Analysis of Hawaii's Assisted-Suicide Proposal (Bill H.B. 806)

This is the analysis of the Hawaii Bill H.B. 806 that would legalize assisted suicide in Hawaii. The analysis is written by Rita Marker, the excellent leader of the International Task Force on Euthanasia and Assisted Suicide.

The Analysis of Hawaii's Bill H.B. 806

Currently, assisted suicide is a crime in Hawaii. Any person who intentionally assists another to commit suicide commits the offense of manslaughter, a class A felony. [Haw. Rev. Stat. § 707-702 (1)(b)]

H.B. 806, called the "Death with Dignity" Act, is modeled on Oregon's assisted-suicide law. It would transform the crime of assisted suicide into a medical treatment.

HAWAII'S ASSISTED-SUICIDE BILL:

◊ Does not require that the lethal drugs be self-administered.

Unlike Oregon's assisted-suicide law, the Hawaii bill requires a "monitor." The monitor "shall be present at the time of the actual administration of the medication to the patient." [§ 41 (a)] [Emphasis added] According to the proposal, the monitor will have the power to "stop the administration" if it hasn't been carried out and if it seems that the patient has had a change of mind. [§ 41 (a)] This provision implies that someone other than the patient may administer the lethal drugs.

◊ Allows someone who will benefit from the patient's death to play a key role in signing the patient up for an assisted-suicide prescription.
A patient's written request for assisted suicide must be witnessed by two people. [§ 22 (a)] One of those witnesses may not be a relative or a person who would inherit the patient's property or an owner, operator or employee of the health care facility where the patient is being treated. [§ 22 (b)] But this means that one of the witnesses may fall into those categories. Then, that person could select a personal friend or acquaintance to be the second witness.

It allows those who will benefit from the patient's death to play a key role in facilitating an assisted-suicide prescription, setting the stage for elder abuse and premature transfer of assets.

According to the National Center on Elder Abuse, between 1 and 2 million Americans, 65 and older, are abused each year by someone they depend on for care and protection. 1

◊ Lets doctors help depressed or mentally ill patients commit suicide without providing any type of counseling or psychological evaluation.

A referral for counseling is only necessary "if, in the opinion of the attending physician or the consulting physician, a patient may be suffering from a psychiatric or psychological disorder causing impaired judgment." [§ 33] [Emphasis added] So, while a person may be depressed or mentally ill, a referral for counseling is necessary only if the physician believes the patient's judgment is impaired (i.e., the patient is unable to make decisions regarding personal, interpersonal, financial and/or medical affairs). Many people who are depressed or mentally ill are capable of making such decisions.

According to Oregon's tenth annual assisted-suicide report, not one patient was referred for a psychological or psychiatric evaluation before receiving an assisted-suicide prescription. 2 Yet a recent Oregon Health & Science University study found that one in four Oregonians who request assisted suicide are likely to be clinically depressed, and the assisted-suicide law may fail to protect these patients. 3

◊ Lets a doctor help a patient commit suicide even after the patient is found to have impaired judgment.

If a patient is found to have impaired judgment, the assisted-suicide bill does not prohibit a health care provider, family member or other person from arranging for the patient to be evaluated by other counselors until one is found who will declare the patient qualified for assisted suicide.

In Oregon, it has been noted that "a psychological disorder - senility, for example - does not necessarily disqualify a person" from receiving assisted suicide. An Oregon woman who was suffering from early dementia died of assisted suicide even though her own physician declined to provide the lethal prescription. When counseling to determine her capacity was sought, a psychiatrist determined that she was not eligible for assisted suicide since she was not explicitly seeking it, and because her daughter seemed to be coaching her to do so. She was then taken to a psychologist who determined that she was competent but possibly under the influence of her daughter who was "somewhat coercive." Finally, a managed care ethicist, who was overseeing her case, determined that she was qualified for assisted suicide, and the drugs were prescribed. 4

◊ Gives government health programs, managed care programs and others the opportunity to cut health care costs by encouraging vulnerable patients to request assisted suicide.

