New Mexico assisted suicide bill (HB 90) was stopped.

Alex Schadenberg
Executive Director - Euthanasia Prevention Coalition

New Mexico legislature.

I have amazing news. 

The New Mexico assisted suicide bill (HB 90) has been tabled. I assessed that HB 90 was the most extreme assisted suicide bill that I had ever seen, and even after it was amended, the language of the bill allowed for euthanasia and enabled the practise of the law to expand.

Yesterday, the Arkansas assisted suicide bill also died.

An article by Robert Nott published in the Sante Fe New Mexican stated:

Though the bill, known as the Elizabeth Whitefield End of Life Options Act, made it through two House committees this year, it was quietly tabled in the House of Representatives in late February.

On Tuesday, Armstrong wrote in an email that the bill was tabled “at my request.”

“At the time we are just a few votes shy to pass the bill,” she said.

Alexandra Snyder (lawyer) speaking on January 26.

The Euthanasia Prevention Coalition held the Stopping Assisted Suicide in Your State Training Seminar on Friday January 25 and Conference on Saturday January 26 in Albuquerque NM. 

The events featuring world-wide speakers and excellent presentations by Not Dead Yet, Choice is an Illusion and the Euthanasia Prevention Coalition.

The Stopping Assisted Suicide in Your State events were well attended by local leaders from many different groups who became focussed on how to defeat the assisted suicide bill. It is very expensive to organize these events but the results are life saving.

We have received several messages from key leaders in New Mexico, and other states asking us to organize similar events.

Thank you to all of the New Mexico citizens and leaders who testified against HB 90 and spoke to State representatives and Senators. The bill was first amended and then tabled.

Coalition building and relationships enable us to focus on defeating the bill together and the result is that we stop assisted suicide in your state.

Stopping Assisted Suicide in Your State

The Euthanasia Prevention Coalition is co-organizing a Campaign Training Session on Friday, January 25 and Conference on Saturday, January 26.

These events will be at the Ramada Plaza by Wyndham Midtown hotel in Albuquerque New Mexico. 

Book your hotel room by calling: 505-312-9842.

The Training Session on Friday, January 25 will go from 1:00 - 5:00 pm followed by a screening of the film -  Fatal Flaws at 7:00 pm with Kevin Dunn, the producer of the film.

The Conference on Saturday, January 26 will run from 9:00 am - 5:00 pm. 

* We have added an impressive International speaker. Fabian Stahle, the Swedish researcher who uncovered the definition of terminal used by the Oregon Health Authority which extends assisted suicide to non-terminal persons. 

The cost to attend the Training Session is $35. The cost to attend the Symposium is $50. The cost to attend both events is $80. 

You can also watch the Conference simulcast with access code for $30.

Register online or download the  registration form  (fillable in Adobe Acrobat).

Speakers include:

Hon Nick Goiran, Member of Parliament from Western Australia. Nick authored the minority report opposing the legalization of assisted suicide in Western Australia.

Diane Coleman, President & CEO of the disability rights group Not Dead Yet. Diane is a leading voice opposing assisted suicide for more than 25 years.

Alexandra Snyder

Amy Hasbrouck, Founder of Toujours Vivant – Not Dead Yet and the President of the Euthanasia Prevention Coalition. Amy is also a trained lawyer.

Alexandra Snyder, Executive Director of Life Legal Defense Foundation and the lead lawyer in the challenge to the California assisted suicide law.

Kevin Yuill, Professor of History at the University of Sunderland, UK. He is the author of - Assisted Suicide: The Liberal Humanist Case Against Legalization.

Dr Annette Hanson

Annette Hanson, Forensic Psychiatrist at the University of Maryland School of Medicine. Dr. Hanson co-authored the article: Twelve Myths About Assisted Suicide and Medical Aid in Dying.

Fabian Stahle is the Swedish researcher who uncovered the Oregon Health Authority change in the definition of terminal. 

 
Catherine Glenn Foster, President and CEO of AUL and a lawyer. Catherine was the founding Executive Director of EPC-USA in 2016.

Nancy Elliott

Nancy Elliott, former New Hampshire State Representative and President of EPC-USA.

Margaret Dore, lawyer and President of Choice is an Illusion.

