Wednesday, February 7, 2018

"Do or Refer": Proponents Show Their True Nature

Margaret Dore, Esq., MBA
By Margaret Dore Esq., MBA

The Massachusetts bill seeking to legalize assisted suicide and euthanasia as traditionally defined, includes a provision requiring doctors to "do or refer," i.e., to perform assisted suicide or euthanasia, by prescribing and/or administering the lethal dose, or to make an effective referral to another doctor, who will do it.  (H 1194 Sec. 15(4)(a) & (b)(iv)).*

The significance of do or refer is that it's anti-patient, by not allowing doctors to use their best judgment for the patient.

Monday, February 5, 2018

"If Dr. Stevens had believed in assisted suicide, I would be dead."

Jeanette Hall and her son Scott in 2000.
By Jeanette Hall

I live in Oregon where assisted suicide is legal. Our law passed in 1997 by a ballot measure that I voted for.

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.

Thursday, September 28, 2017

'Death With Dignity' or Pressuring the Ill to Die

Representative Denise Provost,
John Kelly and other
disability activists
"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.'” 

To read the full article, click here. 

Sunday, June 18, 2017

Michelle Carter Convicted of Involuntary Manslaughter Due to Assisting Suicide of Conrad Roy

Conrad Roy III
NPR  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.

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.