I have bad news:
Governor Janet Mills signed LD 1313 into law. We had hoped that she would Kill the Bill but now she has agreed to allow doctors to kill patients. Alex Schadenberg
By Mark Hodges (EPC researcher)
Last week the Maine House of Representatives and Senate passed a bill that
would legalize doctors to proscribe lethal drugs to patients who ask to be killed.
Democratic Governor Janet Mills has ten days to
sign LD 1313 into law. Mills said.
“I’m not really sure about it,”
“I’m still talking to people on both sides.”
But even if she does nothing, after those
ten days it will become law automatically. We need you to tell Gov. Mills to veto the assisted suicide bill.
Governor Janet Mills
1 State House Station
Augusta, ME 04333
Tel: 207-287-3531
Fax: 207-287-1034
Email: governor@maine.gov
The Democratic-controlled state House
approved the death bill by one vote, 73 to 72. The Democratic-controlled state Senate was
also close, with a 19 to 16 vote.
Those who oppose assisted suicide
say the one-margin vote is yet another example of how important it is to vote for candidates that oppose assisting suicide. The one vote margin also shows how divided the state of Maine is on assisted suicide.
 |
| Alex Schadenberg |
Assisted suicide bill LD 1313 professes to defend individual
“choice” and autonomy“ but in reality these bills deceptively give physicians,
the right in law, to prescribe lethal drugs to patients,” Euthanasia Prevention Coalition Executive Director Alex Schadenberg explained.
“People are needing care and support, not
lethal drugs.”
Linda Milliken wrote
in the Portland Press Herald.
“Physician-assisted suicide destroys the doctor-patient relationship, as doctors now become agents of death, rather than comforters and healers,”
Opponents of assisted suicide
have pointed out multiple problems with the legislation, including defining “terminal
disease” so broadly as to qualify someone with diabetes
as eligible for a lethal dose.
Under the proposed law, patients with treatable conditions are considered “terminal” if they decide not to accept effective medication.
The Maine
law is similar to Oregon’s
assisted suicide law. An Oregon Health Authority representative admitted
they interpret “terminal disease” as including treatable conditions:
“If the patient
does not receive treatment or medication (for whatever reason) and is left with
a terminal illness, then s/he would qualify for the Death With Dignity Act. I
think you could also argue that even if the treatment/medication could actually
cure the disease, and the patient cannot pay for the treatment, then the
disease remains incurable.”
 |
| Nancy Elliot |
Former three-term New Hampshire State Representative Nancy Elliot stated,
“One of the biggest problems is people who qualify for Assisted Suicide are not necessarily dying. Think of a 21-year-old otherwise healthy insulin dependent diabetic. He qualifies if he rejects his insulin. This would be the same for many other people with serious conditions, who take prescription medications.”
Not Dead Yet’s Mike Reynolds cited:
“Oregon’s
doctors have written suicide prescriptions for individuals whose medical basis
for eligibility for assisted suicide was listed as diabetes,”
“People could qualify as ‘terminal’ who have epilepsy, ongoing
infections and other illnesses that can be managed with medication.”
Milliken noted in a New York Times article which reported,
“According to psychiatric experts, the
vast majority of people requesting suicide are suffering from treatable
depression, and no longer want to kill themselves once their underlying
depression is resolved.”
“Once the
depression lifts and people can think more clearly, the therapists say, those
who were determined to kill themselves are thankful to be alive, despite their
pain or grim prognosis.”
Elliot points out.
“With Assisted Suicide on the table these
mistakes can be deadly. What about the five percent rate of incorrect medical
diagnosis?”
At a hearing in Massachusetts, John
Norton testified
that “as a young man he was diagnosed with ALS. He stated that had Assisted
Suicide been legal at that time he would have used it. A few years in, the
disease’s progression just stopped. Now in his late 70s he stated he has had a
great life with children and a grandchild. With Assisted Suicide on the table
he would have lost all of that.”