Alex Schadenberg, Executive Director of the Euthanasia Prevention Coalition. He is an author and has done speaking tours throughout the world.

Kevin Dunn, Producer of Fatal Flaws: Legalizing Assisted Death and The Euthanasia Deception. Kevin is an award-winning filmmaker who operates DunnMedia & Entertainment.

Register online or download the registration form.

Euthanasia Prevention Coalition Symposium 2018

License to Care not Licence to Kill

Saturday October 27 - Winnipeg Manitoba (9 am - 4 pm) Central Time.
(watch the live simulcast from anywhere in the world) 

The 2018 Euthanasia Symposium features excellent speakers while providing you with the opportunity to attend the event live or to watch it remotely from anywhere in the world.

The cost to attend the event is: $50 (includes lunch) at the Best Western Winnipeg Airport Hotel or $30 (watch online live anywhere in the world) (we will send you the link).

Dr Paul Saba

Register for the Euthanasia Symposium 2018.

Keynote Speakers: Alexandra Snyder, lawyer who is fighting the California assisted suicide law and Dr Paul Saba: Québec physician - His topic is "Why I won't Kill."

Speakers include: Kevin Dunn - Co-Producer of Fatal Flaws, Amy Hasbrouck - EPC President (Toujours Vivant - Not Dead Yet), Taylor Hyatt, researcher Not Dead Yet, James Mahony - freelance journalist and former lawyer, Jen Romnes - painter and author of the books Entangled 1 & 2, and Alex Schadenberg.

Groups and individuals from anywhere in the world can organize a group Simulcast viewing. Last year more people watched the Symposium online than in person with several groups watching the Symposium online. All you need is: high speed internet, a good computer/projector and good speakers.

We are expecting more people to take advantage of this opportunity this year. 

More information is available at: info@epcc.ca or call the office: 1-877=439-3348.

Register for the Euthanasia Symposium 2018.

Your help is needed to stop assisted suicide in California.

Alex Schadenberg
Executive Director - Euthanasia Prevention Coalition

The California assisted suicide law is being successfully challenged through the courts and the outcome may depend on you.

Life Legal Defense Foundation is successfully arguing that the California assisted suicide law is unconstitutional, but they are being challenged by the assisted suicide lobby and California Attorney General (AG), Xavier Becerra. Life Legal Defense Foundation needs your financial support to prevent this case from turning into a David and Goliath story.

• Donate to the Life Legal Defense Foundation. (Donation Link).

On May 15, 2018 Judge Daniel Ottolia declared that the California assisted suicide law was unconstitutional when it enacted the assisted suicide law during a special session dedicated to health care funding. Life Legal Defense stated in their media release:

Judge Ottolia found that the End of Life Option Act “does not fall within the scope of access to healthcare services” and “is not a matter of healthcare funding.” Moreover, the court ruled that, “The legislation decriminalizing assisted suicide cannot be deemed a matter incidental to the purpose of the emergency session.”

The California AG appealed the decision to the 4th District Court of Appeal, who upheld the decision of Judge Ottolia and since the court of appeal refused to stay the decision assisted suicide was once again prohibited in California.

The California AG then went back to the 4th District Court of Appeal to request a stay of the decision and on June 15, the court of appeal granted a stay of the decision, once again permitting assisted suicide in California.

Alexandra Snyder

The most recent article, published in Valley News, explains that the fate of the California assisted suicide law will be decided by the appellate court later this summer. The Valley News article states:

Life Legal Defense Foundation Executive Director Alexandra Snyder said her organization remains dedicated to seeing the law permanently invalidated to protect “citizens from being ‘helped’ to commit suicide.” 

The foundation has underscored in literature what it describes as troubling aspects of the law, including that a “family member can initiate the request for assisted suicide ... not the person seeking suicide;” “an interested ‘witness’ – someone who will benefit financially from the person’s death – can sign off on the suicide drug request” and “any doctor or osteopath can write the prescription” without a history of interaction with the patient.

The reality is that Life Legal Defense has proven that the California assisted suicide law is unconstitutional but they are facing mammoth opponents who have infinite resources to promote assisted suicide in California. 

Life Legal Defense Foundation needs your financial support to ensure that the lives of Californians are protected from assisted suicide.