Tragically, elder abuse is a common occurrence in today's society. Elderly patients could easily be pressured by family members or unscrupulous health care providers into requesting assisted suicide. Although the bill specifically states that it prohibits coercing or using undue influence on a patient to request the deadly drugs [§ 52 (b)], nothing in the bill prohibits managed care providers, insurance companies or others from suggesting assisted suicide to a patient or from encouraging a patient to request a lethal prescription.

During debate on a similar proposal in California, Sen. Joe Dunn (D-Santa Ana) cast the deciding "No" vote to defeat the bill because the "power of money" would influence HMO's, health insurers and the state to save money while cutting back on patient care. 5

In Oregon, some patients have been told by their health insurance provider that a costly drug prescribed by a doctor to treat the patient's illness would not be covered but inexpensive lethal drugs for assisted suicide would be. 6

◊ Lets a doctor write an assisted-suicide prescription for a patient without seeing the patient in person after diagnosis of a terminal condition is made.

The bill requires patients to make three requests for assisted suicide - two oral requests which do not need to be witnessed and one written witnessed request. [§ 36] However, none of those requests must be made in person. The two oral requests could be made by telephone and the written request could be sent by mail or fax.

◊ Allows prescriptions to be mailed to pharmacies which can then dispense the lethal drugs to a family member, friend or designated agent.

The bill does not require that the drugs be provided directly to the patient. [§ 31 (12) (B) (ii)] In one known Oregon assisted-suicide death, the patient received his lethal overdose by Federal Express. 7 Under Hawaii's proposal, Federal Express could be the "expressly identified agent" to bring the drugs to the patient.

◊ Forces hospitals, nursing homes and other care facilities to allow assisted-suicide referrals on the premises.

The bill states that providers shall not be under any duty to participate in assisted suicide. [§ 51(a) and (b) (1) (2)] However, the bill specifically states that referral does not constitute participation. [§ 51 (b) (3) (2)(C)]

◊ Does not contain any provisions to investigate inaccurate, incomplete and misleading reports or to investigate abuse surrounding assisted-suicide deaths.

Although assisted-suicide advocates claim that Oregon's official reports about the practice of assisted suicide prove that there have been no problems or abuses, those claims are, at best, misleading.

According to data provided by Compassion & Choices - the assisted-suicide advocacy group that is the chief promoter of "Death with Dignity" bills - the organization has participated in three quarters of Oregon's assisted-suicide deaths. 8 Oregon's largest newspaper characterized this as a situation in which "essentially, a coterie of insiders run the program, with a handful of doctors and others deciding what the public may know." 9

As with Oregon's assisted-suicide law, the Hawaii bill requires doctors who write prescriptions for assisted-suicide drugs to report those cases to the state [§ 42] but, as in Oregon's law, there are no penalties for non-reporting or for inaccurate or incomplete reporting.

From the time that Oregon's law went into effect, state officials have acknowledged that "it is difficult, if not impossible to detect accurately" whether reports are complete. 10 State officials have acknowledged that they "assume, however, that physicians were their usual careful and accurate selves" when filing reports about their involvement in assisted suicide. 11

One Oregon official explained that investigation into potential assisted-suicide irregularities cannot take place since "not only do we not have the resources to do it, but we do not have any legal authority to insert ourselves." 12

--------
1 Nation Center on Elder Abuse, "Fact Sheet: Elder Abuse Prevalence and Incidence" (2005), page 1.

2 DHS, "Tenth Annual Report on Oregon's Death with Dignity Act," March 18, 2008, Table I.

3 Linda Ganzini, Elizabeth Goy, Steven Dobscha, "Prevalence of depression and anxiety in patients requesting physician' aid in dying: cross sectional survey," British Medical Journal, Oct. 8, 2007, pp. 973-975.

4 Erin Barnett, "A family struggle: Is Mom capable of choosing to die?" Oregonian, Oct. 17, 1999.

5 Greg Lucas, "Committee votes down assisted-suicide bill," San Francisco Chronicle, June 27, 2006.

6 KATU TV; Portland, OR; July 31, 2008.

7 Erin Hoover, "Dilemma of assisted suicide: When?" Oregonian, Jan. 17, 1999.

8 "Compassion & Choices of Oregon Summary of Deceased Patients, 1/1/98 through 9/25/08" distributed by George Eighmey, Executive Director of C & C of Oregon, Vancouver, WA Public Library Forum on I-1000, Sept. 25, 2008.

