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| Cathy Ludlum |
Dear Members of the Public Health Committee,
With all due respect, and on behalf of our members at Second Thoughts Connecticut, we are writing to express our outrage that yet another bill to legalize assisted suicide is being raised this year.
Similar bills were raised in 2013, 2014, and 2015. Each one resulted in a grueling 12-15 hour hearing, putting great stress on legislators, the public, and especially on disabled people like ourselves, many of whom find it hard to travel and stay out for hours at a time.
Not only were these bills pulled each year before the JF deadline, but each time they were pulled earlier in the process, indicating that whatever support the concept may have had in 2013 had eroded.
This is not surprising. Initially, people often think that assisting someone to die is the compassionate course. Once they read the bill, consider its implementation, and understand the discrimination it entails, support drops. They have second thoughts.
It’s bad enough to have to go through this ordeal all over again. We were shocked to see that HB 5417 (An Act Concerning End-Of-Life Care) is exactly identical to HB 7015, which was heard in 2015. The only things that have been changed are the title and the effective date. All of the testimony opposing the 2015 bill is still relevant. If there are no new ideas, and none of our previous concerns have been addressed, why would the outcome be any different?
Furthermore, this bill deals with life and death. It was not taken seriously enough to draft a new bill, or even remove the reference in Section 18 to the Office of Protection and Advocacy for Persons with Disabilities, which no longer exists. How much thought was put into the impact this legislation would have on our well-being?
We urge you to withdraw HB 5417. There is nothing new here, and this concept has failed to pass a single committee in three consecutive years. In baseball, after you strike out three times, you sit down for a while.
Thank you.
Cathy Ludlum and Stephen Mendelsohn
Second Thoughts Connecticut
Website: https://sites.google.com/site/secondthoughtsconnecticut/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/SecondThoughtsConnecticut/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/2ndThoughtsCT
With all due respect, and on behalf of our members at Second Thoughts Connecticut, we are writing to express our outrage that yet another bill to legalize assisted suicide is being raised this year.
Similar bills were raised in 2013, 2014, and 2015. Each one resulted in a grueling 12-15 hour hearing, putting great stress on legislators, the public, and especially on disabled people like ourselves, many of whom find it hard to travel and stay out for hours at a time.
Not only were these bills pulled each year before the JF deadline, but each time they were pulled earlier in the process, indicating that whatever support the concept may have had in 2013 had eroded.
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| Stephen Mendolsohn |
It’s bad enough to have to go through this ordeal all over again. We were shocked to see that HB 5417 (An Act Concerning End-Of-Life Care) is exactly identical to HB 7015, which was heard in 2015. The only things that have been changed are the title and the effective date. All of the testimony opposing the 2015 bill is still relevant. If there are no new ideas, and none of our previous concerns have been addressed, why would the outcome be any different?
Furthermore, this bill deals with life and death. It was not taken seriously enough to draft a new bill, or even remove the reference in Section 18 to the Office of Protection and Advocacy for Persons with Disabilities, which no longer exists. How much thought was put into the impact this legislation would have on our well-being?
We urge you to withdraw HB 5417. There is nothing new here, and this concept has failed to pass a single committee in three consecutive years. In baseball, after you strike out three times, you sit down for a while.
Thank you.
Cathy Ludlum and Stephen Mendelsohn
Second Thoughts Connecticut
Website: https://sites.google.com/site/secondthoughtsconnecticut/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/SecondThoughtsConnecticut/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/2ndThoughtsCT
2 comments:
I work in palliative care and I commend the men and women who chose to die at home naturally, of course with pain medication. No one has the right to take anyone's life or decide how long that person has to live. No one has the right to play God. God gives life and takes life when it is your time. As far as I'm concerned assisted suicide is assisting to murder. and if anyone decides to pull the pug and have this person euthanized against their decision, this is murder.
People with evil ideas ALWAYS come back year after year after year until they get what they want. It would be best if a bill that is defeated would also be limited as to how many times it or a similar bill can be re-introduced. This practice of introducing the same bill/idea for years is behind a lot of really seriously bad government policy and needs to stop!
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