According to the assisted suicide lobby 504 people have died by assisted suicide in California since June 2016.

• Donate to the Life Legal Defense Foundation. (Donation Link).

Pushing back against euthanasia & assisted suicide.

This article was published by OneNewsNow on June 1, 2018

As more people become educated about assisted suicide, more and more of them are pushing back on the push to take other people's lives.

Alex Schadenberg

Euthanasia is legal in the Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg and Switzerland, but other European nations so far are saying no.

Alex Schadenberg of the Euthanasia Prevention Coalition tells OneNewsNow the latest country to turn thumbs down is Portugal, where lawmakers debated and defeated four euthanasia bills. One of them was narrowly defeated.

"Nonetheless, even though the vote was close," he says, "a defeat is a defeat and we're very happy with that."

The euthanasia bills cannot be voted on again until after the next national election, which will be in 2020.

Alexandra Snyder

Alexandra Snyder, executive director of Life Legal Defense Foundation, says it's important to push back on the libertarian-sounding argument that people should be free to make their own choices, including taking their own life.

"I think that that's what we have to look at and say, You know what? The state does not allow people to do whatever in the world they want to do," she suggests. "And as a matter of public policy, there are specific things that we explicitly prohibit people from doing.'"

Snyder points out that two state courts in California have declared unconstitutional a 2015 law signed by Gov. Jerry Brown that allows doctors to prescribe lethal drugs to people with only a few months to live.

"We don't allow people to commit suicide because it is so violative of their dignity," she says. "And yet here we have a case where we're trying to carve out some very vague exceptions to that public policy and that's problematic."

According to Schadenberg, Finland also recently defeated a euthanasia bill and ongoing debate in Spain has yet to produce a new law there.

All of these, he says, are "great victories" for the dignity of life.

Judge strikes down California's assisted suicide law.

Alex Schadenberg
Executive Director, Euthanasia Prevention Coalition

Judge Daniel Ottolia, of the Riverside County Superior Court, struck down California's assisted suicide law. Justice Ottolia agreed that the state legislature violated the state constitution by passing the assisted suicide law during a special session that was limited to healthcare issues.

• Judge rules that California assisted suicide law is unconstitutional.

Harris Meyer reporting for Modern Healthcare news stated:

Two groups and several physicians opposed to physician-assisted suicide for terminally ill patients had filed the suit to block the 2016 law, the California End of Life Option Act. Riverside County Superior Court Judge Daniel Ottolia issued an oral ruling saying the Legislature acted illegally in passing the law.

He gave the state attorney general five days to file an emergency petition to stay his order while the ruling is appealed.

Alexandra Snyder, with Life Legal Defense was also arguing that the assisted suicide law violates the right to equal protection under the law. Meyer reported:

...the California assisted-suicide law violates state equal protection provisions because people who are deemed terminally ill lose critical legal protections. Normally when there is a suspected suicide, authorities investigate the cause of death to see if the person was coerced, she said.

"But that doesn't happen when someone requests aid in dying," Snyder said. "Then everything is considered above board and the doctors were acting in perfect faith. That's simply not true. The law doesn't provide adequate safeguards, and it doesn't require any mental health evaluation."

It is tragic that the legal system moves so slow. This case was launched when the assisted suicide law came into effect and yet it took nearly two years to have this case heard by the court.

Judge Rules California’s Assisted Suicide Law Unconstitutional

This media release was sent out by Life Legal Defense on May 15, 2018 

• Update: California assisted suicide law is unconstitutional. Decision upheld by appeals court.

NAPA, Calif., May 15, 2018 — A California judge overturned the state’s assisted suicide law this morning, ruling that the legislature acted outside the scope of its authority when it enacted the End of Life Option Act.

The Act’s sponsors introduced the bill in a special session of the legislature convened by Governor Jerry Brown to address Medicaid funding shortfalls, services for the disabled, and in-home health support services.

Life Legal attorneys appeared in court this morning to argue that the End of Life Option Act, which decriminalizes physician-assisted suicide, is not related or even incidental to the stated purpose of the special session. Suicide is not health care.

