Compassionate homicide deaths are usually not compassionate.

Alex Schadenberg
Executive Director, Euthanasia Prevention Coalition

Kenzie Beach with Fox News Atlanta published an article on July 8, 2024 about the murder of Brenda Gelleny (65) by her husand Michael Gelleny. Michael Gelleny claimed that it was a "mercy Killing" that he killed his wife to end her pain and suffering. My concern is that the article uses this murder to promote the legalization of assisted suicide.

According to the Fox News report:

Michael Gelleny, 67, called the police on himself telling them he shot his wife Brenda, 65, in the back of the head on July 6 in Goodyear.

He reportedly told police the morning that he killed her, that he kissed her and told her he loved her before getting the gun in the other room and pulling the trigger.

Gelleny reportedly thought about taking his own life, but instead turned himself in. Police paperwork states his reasoning was to make it as quick as possible and put an end to her four years of pain and suffering.

Gelleny is accused of first-degree murder and tampering with evidence.

It appears by the article that Gelleny originally planned for the death to be a murder-suicide. Another news article stated that Gelleny had been planning the death for a couple of weeks.

The media sometimes jumps to supporting the compassionate homicide defense when in fact these murders are rarely compassionate. Donna Cohen, a suicide researcher, and others prove that murder / suicide is rarely related to "compassionate" homicide.

Cohan stated the following in a Minnesota Tribune article from March 2009:

When people read reports of a murder-suicide they will often ask the question, was this an Act of love, or desperation? Cohen who has researched this question tries to find answers. 

She stated in the article:

That notion is common in murder-suicides, said Cohen, who has testified before Congress, written extensively and helped train families and physicians. She is a professor of aging and mental health at the University of South Florida and heads its Violence and Injury Prevention Program. 

"If they were consulted, families usually would try to stop it,'' she said. "In fact, murder-suicide almost always is not an act of love. It's an act of desperation."

Cohen also recognizes that murder-suicide does not equate with assisted suicide. Cohen stated:

Some people equate murder-suicide with assisted suicide and the right to control when you will die, Cohen said. "It usually is not the same. This is suicide and murder.''

Future reports may or may not uncover further reasons for his action but Cohen's research is clear. These cases are usually an act of murder, not a compassionate homicide.

Further to that the Fox News report stated:

In 2013, 86-year-old George Sanders shot and killed his wife Ginger. He was charged with first-degree murder after his wife allegedly begged him to kill her.

He got two years probation.

By claiming that the murder was based on compassion he may be more likely to get a lesser sentence. 

Even if his wife, Brenda, was experiencing a difficult health condition, she deserved a proper treatment, care and support, not death. The law should also recognize the vulnerability of the spouse in these cases.

Arizona assisted suicide House Bill 2254

Alex Schadenberg
Executive Director, Euthanasia Prevention Coalition

Arizona State Legislature

Assisted suicide bills have been introduced in Arizona every year since 2016. In 2021, HB 2254 was introduced by Representative Powers Hanley (D) who also sponsored assisted suicide bills in 2018, 2019 and 2020.

HB 2254 is similar to the original Oregon assisted suicide law.

Several states that legalized assisted suicide, such as Oregon, Washington State and Hawaii, are now expanding their assisted suicide laws. If HB 2254 passes the assisted suicide lobby will move to expand it in future years.

Links to important articles:

• Assisted suicide bills are not what they appear to be (Link).
  
• 12 myths about assisted suicide and Medical Aid in Dying (Link).
• Oregon 2019 assisted suicide report (Link).
• Washington State debates expansion of assisted suicide law (Link).
  

Assisted suicide bills are not what they appear to be.

Alex Schadenberg
Executive Director, Euthanasia Prevention Coalition

The assisted suicide lobby has introduced assisted suicide bills in at least 18 States in 2020. All of these bills include "safeguards" that appear to provide oversight of the law.

Recently I published an article explaining how the "safeguards" are written with loosely defined language to permit the laws to be redefined over time. I also explained that the "safeguards" are designed to convince legislators to legalize assisted suicide, while the assisted suicide lobby intends to remove them overtime. 

For instance, the Hawaii legislature passed an assisted suicide bill in 2018 that came into effect on Jan 1, 2019. There were 27 assisted suicide deaths in 2019.

The assisted suicide lobby is proposing to expand the assisted suicide law after only one year. The Hawaii legislature is debating bills SB 2582 and HB 2451 to expand the assisted suicide law by:

• permitting nurses to prescribe the lethal drugs,
• shortening the waiting period in general, and 
• waiving the waiting period when someone is "nearing death."

