Minnesota assisted suicide bill (SF 1813/HF 1930) is lethally deceptive.

Alex Schadenberg
Executive Director, Euthanasia Prevention Coalition

The Minnesota assisted suicide companion bill (SF 1813/HF 1930), upon first reading, appears to be similar to the Oregon assisted suicide law but in fact it is more expansive than the Oregon law.

For instance, unlike Oregon, the Minnesota assisted suicide bill permits non-physicians to be the "provider" of assisted suicide. Also, the Minnesota assisted suicide bill does not have a "waiting period" therefore if passed it will permit a same day death. A person's bad day can be their last day.

The Minnesota Alliance for Ethical Healthcare point out that Minnesota's Assisted Suicide Bill doesn't require a mental health evaluation. They state:

Patients are not required to receive a psychological evaluation before the life-ending prescription is written. In some states, less than two percent of patients who die by assisted suicide receive a mental health referral.*

The Minnesota Alliance for Ethical Healthcare also point out that No witness is required at the death. They state:

The current bill has removed a previous safeguard which required two witnesses be present when the patient requests assisted suicide. Even more alarming, no witness is required when the patient takes the suicide drugs. Without supervision, patients can easily be coerced into ingesting the drug, or another person may administer the drug, leaving open the possibility for euthanasia.

Among other issues, The Minnesota Alliance for Ethical Healthcare point out that the bill does not provide conscience rights. They state:

Doctors who do not wish to provide assisted suicide face discharge or suspension if they do not refer patients to a doctor who will write the lethal prescription. Medical institutions that do not want to participate in assisted suicide are still required to refer patients to another provider.

What you need to know about the Oregon assisted suicide law

The 2022 Oregon assisted suicide report indicated that there were 278 reported assisted suicide deaths up from 255 in 2021. There were 431 lethal death prescriptions up from 383 in 2021.

The 2022 report indicates that even though there were 278 reported assisted suicide deaths, there were an additional 101 deaths where the ingestion status was unknown. When the ingestion status is unknown, the person received the lethal drugs and died but there is no information as to whether the person died by assisted suicide or by a natural death.

As with previous years, the report implies that the deaths were voluntary (self-administered), but the information in the report does not address that subject.

The assisted suicide lobby, for political reasons, the assisted suicide lobby in Minnesota has introduced a bill that is very similar to the Oregon law because their goal is to get it passed and then further expand it later.

Expansion of assisted suicide

Oregon Governor Kate Brown, in July 2019, signed Bill SB 0579 into law which essentially eliminated the 15 day assisted suicide waiting period by allowing the physician to waive the waiting period. If the patient is depressed, the patient loses the opportunity to change their mind.

The physician waived the 15 day waiting period in 109 assisted suicide deaths in 2022. In some cases the lethal drug cocktail was ingested the day after the first request.

 

The Minnesota assisted suicide bill already lacks a "waiting period."

Oregon has removed the assisted suicide residency requirement

A story published in the Daily Mail stated that an assisted suicide clinic in Oregon has started doing assisted suicide for out-of-state residents (suicide tourism). The Daily Mail reports:

Oregon has become America’s first ‘death tourism’ destination, where terminally ill people from Texas and other states that have outlawed assisted suicide have started travelling to get their hands on a deadly cocktail of drugs to end their lives, DailyMail.com can reveal.

In the liberal bastion Portland, at least one clinic has started receiving out-of-staters who have less than six months to live and meet the other strict requirements of the state’s Death with Dignity (DWD) law.

Dr. Nicholas Gideonse, the director of End of Life Choices Oregon, recently told a panel that he was advising terminally ill non-residents on travelling to Oregon to end their lives.

The assisted suicide lobby, over the past few years, has expanded existing assisted suicide laws. Oregon has eliminated their reflection period and their residency requirement. Vermont is permitting assisted suicide by telehealth and have eliminated their residency requirement, Washington state, California and Hawaii also expanded their assisted suicide laws. New Mexico has the most extreme assisted suicide law in America.

Assisted suicide drug experimentation

Assisted suicide activists have been experimenting with lethal drug cocktails on people approved for assisted suicide. An article by Lisa Krieger published by the Medical Xpress on September 8, 2020 uncovers information about the lethal drug experiments:

A little-known secret, not publicized by advocates of aid-in-dying, was that while most deaths were speedy, others were very slow. Some patients lingered for six or nine hours; a few, more than three days. No one knew why, or what needed to change.

"The public thinks that you take a pill and you're done," said Dr. Gary Pasternak, chief medical officer of Mission Hospice in San Mateo. "But it's more complicated than that."

Assisted suicide is sold to the public as offering a peaceful death. Assisted suicide is far more complicated than that.

The 2021 Oregon report emphasizes that the use of the fourth generation of lethal drug cocktails showing that the length of time to die has reduced but the problems with the lethal drug cocktail experiments continue.

The yearly Oregon reports are based on data from the physicians who prescribe and carry-out the assisted suicide deaths. The data is not independently verified. 

 

Data concerning complications and length of time for death, etc., can only be reported when a healthcare provider is present at the death. Information from Oregon concerning complications is only available for 150 of the 278 reported assisted suicide deaths in 2022. For the other 128 assisted suicide deaths, no information is known about the death.

The assisted suicide lobby claims that Oregon has a "safe" assisted suicide regime but in fact the Oregon law lacks effective oversight.

Once assisted suicide is legal, the assisted suicide lobby will lobby or launch court cases to expand the law. The original assisted suicide bill is designed to pass in the legislature, once passed incremental extensions will follow.