9 Editorial Board, "Washington state's assisted-suicide measure: Don't go there," Oregonian, Sept. 20, 2008.

10 New Eng. J. Med, Feb. 18, 1999, p. 583.

11 OHD, CD Summary, vol. 48, no. 6, March 16, 1999.

12 Testimony of Dr. Katrina Hedberg before the House of Lords Select Committee on the Assisted Dying for the Terminally Ill Bill, Assisted Dying for the Terminally Ill Bill [HL], Volume II: Evidence. Apr. 4, 2005, p. 266, question 615.

Updated: February 13, 2009

International Task Force
on Euthanasia & Assisted Suicide
P.O. Box 760, Steubenville, OH 43952
740-282-3810 or 1-800-958-5678
www.internationaltaskforce.org

The link to the analysis by the International Task Force on Euthanasia and Assisted Suicide for the Hawaii bill to legalize euthanasia and assisted suciide is at:
http://www.internationaltaskforce.org/hawaii.htm

Death in Thunder Bay - Fonteece Case

Sometimes the media gets it right and other times, like the Fonteece case, where I just need to scratch my head and wonder. The media called me for quotes on the Fonteece case appearing to be creating an issue rather than reporting.

What is known about the Fonteece case?
We know that Peter and Yanisa Fonteece were unemployed and traveling west with the hope of finding employment in British Columbia.

We know that their car broke down in Thunder Bay and they stayed at the Super 8 Motel for 4 days.

We know that Mr. Fonteece called 911 in the early morning of February 6. Emergency services arrived and found Mrs Fonteece dead. Paramedics did not attempt to resuscitate her because she had been dead for awhile.

The police gathered information questioned Mr Fonteece and charged him with criminal negligence causing death and assisted suicide.

The Kitchener/Waterloo Record reported that the Fonteeces moved out of a low-rise apartment building on January 31 after living their for more than 1 year. The building superintendant sated that ‘they had given two months’ notice and seemed healthy as they packed up.’

The UPI International reported that the autopsy found ‘There was no immediate indication Yanisa Fonteece suffered from any sort of disease.’ Results from the toxicology tests could take several weeks.

The National Post quoted Martin Frith from Dying With Dignity, a group that is dedicated to legalizing assisted suicide, as saying: “It’s really problematic that in the absence of a law that would actually allow for assisted dying we have situations where well intentioned family members who are supporting a mature, competent adult runs the risk of being charged with assisted suicide.”

The Toronto Sun quoted EPC’s Alex Schadenberg as saying: “It’s understandable in the current “economic downturn” that people would become desperate.”

The National Post quoted Alex Schadenberg as saying: “the law is there to protect vulnerable people. “Nobody should be allowed to directly and intentionally take another persons life, That is a line we should never cross.”

Wesley Smith commented on his blog: “Let’s assume...that Yanisa was just sick of living because of hard times and asked her husband to help her die: If it would be okay for him to do the deed ... After all, isn’t the “right to die” about a purported sacrosanct liberty to determine the time, manner, and place of one’s own death? Once that principle is accepted, the details become minutia, because one person’s bearable difficulty is another’s unbearable suffering.

It is difficult to make a comment on the Fonteece case, until further information is released. Nonetheless it is clear that this is not a typical assisted suicide case and it is more likely that Yanisa Fonteece lost hope in difficult economic times.

Cashing in on despair

Is the Dignitas Suicide clinic a profit obsessed killing machine.

An article written by Allan Hall and published in the UK Daily Mail investigates the claims of former Dignitas nurse Soraya Wernli who has accused Ludwig Minelli, the founder of Dignitas of being obsessed with profit and not with dignity.