The Hawaii legislature also debated bill SB 3047 that would have allowed:

• assisted suicide for incompetent people who requested death in an advanced directive,
• physicians to waive the counseling requirement, 
• assisted suicide to be approved by "telehealth" and 
• require insurance companies to pay for assisted suicide.

Its hard to believe that the assisted suicide lobby wants death by "Telehealth."

The Washington State legislature is debating Bill 2419, a bill to study the "safeguards" in their assisted suicide law. One of the issues to be studied is allowing euthanasia (lethal injection) rather than limiting it to assisted suicide.

Last year the Oregon legislature expanded their assisted suicide law by waiving the 15 day waiting period.

Assisted suicide may not be a peaceful death.

The assisted suicide lobby has been using experimental lethal drug cocktails as they attempt to find a cheaper way to kill. The current assisted suicide drug cocktails have caused painful deaths that may take many hours to die. A recent article stated:

The (first drug mix) turned out to be too harsh, burning patients’ mouths and throats, causing some to scream in pain. The second drug mix, used 67 times, has led to deaths that stretched out hours in some patients — and up to 31 hours in one case.

The assisted suicide lobby is working on their third experimental lethal cocktail. Assisted suicide is not guaranteed to cause a "peaceful or painless death."

Our greatest concern is the New York assisted suicide bill. Governor Cuomo stated that he will sign an assisted suicide bill into law.

New York Assembly Bill A2694 and Senate Bill S3947 where introduced as the Medical Aid in Dying Act.

As Margaret Dore, the President of Choice is an Illusion stated in her article: New York: Reject Medical Aid in Dying Act:

“Aid in Dying” is a euphemism for euthanasia.[3] The Act, however, purports to prohibit euthanasia. On close examination, this prohibition will be unenforceable.

If enacted, the Act will apply to people with years or decades to live. It will also facilitate financial exploitation, especially in the inheritance context. Don’t render yourself or someone you care about a sitting duck to heirs and other predators. I urge you to reject the proposed Act.

Assisted suicide is an act whereby one person (usually a physician) provides a prescription for a lethal drug cocktail knowing that the other person intends to use it for suicide.

Euthanasia is an act whereby one person (usually a physician) lethally injects another person, usually after a request.

Several of the assisted suicide bills have language that can be interpreted to permit euthanasia.

Assisted suicide bills are usually designed as an application process for obtaining a lethal dose.

For instance the Maryland assisted suicide bill HB 0643 may permit euthanasia (homicide) because it doesn't require the person to self-administer. The Maryland bill doesn't protect the conscience rights of medical professionals either.

The Massachusetts assisted suicide bill can also be interpreted to permit euthanasia.

The New Hampshire assisted suicide bill gives physicians the right to write a lethal prescription but the term self ingest is not found in the main text of the bill. Only within the life insurance section is there a statement that may be construed as limiting the act to assisted suicide where it states:

Neither shall a qualified patient’s act of ingesting medication to end such patient’s life in a humane and dignified manner have an effect upon a life, health, or accident insurance or annuity policy.

Even this statement does not refer to self-ingestion.

The New Hampshire bill permits euthanasia by giving a physician the right in law to write a lethal drug prescription, but it does not limit how the lethal drugs can be used.

New Hampshire assisted suicide bill will create a perfect crime (Link).

Assisted suicide bills are intentionally written in a deceptive manner, so that if legalized, the legislation can be interpreted in a wider manner. Further to that, the assisted suicide lobby has no intention of maintaining the "safeguards" in the bills. These "safeguards" are simply mean't to sell assisted suicide to the legislators.

Hawaii is debating the expansion of its assisted suicide law only one year after it came into effect, and Washington State is examining all of the safeguards, while Oregon expanded its assisted suicide law last year.

Clearly assisted suicide bills are not what they appear to be.

Nurse charged with murder in friends death in California.

Alex Schadenberg
Executive Director, Euthanasia Prevention Coalition

Kristie Koepplin

An Arizona nurse has pleaded not guilty of murder, in a California court, based on her allegedly injecting her friend with assisted suicide drugs.

