The assisted suicide lobby wants to eliminate "safeguards."

Alex Schadenberg
Executive Director - Euthanasia Prevention Coalition

New Mexico's assisted suicide Bill HB 90, is the most extreme assisted suicide bill that I have ever seen. 

After reading HB 90 I asked the question: Is the assisted suicide lobby behind HB 90 or is the author of the bill, Deborah Armstrong (Dem) more radical than the rest of the suicide lobby?

I didn't have to wait long for the answer.

In her article: End-of-Life option laws should avoid needless red tape, Kim Callinan, the CEO of Compassion & Choices, (formerly known as the Hemlock society) argues that assisted suicide laws require fewer regulations. Callinan writes:

If lawmakers want to improve medical aid in dying laws, then let’s address the real problem: There are too many regulatory roadblocks already! I am not suggesting changing the eligibility requirements, as our opposition will suggest. I am merely suggesting that we drop some of the regulations that put unnecessary roadblocks in place.

Callinan continues her article by arguing that waiting periods for assisted suicide should be eliminated and she claims that there have been no problems with assisted suicide laws.

Now I know why New Mexico's assisted suicide bill is the most extreme bill that I have ever seen. HB 90:

1. Allows nurses and physician assistants to participate in assisted suicide by defining "health care provider" to include: a licensed physician, a licensed osteopathic physician, a licensed nurse, and a licensed physician assistant. 
2. Does not require the person to "self administer." The bill states "may self-administer" meaning that euthanasia is possible.
3. Reduces waiting period to 48 hours to receive the lethal drugs.
4. Allows people with mental health disorders to die by assisted suicide by enabling licensed psychiatrist, psychologist, master social worker, psychiatric nurse practitioner or professional clinical mental health counselor to approve assisted suicide for people with mental health disorders.
5. Does not require a second assessor unless the person has a mental health disorder or intellectual disability. 
6. Allows the "health care provider" to approve death via "telemedicine."
7. Replaces a the normal 6 month terminal diagnosis with the undefined term: "foreseeable future." What does it mean that a terminal illness may cause death in the foreseeable future?
8. Requires health care providers to falsify the death certificate.
9. Removes conscience rights for health care providers who object to assisted suicide by requiring them to refer patients to a health care provider who is willing to prescribe assisted suicide.
10. Basis decisions on a "good faith compliance."  It is impossible to prove that someone who participated in the act did not do so in "good faith."

Years ago I stated that the assisted suicide lobby would expand the parameters for prescribing lethal drugs in the future. Callinan is saying, in her article, that she believes that the future is now.

Help us prove Callinan wrong. The Euthanasia Prevention Coalition has organized the Stopping Assisted Suicide in Your State  Conference (January 26) and campaign training session (January 25) in Albuquerque New Mexico. (Information link).

You can watch the Saturday conference via the internet for $30. Contact us at: info@epcc.ca or call us at: 1-877-439-3348.