New Hampshire "assisted suicide" bill appears to permit euthanasia.

Alex Schadenberg
Executive Director, Euthanasia Prevention Coalition.

New Hampshire Legislature.

The deceptive language in most assisted suicide bills allow f0r different interpretations, such as the Indiana assisted suicide bill that may permit euthanasia.

Assisted suicide is an act whereby one person, usually a physician, assists the suicide of another person, usually by writing a prescription for lethal drugs.

Euthanasia is an act whereby one person, usually a physician, intentionally causes the death of another person, to "end suffering."

New Hampshire Bill HB 1659 is designed as an application process for obtaining a lethal dose. Most assisted suicide bills state that the person must self-administer the lethal dose (assisted suicide) and some bills say that the person may self-administer the lethal dose (may can be interpreted to permit euthanasia).

In its Statement of Purpose, HB 1659 states:

...to provide such patient with a prescription for lethal medication which will allow the patient, if the patient chooses to do so, to self-administer and thus control the time, place, and manner of death.

The term "self-administer" does not appear anywhere else in bill HB 1659. 

The assisted suicide lobby will suggest that the phrase, if the patient chooses to do so means that the person may choose not to take the lethal drugs but this phrase can also mean that the patient is not required to self-administer but can administer the lethal drugs in another manner, such as euthanasia.

For more than a year, the assisted suicide lobby has focused on eliminating "safeguards" in assisted suicide legislation. 

The Washington State legislature is debating Bill 2419, a "study bill" to consider eliminating "safeguards" in assisted suicide laws.

Bill 2419 Section f - questions the requirement that lethal drugs be self-administered. If lethal drugs are not self-administered then someone else can administer. Can you say euthanasia / homicide.

New Hampshire House Bill HB 1659 uses different terminology than most assisted suicide bills and it appears to intentionally permit euthanasia.