Link to the article on the Mail online:

Soraya Wernli

When Wernli accepted a job with the Dignitas assisted suicide clinic in Switzerland she thought she was being hired to be a ‘companion’ to assist people in their final journey to the ‘other side’.

She anticipated that her work would involve paperwork, words of comfort, a gentle hand for those about to end their pain-filled lives. This is the work that she was signing up for when she agreed to work for Minelli.

Wernli claims that:
‘just a few days into the job, he (Minelli) asked me to sort through the stuff in these plastic bin liners clogging the stairs.’ Minelli told her to ‘empty the sacks onto a long table ... and sort through everything.

In the sacks Wernli found - Mobile phones, handbags, ladies’ tights, shoes, spectacles, money, purses, wallets, jewels, and more.

Ludwig Minelli

Minelli had his “patients” sign forms saying the possessions were now the property of Dignitas. He then sold everything to pawn shops and second-hand shops.

Wernli stated that she felt disgusted. As a nurse and a former care worker for the elderly, she was no stranger to death and she supported assisted suicide.

Wernli worked for the Dignitas assisted suicide clinic in Zurich for 2½ years. During that time she came to believe that Dignitas was less about ethical euthanasia for the terminally ill and more of a money-making machine for Minelli.

Since leaving the Dignitas clinic in 2005 Wernli has launched lawsuits, acted as an undercover informant for the police and she is now writing a book to expose the ‘production line of death concerned only with profits’ at the Dignitas clinic.

Dignitas has been involved in at least 1000 assisted suicide deaths since its founding. Minelli was operates the Dignitas clinic is the book-keeper, the secretary general-chief accountant and gatekeeper of the organisation.

While working for Dignitas, Wernli assisted the suicides of 35 people and she was well paid making ₤4,500 a month.

The first location for Dignitas was a small apartment in Gertrudstrasse, Zurich where access was only possible via a small elevator. This mean’t that people going into the apartment building and bodies going out of the apartment building needed to use the same elevator.

Wernli stated: ‘The room where people were to die was often filthy, because Minelli skimped on the cleaning bills. Often there would be shoes or underwhere or some other deeply personal item of an earlier victim lying beneath the bed or around the room. It was shameful.’

Wernli stated that Reginald Crew was her first assisted suicide. She stated: ‘Mr. Crew arrived in the morning and was dead just hours later. ... I argued that it wasn’t right that people land at the airport, are ferried to his office, have their requisite half-an-hour with a doctor, get the barbituates ...and are then sent off to die.’

She said that she told Minelli: ‘This is the biggest step anyone will ever take. They should at least be allowed to stay overnight, to think about what they are doing.’

Wernli said that Minelli would have none of it. She claims that he once said that if he had his way, he would have vending machines where people could buy barbiturates to end their lives as easy as buying a soft drink or a bar of chocolate.

When asked about the assisted suicide of Daniel James, Wernli said that he was by no means the first person to have been helped to die who wasn’t terminally ill.’

Wernli then described the case of Robert & Jennifer Stokes from the UK who were in their 50's, both had a history of mental illness and failed suicide attempts. They did claim to be suffering from chronic conditions but neither one of them were dying and yet Dignitas assisted their suicides.

Wernli claims that she argued with Minelli that double suicides should never be sanctioned. She told him that one partner may want to die simply because he or she cannot cope with being alone. Later she learned that Minelli continued the practice of double suicides with another of the workers caring out those assisted suicide deaths.

The case of Martha Hauschildt was another concern that Wernli expressed. She explained that Hauschildt paid Minelli 200,000 Swiss frans for her assisted suicide whereas most of the time the people were charged ₤7,000 for an assisted suicide and funeral. Many wealthy people bequeathed ‘vast sums’ to Minelli in their Will. Minelli paid the doctors 500 Swiss francs for each assisted suicide prescription.

The gruesome 70-hour death of Peter Auhagen was the case that ended Wernli’s career with Dignitas and caused her to agree to be a secret informer for the police who were investigating Minelli.

