The assisted suicide lobby opposes Oregon bill expanding the law to euthanasia.

Alex Schadenberg
Executive Director - Euthanasia Prevention Coalition

Oregon Senate

The Oregon legislature is currently debating assisted suicide bill Bill HB 2217 to expand the assisted suicide law and permit euthanasia (homicide) by redefining the term "self administer" to allow patients to take the lethal drugs into their body using any method, including an IV tube or injection. The bill states:

“Self-administer” means a qualified patient’s physical act of ingesting or delivering by another method medication to end his or her life in a humane and dignified manner.

The assisted suicide lobby, which supports euthanasia, recently came out against HB 2217 because of the complications related to IV tubes. Compassion and Choices stated in their letter to the Oregon Senate Judiciary Committee regarding HB 2217:

Allowing patients to self administer an IV is very different than allowing them to self administer medication through a feeding tube or a macy catheter. I can’t imagine that we want to risk botched deaths because we have allowed a law that would have patients administering medications through equipement they have no training to use. This is a risky proposition. The law, as written, does not protect patients from those risks. 

...Given this, we strongly oppose advancing this bill and ask the lawmakers in Oregon to please give sufficient time to draft legislation that achieves the goal of supporting patients in realizing a compassionate death.

* Oregon doctor speaks out about depressed patient who died by assisted suicide.

An article by Elizabeth Hayes published in the Oregon Business Journal on May 10, outlines how Dr Charles Blanke, an Oregon doctor who actively participates in assisted suicide plans to implement the new regulations under HB 2217. The article states:

Blanke is vetting the regimen with a team of anesthesiologists and pharmacists. He contemplates a multi-channel infusion pump that the patient would turn on by hitting a button with their hand, elbow or wrist. The drugs would be liquid, not gas.

Bioethicist, Richard Doerflinger challenged HB 2217 in his testimony to the Oregon Senate titled: Oregon HB 2217 greases the slippery slope from assisted suicide to euthanasia.

I reported in January that Kim Callinan, the CEO of Compassion and Choices, stated:

If lawmakers want to improve medical aid in dying laws, then let’s address the real problem: There are too many regulatory roadblocks already!  

Actually, the problem with assisted suicide and euthanasia laws are that they give death enthusiasts the right to kill you.