Assisted suicide is dangerous

Compassion & Choices appears to be focusing on Idaho. Compassion & Choices has started a media campaign in Idaho and an article published by Kathryn Tucker, the legal guru for the suicide lobby group, falsely stated that Idaho has no law prohibiting assisted suicide. The following letter by Dr. Kenneth Stevens was published in the Idaho Mountain Express.

Assisted suicide is dangerous

I am a doctor in Oregon, where assisted suicide is legal. I was disturbed to see that the suicide lobby group, Compassion & Choices, is beginning its indoctrination of your state to accept assisted suicide as somehow promoting patient "choice." ("How does one choose end-of-life care?," Idaho Mountain Express, June 23).

When evaluating this claim, remember the names Barbara Wagner and Randy Stroup. Wagner was an Oregon resident who died in 2008. The Oregon Health Plan (Medicaid) refused to pay for a cancer drug to possibly prolong her life and offered to pay for her suicide instead. This position saved the plan money.

Stroup had a similar experience. The plan would not pay for a drug to prolong his life and ease his pain, but would pay for his suicide. He said: "This is my life they're playing with."

In both cases, the Oregon Health Plan's position was only possible because assisted suicide is legal in Oregon. With assisted suicide now at issue in Idaho, will you and your families be the next Randy Stroups? Will you be the next Barbara Wagners?

Kenneth Stevens, M.D.

Sherwood, Oregon

Link to the article: http://www.mtexpress.com/index2.php?ID=2005132145