Riverside Superior Court Judge Daniel Ottolia agreed, holding that “the End of Life Option Act does not fall within the scope of access to healthcare services,” and that it “is not a matter of health care funding.”

Life Legal filed a motion for judgment on the pleadings in March 2018, arguing that the law should be overturned because the manner in which it was passed is unconstitutional. We have argued from the outset that suicide has nothing to do with the provision of health services.

California Attorney General Xavier Becerra opposed our motion, stating that legislation passed during special sessions is presumed to be constitutional. The Attorney General also argued that Life Legal’s plaintiff physicians do not have standing to challenge the End of Life Option Act.

Alexandra Snyder

Judge Ottolia ruled that doctors do have standing to bring challenges on behalf of their patients, especially in this case, as terminally ill patients would face significant difficulties filing their own lawsuits against the Act.

“We are thrilled by today’s ruling, which reinstates critical legal protections for vulnerable patients,” said Life Legal Defense Foundation Executive Director Alexandra Snyder. “The court made it very clear that assisted suicide has nothing to do with increasing access to health care and that hijacking the special session to advance an unrelated agenda is impermissible.”

Stephanie Packer, who has been diagnosed with a terminal illness, was present at the hearing. After the End of Life Option Act was implemented, Stephanie’s insurance company denied coverage of life-saving chemotherapy treatment, but said it would pay for “aid-in-dying” drugs, which would cost $1.20.

Stephanie has spoken out against assisted suicide in California and other states, saying, “I am so grateful that California’s assisted suicide law was overturned today. The bill’s proponents tout dignity, choice, compassion, and painlessness. I am here to tell you that nothing could be further from the truth. Choice is really an illusion for a very few. For too many, assisted suicide will be the only affordable ‘treatment’ that is offered them.”

It is anticipated that Attorney General Becerra will appeal today’s ruling.

Court invalidates California assisted suicide law.

Alex Schadenberg
Executive Director, Euthanasia Prevention Coalition

Incredible News:

The California assisted suicide law was invalidated this morning by Judge Daniel Ottolia of the Riverside County Superior Court. 

Judge Ottolia agreed with the Attorneys from Life Legal Defense that the California state legislature violated the state constitution by passing the assisted suicide law during a special session that was limited to healthcare issues.

• Judge rules California assisted suicide law unconstitutional.

According to their media release  Alexandra Snyder, Executive Director of Life Legal Defense Foundation argued that:

California's assisted suicide law—the End of Life Option Act—should be declared unconstitutional because the state legislature acted outside the scope of its authority when it enacted the Act. 

In June of 2015, Governor Jerry Brown convened an extraordinary session of the legislature to address Medicaid funding shortfalls, services for the developmentally disabled, and in-home support services. While the California Constitution permits the Governor to issue proclamations to convene extraordinary legislative sessions, the Legislature is prohibited from enacting bills that are not the specific subject of the proclamation.

The California Supreme Court has held that "The duty of the Legislature in special session to confine itself to the subject matter of the call is of course mandatory. It has no power to legislate on any subject not specified in the proclamation." 

The purpose of the End of Life Option Act is to decriminalize physician-assisted suicide, which is not related or even incidental to the stated purpose of the extraordinary session. Suicide does not improve health.

Alexandra Snyder

The sponsors of the Act knew the Act would never pass through the normal legislative process, so they unlawfully exploited the extraordinary session to advance their agenda behind closed doors. Legislation allowing doctors to prescribe lethal drugs is highly controversial and opposed by many members of the state legislature, as well as disability rights groups, hospitals, physicians' groups, and the Life Legal Defense Foundation. 

"This flagrant and unlawful abuse of the legislative process cannot be permitted to stand. If the Attorney General has his way, virtually any special interest bill could be enacted by a select handful of legislators," said Life Legal Defense Foundation Executive Director Alexandra Snyder. "The California Constitution expressly prohibits such an outcome, as it violates the democratic process, which requires legislation to be approved by the full body of elected representatives."

Congratulations to Life Legal Defense who have successfully protected California citizens from being abandoned by physicians who are willing to prescribe lethal drugs to a patient at the lowest time of their life.

The Judge gave the state of California five days to appeal the ruling. This decision may go as far as the United Supreme Court.

• 111 reported assisted suicide deaths in California (2016).