Critics also note that Maine’s assisted suicide bill allows someone besides
the patient to administer the lethal drugs. It defines “self-administer” as the
patient voluntarily “ingesting” the poison –a phrase that other pro-euthanasia states
interpret very loosely.
“In Washington State,
‘to ingest’ means ‘to absorb,’ thus enabling another person to administer the
lethal drugs, so long as it is ‘absorbed,’”
Schadenberg points out a potential
lack of impartiality in the death decision.
“The bill requires two witnesses
(to the suicide request), but one may be a relative or an heir,” he says. “Clearly,
a conflict of interest may exist.”
“The written request must be witnessed by
two individuals, only one of whom may be entitled to any portion of the patient’s
estate upon death. The second witness could be a close friend of the potential
heir,”
“This places victims of elder abuse and domestic abuse in great danger since
they are unlikely to share their fears with outsiders or to reveal that they
are being pressured by family members to ‘choose’ assisted suicide.”
Conflict of interest in assisted suicide is
greatest among health insurance companies. Instances
have been publicized
where an insurer refuses to pay for expensive but life-saving treatment, yet
will pay for a suicide prescription.
 |
| Dr Brian Callister |
When Nevada
physician Brian Callister transferred patients to California and Oregon, where assisted suicide is legal, each patient’s insurer actually asked if he’d suggested
assisted suicide – although neither had a terminal illness.
And critics say LD 1313 has no provision
for protective oversight against abuse.
Once a death doctor writes the lethal prescription, there is no supervision
in actually taking the life-ending drugs.
If the person administering the drugs was
invested in the patient’s death, such as an heir, the patient could change his
or her mind, or even struggle, yet once the poison is “absorbed,” no one would
know.
Reynolds told the Bangor Daily News.
“Once the prescription is picked up from the
pharmacy, there is absolutely no oversight in the law to protect the ill person
from someone else who wants to hurry their death along, be it an insurance
carrier, an heir or a caregiver,”
Reynolds continued,
“A friend or relative – even an heir – can ‘encourage’ an elder to make the
request, sign the forms as a witness, pick up the prescription, and even
administer the drug (with or without consent), because no objective witness is
required at death.”
Opponents add that there is no
provision for objective, third-party documentation. The same doctor who
prescribes poison for his or her patient is the very one who is responsible to
report the results of his death procedure.
“Self-reporting systems are designed to
cover-up abuse. By law, the same doctor is the judge, the jury and the executioner.”
Reynolds concluded.
“The only real protections in the law are
for people other than the patient, foreclosing any realistic potential for
investigation of foul play,”
In fact, research proves assisted suicide
can result in tremendous suffering
by the patient, including “burning patients’ mouths and throats, causing some to
scream in pain.” In other instances, “deaths stretched out hours in some
patients — and up to 31 hours in one case.”
Reynolds told the Press Herald,
“This is not a ‘dignified’ death,”“It can take up to 104 hours for people to
die.”
Newspaper editor John Balentine noted
that the bill’s oft-repeated mantra. Balentine told The Forecaster.
“Death With Dignity,” “purposefully avoids
the word ‘suicide.’”
“Suicide is anything but dignified, because
that person’s hopes and dreams are snuffed forever,”
“The associated physical decay triggered by death is tragic and
disgusting, far from dignified.”
“Choosing…death…is
also not dignified. Choosing life, rather than death, is dignified. Suffering
through pain can be dignified. Giving up is not dignified.”
“I’m always skeptical of those who use
linguistic subterfuge to lobby their cause. Those employing the term ‘death
with dignity’ are doing just that when lobbying for assisted suicide,”
“Here’s hoping Gov. Mills sees through the Legislature’s misguided – and
undignified – political tactics.”