According to an article by Kim Bellware published in the Washington Post:

Kristie Jane Koepplin, 58, of Peoria, Ariz., pleaded not guilty in an Orange County, Calif., court Monday, two weeks after she was arrested in Arizona and extradited to face a felony murder charge in the death of 57-year-old Matthew Peter Sokalski. Koepplin was released from custody Monday after posting $1 million bail but can’t leave California or practice nursing as conditions of her release, according to Kimberly Edds, a spokeswoman for the Orange County District Attorney’s Office. 

In a brief statement Monday, Orange County District Attorney Todd Spitzer alleged that Koepplin helped Sokalski die in April 2018 by injecting him with drugs. The Orange County Sheriff’s Department opened an investigation into Sokalski’s death after his body was discovered by staff at a hotel in Mission Viejo, Calif.

Information is not clear in this case but the lawyer for Koepplin claims that she wasn't even at the death. The Orange County Prosecution office stated:

“We only file cases if we can prove the facts beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law.”

It is interesting that Spitzer told the Washington Post that:

It is beyond disturbing that someone who is trained as a nurse to aid the sick and the dying would twist their duty to willingly end the life of another human being.”

Assisted suicide is legal in California but this case does not fit the criteria of the assisted suicide law.

Ohio Governor signs bill making assisted suicide a felony.

Alex Schadenberg
Executive Director - Euthanasia Prevention Coalition

Ohio Governor Kasich

Great news: Yesterday, Ohio Governor Kasich signed Bill HB 470 making Ohio the fifth state in the past few years to strengthen protections in law from assisted suicide, a bill that makes assisted suicide a felony.

EPC-USA was very pleased with the outcome of the bill, even though our advisory role was small.

The Ohio Senate passed HB 470, nearly unanimously, on Thursday December 8. HB 470 passed in the Ohio House last May by a vote of 92 - 5.

Jeremy Pelzer, reported for Cleveland.com  on November 7 before the vote:

House Bill 470 ... would make knowingly assisting in a suicide a third-degree felony in Ohio, punishable by up to five years in prison. 

Currently, Ohio law only permits a court to issue an injunction against anyone helping other people to kill themselves. 

If the Senate passes the bill on Thursday - expected to be the last day of the legislative session - it would head to Gov. John Kasich for his signature. The measure passed the Ohio House 92-5 last May. 

State Sen. Bill Seitz, the Cincinnati Republican who authored HB 470, said the legislation mirrors Michigan's 1998 ban on assisted suicide, which was passed in response to Dr. Jack Kevorkian's well-publicized campaign.

In the past few years Georgia, Idaho, Louisiana, and Arizona have passed bills to strengthen protection from assisted suicide.

Assisted Suicide bills are being defeated in America

By Alex Schadenberg
Executive Director - Euthanasia Prevention Coalition

In 2016, assisted suicide bills initiatives have already been defeated in Arizona, Colorado, Hawaii, Iowa, Maryland, Nebraska, New Jersey and Utah. There have been several groups that have been effectively working to defeat these bills, including state groups opposing assisted suicide, medical associations, local and national disability rights groups including Not Dead Yet and DREDF and groups such as the Patients Rights Action Fund. 

Many caring people gave testimony before State legislative committees concerning the dangers of legalizing assisted suicide.

According to the Patients Rights Action Fund:

• The Arizona assisted suicide bill was defeated in the Senate's Health and Human Services Committee.
• The Colorado assisted suicide bill failed in the Senate Committee and the Colorado Assembly didn't take up the bill because it lacked support. Also the Colorado Title Board decided not to advance a ballot measure that to legalize euthanasia and assisted suicide.
• The Hawaii assisted suicide bill was not heard by the Senate committee.
• The Iowa assisted suicide bill was stopped in the Senate sub-committee.
• The Maryland assisted suicide bill was withdrawn after the sponsor recognized that the bill was going to be defeated.
• The Nebraska assisted suicide bill was defeated after a tie vote in Committee.
• The New Jersey assisted suicide bill was withdrawn when the sponsor realized that the bill did not have enough support.
• The Utah assisted suicide bill was sent back to the rules committee.

The assisted suicide bills in New York and the District of Columbia are the remaining threats.

The California legislator passed the assisted suicide bill by subverting the legislative process in a 'Special Extraordinary Session.' Since the Extraordinary Session has not closed, therefore the California assisted suicide bill is not in effect. Further to that, based on California law, the assisted suicide law will go into effect 90 days after the closing of the Extraordinary Session. Therefore assisted suicide is not currently legal in California.

Alabama bill would clarify protections in law from assisted suicide.

