Executive Director
Euthanasia Prevention Coalition
Colorado Governor Gary Polis signed Senate Bill 24-068 on June 5 to expand their State assisted suicide law.
Euthanasia Prevention Coalition
Colorado Governor Gary Polis signed Senate Bill 24-068 on June 5 to expand their State assisted suicide law.
Nearly every state that has legalized assisted suicide has expanded their law.
Senate Bill 24-068 expanded the Colorado assisted suicide law by:
Senate Bill 24-068 expanded the Colorado assisted suicide law by:
- allowing advanced practice registered nurses to approve and prescribe lethal poison,
- reducing the waiting period from 15 days to 7 days,
- allowing the doctor or advanced practise registered nurse to waive the waiting period if the person is near to death,
- Adding language specifying that if any end-of-life options conflict with requirements to receive federal money, the conflicting part is inoperative and the remainder of the law will continue to operate.
- Denying or altering health-care or life insurance benefits otherwise available to a covered individual with a terminal illness based on the availability of medical aid-in-dying; or
- Attempting to coerce an individual with a terminal illness to make a request for medical aid-in-dying medication.
The original version of SB 24-068 would have reduced the waiting period to 48 hours and removed the residency requirement for assisted suicide in Colorado.
Most of the states are expanding their assisted suicide laws to allow advanced practise registered nurses to participate because very few doctors participate in assisted suicide.
Nearly every state that has legalized assisted suicide has expanded their laws.
In 2019 Oregon expanded their assisted suicide law by giving doctors the ability to waive the 15 day waiting period when a person was deemed near to death. In 2023 Oregon removed the residency requirement extending assisted suicide nationally to anyone.
In 2021 California expanded their assisted suicide law by reducing the waiting period from 15 days to 48 hours, it forced doctors who oppose assisted suicide to be complicit in the process (later struck down by the court) and it forced all medical institutions to post their policy on assisted suicide.
In 2022 Vermont expanded their assisted suicide law by removing the 48 hour waiting period, (allowing a same day death), removing the requirement that an examination be done in person, (allowing approvals by telehealth), and it extended legal immunity to anyone who participates in the act.
In 2023 Vermont expanded their assisted suicide law by removing the residency requirement expanding assisted suicide nationally by allowing anyone to die by assisted suicide in Vermont.
In 2023 Washington State expanded their assisted suicide law by allowing advanced practice registered nurses to approve and prescribe lethal poison, by reducing the waiting period to 7 days and to force healthcare institutions and hospices to post their assisted suicide policies.
In 2023 Hawaii expanded their assisted suicide law by reducing the waiting period from 20 days to 5 days, by allowing the waiting period to be waived if the person is near to death and by allowing advanced practice registered nurses to approve and prescribe lethal poison.
There is currently a lawsuit by the assisted suicide lobby challenging the New Jersey state residency requirement for assisted suicide.
The goal of the assisted suicide lobby is to legalize assisted suicide in more states and to expand the scope of the assisted suicide laws in the states that have legalized assisted suicide.
It must be noted that the American Clinicians Academy on Medical Aid in Dying have determined that when a person, who does not otherwise qualify for assisted suicide, decides to stop eating and drinking, that they will immediately qualify for assisted suicide based on becoming terminally ill.
7 comments:
We are the masters of our fates. We are the captains of our souls. Good on Colorado for standing up for individual autonomy.
Ultimately living is a right, not an obligation. Thank goodness Canada isn't a theocracy and you're not in charge of legislation.
What makes Christianity so uniquely vile is its celebration of suffering. This is why Christians like Mother Teresa intentionally let her patients suffer because she believed it brought them 'closer' to Jesus. It's not enough for the Christian to wear their crown of thorns and nail themselves to a cross. Everybody else must be conscripted into it.
dougsned; we were born without consent;mostly our body functions eithout our conscious direction; only our own voluntary acts are subject to our minimal control. Besides, I suspect you think of humans as bundles of accidentally congregated atoms
So in what sense are we ' masters of our fate'?
Response to the anti-Christian comment of dougsned:
We are the masters of our fates. We are the captains of our souls. Good on Colorado for standing up for individual autonomy.
Response: Bad for people with disabilities who will be offered suicide instead of more costly medical care. This is great for the financial standing of government welfare programs, insurance companies, and heirs.
Ultimately living is a right, not an obligation. Thank goodness Canada isn't a theocracy and you're not in charge of legislation.
Response: You do not need to be a member of a religious group to recognize the value of human life. If living is a right, why are so many disabled, elderly, and sick people being talked into killing themselves in places where assisted suicide is legal?
What makes Christianity so uniquely vile is its celebration of suffering. This is why Christians like Mother Teresa intentionally let her patients suffer because she believed it brought them 'closer' to Jesus. It's not enough for the Christian to wear their crown of thorns and nail themselves to a cross. Everybody else must be conscripted into it.
Response: Your understanding of the Christian concept of suffering is absurdly distorted. I don't know if that is because of ignorance or if it is intentional. Over the past 20 centuries, Christian hospitals, orphanages, schools, and other facilities to relieve suffering have had no equal. Read the histories of Christian charities. Please.
Because we can control the timing of our deaths and how we die. Living isn't an obligation and people have bodily autonomy.
The notion that assisted suicide is a plot to save money on healthcare is absolute nonsense not backed up by evidence. Several studies and data show that fiscally conservative jurisdictions lower rates of assisted suicide or euthanasia (whichever is legal). Demographic data also shows that most of those who avail themselves of the option are much more likely to be better off financially and socioeconomically than the average.
The cases where disabled individuals are being 'told to kill themselves' where assisted suicide is legal all occured less than a handful of times in Canada, and were all linked back to a single case worker who was dismissed and is facing legal investigation by the RCMP. Can you provide proofs that this is occurring in the Benelux, Switzerland, the US states where AS is legal, Italy, Germany, Spain, Austria, Portugal, Australia and NZ? All of those jurisdictions have permitted assisted suicide or euthanasia.
I am a deafblind person and the idea of England permitting euthanasia scares me. I am even considering voting Tory if they aren’t going to legalise assisted suicide too. I am not Christian. I just like having enough money to live on and access to pain relief when necessary which isn’t always the case. Not by Christians but those promoting euthanasia so they can show suffering and promote the killing of others
A lot of people who oppose euthanasia and assisted suicide are people just like you. As for voting, I would never tell you what to do, but elections have consequences.
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