethal dose request process.
</li>
<li>The term, "self-administer," allows someone else to administer the lethal dose to the patient
</li>
<li>There is no oversight at the death: Even if the patient struggled against administration, who would know?
</li>
<li>The death certificate is required to be falsified to reflect a natural death, which prevents perpetrators from being prosecuted even in a straight up murder for the money.
</li>
</ul>
<span style="font-size: small;">In short, the bill allows the perfect crime.<br /><br />
Here is a link to my memo explaining the bill's problems in more detail. Even if you are for the concept of assisted suicide, H.1991 is the wrong bill. <a eudora="autourl" href="http://www.massagainstassistedsuicide.org/2015/10/dore-memo-opposing-h1991.html">http://www.massagainstassistedsuicide.org/2015/10/dore-memo-opposing-h1991.html</a> <br /><br />
Thank you for your attention to this matter.<br /><br />
Margaret Dore, Esq., MBA<br />
Law Offices of Margaret K. Dore, P.S.<br />
Choice is an Illusion, a nonprofit corporation<br />
<a eudora="autourl" href="http://www.margaretdore.com/">www.margaretdore.com<br />
</a><a eudora="autourl" href="http://www.choiceillusion.org/">www.choiceillusion.org<br />
</a>1001 4th Avenue, Suite 4400<br />
Seattle WA 98154</span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7488755081297396657.post-29251970888712550172015-10-26T02:13:00.000-07:002015-10-26T02:13:15.986-07:00Dore Memo Opposing H.1991 H.1991 is similar to Ballot Question 2, which was defeated by a vote of the people in 2012. This <a href="https://choiceisanillusion.files.wordpress.com/2015/10/h-1991-memo.pdf" target="_blank">memo</a> and its <a href="https://choiceisanillusion.files.wordpress.com/2015/10/h-1991-attachments.pdf" target="_blank">attachments</a> discusses why H.1991 is a recipe for elder abuse. Passage will also cause family trauma, and encourage people with years to live to throw away their lives. There are other problems. Even if you are for the concept of assisted suicide, H.1991 is the wrong bill.<br />
<br />
Margaret DoreUnknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7488755081297396657.post-85114906476073708342015-10-21T18:40:00.000-07:002015-10-21T18:46:33.283-07:00Young Man Actively Suicidal After Watching Brittany Maynard Video<h3 class="post-title entry-title" style="background-color: white; font-family: Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; margin: 0.75em 0px 0px; position: relative;">
<span style="font-size: 13.2px; font-weight: normal; line-height: 1.4;">Dear Legislators:</span></h3>
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I am a doctor whose young adult patient became actively suicidal after watching a Brittany Maynard video.</div>
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I urge you to vote against legalizing assisted suicide so as to not encourage other young adults to seek this path. </div>
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In the first week of December 2014, a mother brought in her twenty year old son for an emergency appointment. She had told me that he had been acting oddly and talking about death.</div>
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During the appointment, I asked the young man if he had a plan. He said “yes” that he had watched Ms. Maynard’s video, that he was very impressed and identified with her and that he thought it was a good idea for him to die like her. He also told me that after watching the video he had been surfing the internet looking for ways to obtain suicide drugs.</div>
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He was actively suicidal and agreed to go to the hospital, where he stayed for five weeks until it was determined that he was sufficiently safe from self-harm to go home.</div>
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Legal assisted suicide sends the wrong message to young people. I urge you to vote "no" on H.1991.</div>
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<br style="font-size: 13.2px; line-height: 18.48px;" />
<span style="font-size: 13.2px; line-height: 18.48px;">Thank you.</span><br />
<br style="font-size: 13.2px; line-height: 18.48px;" />
<span style="font-size: 13.2px; line-height: 18.48px;">Will Johnston MD</span></div>
<div style="font-family: Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px; line-height: 1.4;">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13.2px; line-height: 18.48px;">Gisele M. Comeau, M.D</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13.2px; line-height: 18.48px;">Williard P. Johnston, M.D.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13.2px; line-height: 18.48px;">Family Physicians</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13.2px; line-height: 18.48px;">Vancouver, BC Canada</span></span><br />
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7488755081297396657.post-49076043475394548172012-11-03T15:21:00.002-07:002012-11-05T14:53:54.967-08:00Papers Say "NO" to Question 2<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">1. </span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><a href="http://bostonglobe.com/opinion/editorials/2012/11/01/election-endorsement-question/qAAp21DlC6mkoGYPjA9J6M/story.html" target="_blank"><span style="color: #3d85c6;">The Boston Globe: End-of-life discussions, care should come before Question 2</span></a> </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">2. </span><a href="http://www.capecodonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20121025/OPINION/210250332"><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The Cape Cod Times - Vote No on Question 2</span></a><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> <br />3. </span><a href="http://www.salemnews.com/opinion/x1684129112/Our-view-No-on-Question-2" target="_blank"><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The Salem News - Our View: No on Question 2</span></a><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> <br />4. </span><a href="http://www.telegram.com/article/20121021/NEWS/110219849/1020/opinion#.UIqZc2-HLTo" target="_blank"><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The Worchester Telegram and Gazette - Vote "No" on Question 2</span></a><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> <br />5. </span><a href="http://www.bostonherald.com/news/opinion/editorials/view/20221022no_on_question_2/" target="_blank"><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The Boston Herald - No on Question 2</span></a><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> <br />6. </span><a href="http://www.southcoasttoday.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20121007/OPINION/210070304" target="_blank"><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The New Bedford Standard Times - Our View: Death with Dignity law fatally flawed</span></a><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> <br />7. </span><a href="http://www.baystatebanner.com/Editorial51-2012-10-04" target="_blank"><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The Bay State Banner - Vote No on Question 2</span></a><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> <br />8. </span><a href="http://www.lowellsun.com/editorials/ci_21874759/vote-side-life-and-reject-question-2" target="_blank"><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The Lowell Sun - Vote No on Question 2</span></a><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="color: black;">9</span>. <a href="http://mobile.masslive.com/advmasslive/db_96822/contentdetail.htm?contentguid=q87phXoO&full=true#display" target="_blank"><span style="color: #3d85c6;">The Springfield Republic - recommend voting “no” on Question 2, physician-assisted suicide</span></a> </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana;">10. <a href="http://www.wickedlocal.com/waltham/news/x1440174273/Endorsement-Death-with-dignity-is-not-good-enough#axzz2BOJd0Ber" target="_blank">The Waltham News Tribune - Endorsement: 'Death with dignity' is not good enough</a></span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com