By Alex Schadenberg
International Chair - Euthanasia Prevention Coalition

In 2015, 26 US states are debating bills to legalize assisted suicide.

Nearly every US state have laws that specifically protect people from assisted suicide. A few states do not have specific statutes protecting people from assisted suicide, but rather prohibit assisted suicide based on common law.

In Alabama, Rep Arnold Mooney is planning to introduce a bill to clarify protections in law from assisted suicide. The Alabama media reported that:

The Assisted Suicide Ban Act would prohibit a physician or other health care provider to help a person die by prescribing a drug or by other means, he said. 

Assisted suicide is prohibited under Alabama common law due to prior court decisions on the issue. Forty-three states have laws on the books prohibiting physician-assisted suicide.

Rep Mooney stated:

"The state has an interest in protecting vulnerable groups, including the impoverished, the elderly, and disabled persons from abuse, neglect and mistakes," 

"A ban on assisted suicide reflects and reinforces our belief that the lives of those in vulnerable groups are no less valued than the lives of the young and healthy."

In the past few years, Georgia and Arizona passed bills to clarify protections in law from assisted suicide.

America's Dr Death loses medical license.

By Alex Schadenberg
International Chair - Euthanasia Prevention Coalition

Lawrence Egbert

Lawrence Egbert, a leader of the Final Exit Network, has lost his medical license in Maryland.

After a two year review, the Maryland Board of Physicians revoked his medical license after deciding that Egbert's actions were unethical and illegal. Egbert has said that he plans to appeal.

An article in the Baltimore Sun stated:

A Baltimore anesthesiologist who made national news as "The New Doctor Death" held six elderly Marylanders' hands as they asphyxiated themselves with helium and covered up the suicides after they died, according to a state order filed this month stripping him of his medical license. 

Notice that Egbert held their hands to ensure that they couldn't remove the asphyxiation bag. He should have been charged with homicide, not assisted suicide. The article continued:

The suicides are among nearly 300 Lawrence D. Egbert said he helped arrange across the country as an "exit guide" for right-to-die group Final Exit Network. He and several colleagues were arrested in 2009 amid an undercover investigation in Georgia, but he avoided any punishment there or in another case in Arizona. He awaits trial for assisting in a suicide in Minnesota.

Stephen Drake

Stephen Drake, an expert on the Final Exit Network and the research analyst for the disability rights group Not Dead Yet told the Baltimore Sun:

"Revocation of his medical license is a good thing and long overdue,"

Egbert was first charged by the Maryland board with unprofessional conduct in 2012. The Maryland Board were tipped off by a Baltimore Sun article in which he said he had assisted in a handful of suicides in Maryland as medical director of the Final Exit Network. Newsweek dubbed him "The New Doctor Death" in 2011 after he was criminally charged for assisting in suicides in Georgia and Arizona.

According to the Baltimore Sun, Egbert's, the Maryland Board of Physicians based their decision on the following reasons:

Capital Punishment, Assisted Suicide and Euthanasia.

This article was written by Wesley Smith and published on his blog on July 24 under the title: Another Cruel and Unusual Death with Dignity.

By Wesley Smith

The drugs that are used in lethal injection executions are also used in assisted suicide/euthanasia.

Yet, we are told with regard to the former lethal use, that they cause pain and suffering–but with the latter use, it is peaceful, calm “death with dignity.”

Another execution using lethal injection has gone wrong. From the FNN story:

A so-called botched execution in Arizona is reigniting the debate over the death penalty and how lethal injections are administered. Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer ordered a review of the state’s execution process after a convicted double murderer gasped and snorted for more than an hour and a half before his death Wednesday.

Studies have shown that euthanasia and assisted suicide killings can also take much time and cause adverse side effects – other than death, I mean–such as vomiting and seizures.

But that fact interferes with the death with dignity narrative, while promoting these problems furthers the cruel and unusual punishment meme.

Which is why I calls stories like this, “cruel and unusual death with dignity.”

Arizona assisted suicide law tightened.

Arizona state capital building

The Arizona Daily Star has reported that:

The Arizona House has given final approval to a bill that aims to make it easier to prosecute people who help someone commit suicide. 

Republican Rep. Justin Pierce of Mesa says his bill will make it easier for attorneys to prosecute people for manslaughter for assisting in suicide by more clearly defining what it means to "assist." 

House Bill 2565 defines assisting in suicide as providing the physical means used to commit suicide, such as a gun. The bill originally also defined assisted suicide as "offering" the means to commit suicide, but a Senate amendment omitted that word. 