Usually Minelli used a lethal dose of barbiturates to assist suicides but in the case of Auhagen, Minelli decided to test a “suicide machine” that the patient controlled the administration of drugs. Wernli said that: ‘the machine had a fault which meant it couldn’t pump all the poison into his system. The man was partially poisoned, in agony and thrashing around in a coma, frothing at the mouth and sweating. ... It was a terrible thing to witness, and I knew it could not go on.

Wernli recounts that Auhagen was still alive. She called Minelli who then came by and after a heated discussion he told the family to go for a walk and then someone administered the drugs by injection. Wernli claims that Minelli kept a supply of drugs in his personal office in case of an emergency.

Nearly four years after leaving her employment with Dignitas, the assisted suicide clinic remains open. Current employees are made to sign a privacy agreement to end any further leaks of information.

Wernli has not given up on her hope to close the Dignitas clinic. She stated: ‘this is Switzerland, and things move slowly, if at all. All I can promise is that I will not stop speaking out because Dignitas is an organisation that must be stopped.’

Husband charged with aiding wifes suicide

The United Press International provides a little more information for us on the Fonteece case. This article states that the autopsy report proves that: "there was no indication Yanisa Fonteece suffered from any sort of disease"

It is really hard to say anything clear about the case, but it may be that the couple was so distraught with the financial hardship that they were experiencing that Yonisa decided that she couldn't take it anymore. The sad reality is that many people experience extreme depression that leads them to believe that their is no more hope in life.

We will continue to publish new information.

This is the article in the United Press International:

Thunder Bay, Ontario, Feb. 10 (UPI)
A Canadian man is charged with helping his wife commit suicide in a northern Ontario city motel room, police said.

Peter Fonteece, 46, was to make a court appearance Tuesday in Thunder Bay, Ontario, with regard to bail on the assisted suicide and criminal negligence causing death charges, the National Post reported.

He called 911 from a Super 8 Motel room in the city at the head of Lake Superior early Friday morning about his 38-year-old wife Yanisa, police said. Paramedics found her in bed and didn't attempt resuscitation as they said she had been dead for some time, an emergency official said.

Police said the couple were from Waterloo in southern Ontario and were bound for British Columbia after they both lost their jobs and fell on hard financial times.

There was no immediate indication Yanisa Fonteece suffered from any sort of disease, the report said. An autopsy was conducted Saturday in Toronto but other tests, including toxicology, could takes weeks, police said.

Link to the article in the United Press International
http://www.upi.com/Top_News/2009/02/10/Husband_charged_with_aiding_wifes_suicide/UPI-95911234269168/

Why isn't this just Aid in Dying too?

The Euthanasia has not given any direct comment concerning the Fonteece case because we lack the necessary information but we are publishing updates of information.


Wesley Smith made some very insightful comments concerning the case.
He stated:

A Canadian man is under arrest for assisted suicide in the death of his wife. She had no apparent illness. The couple were apparently suffering from very hard economic times, but precise details are not yet known.

Let's assume for the moment--to illustrate what is happening in our culture, not to prejudge this case--that Yanisa (his wife) was just sick of living because of hard times and asked her husband to help her die: If it would be okay for him to do the deed if, say, she had ALS, why not in this hypothetical situation, too? After all, isn't the "right to die" about a purported sacrosanct liberty to determine the time, manner, and place of one's own death? Once that principle is accepted, the details become minutia, because one person's bearable difficulty is another's unbearable suffering.

Smith then stated:
Perhaps it is just that we live in profoundly nihilistic times in which the importance of human life itself has become lost in the gray. As Canadian journalist Andrew Coyne put it once so succinctly:

A society that believes in nothing can offer no argument even against death. A culture that has lost its faith in life cannot comprehend why it must be endured.

Link to the blog comment by Wesley Smith:
http://www.wesleyjsmith.com/blog/2009/02/why-isnt-this-just-aid-in-dying-too.html

Couple's Odyssey ends in Tragedy

An article in the National Post about the Fonteece case does provide a little more information concerning the case.

The Euthanasia Prevention Coalition will only comment on the case after sufficient information exists.