The
Maine bill, called by supporters the “Maine Death With Dignity Act,”
actually says that a lethal prescription is not suicide, and official death
certificates must be falsified to list the patient’s medical condition as the
cause of death:
“Actions taken in
accordance with this Act do not, for any purpose, constitute suicide, assisted suicide,
mercy killing or homicide under the law. State reports may not refer to acts committed
under this Act as ‘suicide’ or ‘assisted suicide’…State reports must refer to acts
committed under this Act as obtaining and self-administering life-ending medication.
A patient’s death certificate…must list the underlying terminal disease as the
cause of death.”
In other words, “the death certificate is
falsified to reflect a natural death,” Elliot summarized.
“All the information is sealed and
unavailable to the public.”
Critics also conclude that Maine’s proposed
legislation is discriminatory. Assisted suicide not only stifles hope,
encourages despair, and takes advantage of the vulnerable, it devalues certain
groups of human beings, pushing them into an early death.
 |
| Diane Coleman |
Not Dead Yet President Diane Coleman explains.
“Assisted suicide sets up a double
standard, with suicide prevention for some and suicide assistance for others, depending on their health or disability,”
“If such distinctions were based on race or ethnicity, we’d call it bigotry.”
“The dangers of
mistake, coercion and abuse it poses to old, ill and disabled people are rooted
in a profound and still largely unacknowledged devaluation of our lives.”
 |
| Stephanie Woodward |
Stephanie Woodward, Director of Advocacy at the Center for Disability Rights, charged.
People with disabilities and certain
illnesses and the elderly “will receive a fast pass, because our lives are
viewed as less worthy,”
“Assisted-suicide laws are the most blatant
forms of discrimination based on disability in our society today,”
Bishop Robert Deeley of Portland came out vehemently against the bill
on principle. He said.
“To allow doctors to prescribe deadly prescriptions to hasten a
person’s death would be a horrendous wound to the dignity of the human person,”
The Maine
bishop predicted consequences of the law would include
“the elderly feeling
undue pressure to view this as an option to prevent being a burden to others, a
desensitization of the value of human life, as well as teaching young adults
that people can be disposable.”
“These laws are abusive in their very
nature. To suggest to someone that they should kill themselves is abuse,”
“It would be like saying, ‘You are worthless and should die.’”
Reynolds warned,
“We should all be concerned about what kind of message a government sponsored,
medically administered program of assisted suicide sends to anyone facing
difficult times.”
“Kill the bill, not the patient.”
The American
Nurses Association Maine, the Maine Medical Association, the Maine Hospice
Council, the Maine Right to Life, the American Cancer Society Action Network,
the Roman Catholic Diocese of Portland the Maine Osteopathic Association, all
oppose the Maine legislation.
Suicide activists have tried several
times to legalize assisted suicide in Maine. In 2015, a suicide measure was defeated
in the state Senate by only one vote. A similar bill failed
in the state House in 2017. An attempt was made in 2018 to put the issue to a
popular vote.
Assisted suicide was first legalized in Oregon in 1997 after the
U.S. Supreme Court essentially ruled the issue was up to the states. Since
then, the state of Washington (2008), Vermont (2013 in an even less restrictive measure), California (2015, currently in effect but being fought in
court), Colorado (2016), Washington D.C.
(2017), Hawaii (2018), and most recently New
Jersey (2019) have legalized doctor-prescribed death. In 2009, Montana's state supreme court did not legalize assisted suicide but created a defense of consent, if a physician is prosecuted for assisted suicide.
New Jersey Catholic Governor Phil Murphy signed his state’s killing bill in April. He said that while his faith opposed assisted suicide,
“after careful consideration, internal
reflection, and prayer.”
“as a public official I cannot
deny this alternative to those who may reach a different conclusion.”
We need you to tell Gov. Mills to veto the assisted suicide bill.
Governor Janet Mills
1 State House Station Augusta, ME 04333
Tel: 207-287-3531 or Fax: 207-287-1034
Email: governor@maine.gov
Similar bills are pending in several states with New York being the greatest concern.