The proposal was prompted by a difficult prosecution stemming from a 2007 assisted suicide in Maricopa County. 

The House approved the bill 35-19 Wednesday. It will now go to the governor's desk.

This bill was a response to an assisted suicide organizations involvement in a 2007 assisted suicide death.

Arizona House passes bill for prosecuting assisted suicide.

By Alex Schadenberg

Executive Director/International Chair - Euthanasia Prevention Coalition

The Associated Press has reported that an Arizona bill designed to make it easier to prosecute cases of assisted suicide passed on the Arizona House on Tuesday. The article stated:

Republican Rep. Justin Pierce of Mesa says his bill will make it easier for attorneys to prosecute people for manslaughter for assisting in suicide by more clearly defining what it means to "assist." 

House Bill 2565 defines assisting in suicide as offering and providing the physical means used to commit suicide, such as a gun. Current state statute does not clearly define what it means to "assist." 

The proposal was prompted by a difficult prosecution stemming from a 2007 assisted suicide in Maricopa County. 

The House approved the bill by a 41-18. It will now move to the Senate.

American woman extradited after pleading guilty to assisted suicide in Alberta.

By Alex Schadenberg, Executive Director - Euthanasia Prevention Coalition

Linda McNall (53), an American woman who pled guilty in the assisted suicide death of her mother, Shirley Vann, has been released from jail and is being extradited to Arizona in the United States.

Judge Charles Gardner decided, in the Alberta court that McNall needed medical treatment not jail time. He stated:

“I take some comfort that your condition is improving,” 

“I hope you will receive some ongoing treatment and comfort ... and that you eventually find worth and value in your life.”

Canadian border security will be handing McNall over to an American crisis management team in Arizona today.

A CBC news article reported that:

During the 1990s, McNall contracted Hepatitis C on the job as a nurse, which resulted in social security disability. She has arthritis, is diabetic and has been diagnosed with bipolar disorder. 

Her mother also suffered from various health issues, and had intestine removed to battle colon cancer. 

While an autopsy didn’t find active cancer, McNall said her mother was in constant pain and had talked of suicide for about a year. After failed attempts to talk her mother out of it, McNall said she came to believe there was no alternative. 

They sold all their belongings in Arizona, wrote letters to creditors, and drove to Canada. 

“We ended up in Canada because we thought it was the most beautiful place on earth,” McNall told CBC. “We came up here for about three weeks’ vacation … Both of us happy; neither one of us with second thoughts.” 

Now she’s trying to assure those around her that she’s determined to move ahead with her life. 

“I’m going to do everything I can. I want to try real hard to make my mom proud.”

I hope that Linda McNall finds the medical help that she needs in Arizona. This case was about a person who needs professional help.

Links to other articles on this story.
● Woman pleads guilty to assisted suicide in Alberta.
● Assisted suicide charge in Hinton Alberta.

Arizona man given nine year sentence for assisted suicide.

Tyler Gunn

The Arizona Daily Star reported that Tyler Gunn was sentenced to nine years in prison after pleading guilty to manslaughter for the January 2013 assisted suicide death of Katherine Lemberg, a friend whom Gunn aided her suicide.

The Daily Star article by Patrick McNamara stated:

Gunn, 48, told police he helped Lemberg kill herself after weeks of discussions. Lemberg had a history of depression.

Police arrested him after Gunn’s parents found him asleep on the floor in their home with Lemberg’s body lying on the bed. Court records show Gunn helped Lemberg kill herself in Redington Pass, then drove her body to his parents’ home.

Lemberg’s sister, also Gunn’s sister-in-law, Christine Gunn, said at sentencing that Tyler Gunn showed no regard for human life.

“I will never understand how someone can do something so vile,” she said.

Lemberg’s former husband and parents also spoke at the hearing. She left behind two children.

Tyler Gunn apologized to the family for the killing.

“It was wrong. It was wrong, and I deserve the consequences that are coming my way,” he said.

Pima County Superior Court Judge Paul Tang said the defendant’s cooperation with police , his remorse and no attempts at flight stood as small mitigating factors in his sentencing decision.

Still, Tang excoriated Tyler Gunn for the killing, saying assisted suicide was wrong and rightfully illegal in Arizona.

“Often times a victim’s cry for self-harm or self-destruction is just a cry for help,” Tang said.

Tyler Gunn also must pay $4,593 to Lemberg’s family.