Educating people on assisted suicide changes minds

The following article was published by OneNewsNow after an interview with Alex Schadenberg, the International Chair of the Euthanasia Prevention Coalition.

Charlie Butts  (OneNewsNow.com)
Saturday, January 12, 2013
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A group is questioning the results of a new poll that claim 55 percent of Americans support assisted suicide.

Alex Schadenberg of the Euthanasia Prevention Coalition (EPC) says the National Public Radio survey does not explain whether the respondents truly support it, or if they are expressing personal concerns of experiencing an uncomfortable death. He contends it is a matter of educating the public -- and once that is done, he says, the majority opposes assisted suicide.

For example, polls in Massachusetts last year showed voters favoring the legalization of doctor-assisted suicide before the education campaign began.

"On November 6, the people of Massachusetts defeated the assisted suicide plebiscite by 51 percent to 49 percent, saying that they were not going to support assisted suicide," Schadenberg notes. 

"Now what's important about this is that Massachusetts was chosen by the assisted suicide lobby groups as the state to run this plebiscite in because it was the most likely state to pass such a thing."

Meanwhile, he tells OneNewsNow there are serious problems with end-of-life care, specifically when it comes to dealing with pain.

"When we have the technology and the proper medications in place to keep you comfortable -- that they are not being used is a problem. But the answer to this problem is not killing people," he remarks. "It's providing proper care for people."

The EPC spokesman further warns that assisted suicide provides the vehicle for a second party to cause one's death, which creates a multitude of difficulties. The primary instances of these difficulties have surfaced in Europe, where assisted suicide has long been a practice and has now evolved into allowing people who suffer from depression, for example, to make the decision to end their own lives.

Belgium is even considering permitting young people to qualify for lethal drugs if they do not want to live or are suffering from a disability.

Link to the article: Do Americans want to legalize assisted suicide? that is written by Alex Schadenberg.