Wisconsin bill AB216 forces doctors to participate in assisting a suicide.

Wisconsin AB216 sponsors want to put doctors out of business who will not Assist Suicide.

Nancy Elliott

By Nancy Elliott

Chair - Euthanasia Prevention Coalition - USA

Wisconsin's assisted suicide bill AB216 will implement Assisted Suicide, and it will also revoke the licenses of doctors who are unwilling to participate in causing the death of their patients. 

AB 216 Section 156.21(a) states:

failure of an attending physician to fulfill a request for medication constitutes unprofessional conduct if the attending physician refuses or fails to make a good faith attempt to transfer the requester's care and treatment to another physician who will act as attending physician under this chapter and fulfill the request for medication.

Therefore a physician could be found liable for unprofessional conduct if he/she refuses to prescribe lethal drugs or refer the patient to a willing physician. Referring your patient to another doctor, who you know will complete the death is the same as writing a prescription for that patient. Both are a dereliction of the physicians duty to do no harm.

The sponsors want to punish doctors who will not be a party to ending their patients lives and they want to force all doctors to have their hands dirty. 

Surprisingly the bill grants immunity to those who participate. In the same section it states no health care facility or health care provider may be charged with a crime, held civilly liable, or charged with unprofessional conduct for fulfilling the act and prescribing poison to end the life of their patient. The bill states that next of kin is not required to be notified, so you can find out that a family member took their life by a suicide drug prescribed by their doctor without input from family members and there is no legal recourse, not criminally nor civilly.

Not only do the sponsors harm innocent doctors and deny families input or justice, this bill takes away the choice of citizens who do not want to be treated by a doctor that kills their patients. 

As ethical doctors lose their licenses or flee the state, there will be only one type practicing. 

Wisconsin is not the first state to attempt to force doctors to refer for assisted suicide. Vermont also forced doctors to refer for assisted suicide but in May 2017, a Vermont court decision upheld physicians conscience rights.