The text of the National Post article by Peter Cheney on February 10, 2009 is as follows:

Husband charged with helping wife commit suicide says they had fallen on hard times

Sudbury was 12 hours behind them when Peter and Yanisa Fonteece limped into Thunder Bay in their 1998 Oldsmobile. They checked into the Super 8 motel and told the desk clerk they had car trouble. But it went far deeper than that. Five days later, Mrs. Fonteece was dead, and her husband was in jail, charged with helping her commit suicide.

According to Mr. Fonteece, they were both unemployed and had decided to leave Ontario behind. Like a Canadian version of The Grapes of Wrath set in the economic meltdown of 2009, they were heading west in search of greener pastures. But it all ended at the Super 8 on the north end of Thunder Bay's Memorial Avenue.

At 6 a.m. last Friday, police say, Mr. Fonteece made a 911 call from the motel. Later that day, he was behind bars. Mr. Fonteece is 46. His wife was 38. Police say they'd been living in Waterloo, Ont., and had fallen on hard times. They were heading for British Columbia.

Exactly what happened to Mrs. Fonteece will be determined by an autopsy. Police can't say whether she was suffering from a serious illness. But according to Thunder Bay police spokesman Chris Adams, investigators who were called to the Super 8 found evidence to support two charges against her husband: criminal negligence causing death and assisted suicide.

"We're still working on what happened," Mr. Adams said. "Obviously, this is a terrible private tragedy."

The couple's background has presented police with a mystery. They arrived in Thunder Bay on Feb. 2. How they spent the four days until the 911 call and the discovery of Mrs. Fonteece's body is unknown, and police have had no luck tracking down any of the couple's relatives.

"We're still trying to piece together information," Mr. Adams said. "This is a highly unusual situation."

Mr. Adams said Thunder Bay is a traditional stopping point for travellers making the trip across Canada. The city is at the head of Lake Superior, and is the only major city in a remote area larger than some countries - Sudbury is about 12 hours to the east, and Winnipeg is about eight hours to the west.

"Thunder Bay is a crossroads," Mr. Adams said. "If you're driving across Canada, you go through here. There's no choice - everything that goes down the road has to pass through Thunder Bay."

Mr. Fonteece made a videotaped appearance in a Thunder Bay courtroom on Saturday. He is scheduled to appear again today. A search of his background yielded few results. A man using the name Peter Fonteece appeared in a 2001 computer forum about the fate of the new Windows XP operating system. A P.B. Fonteece appeared in the transcript of a 1995 Compuserve conference with a member of the rock band Def Leppard. (Mr. Fonteece's middle name is Bernard.)

In 2007, a list of expired Internet domain names included the entry fonteece.ca.

Lynn Peterson, Thunder Bay's mayor, said the Fonteece case has captured a tremendous amount of local attention. "It's in all the papers," she said. "Everyone's talking about it. Everybody's saddened by it. What else can you say?"

The link to the National Post article:
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/LAC.20090210.YANISA10/TPStory/National

Death ends dream

The Euthanasia Prevention Coalition will not make any direct statements concerning the Fonteece case because we lack the necessary information to effectively analyse the charges of assisted suicide that were placed upon Peter Fonteece.

We are updating the current information about the case.

The Toronto Sun published an article on February 10, 2009, by Chris Doucette on the case.

Here is the text of the article:
Death ends dream

A Southern Ontario couple's plans to head out west to get a new lease on life ended in a woman's death in a Thunder Bay motel room.

And now her husband is accused of helping the woman kill herself.

Peter Bernard Fonteece, 46, of Waterloo, called 911 around 6 a.m. last Friday and said his wife, Yanisa, was dead in a motel room, Thunder Bay Police said yesterday. Paramedics arrived at the Super 8 soon after and found the 38-year-old woman in bed with no vital signs.

It's unclear how long the woman was dead, but paramedics made no attempt to resuscitate her.

"(Peter) was present in the room," executive officer Chris Adams said. "He was co-operative and he was taken into custody at that point."

He said the husband was charged with assisted suicide and criminal negligence causing death.

"We're still trying to get a handle on her background, and his as well," he said.

Investigators believe the Waterloo couple were heading out west, possibly to B.C., in search of work.

"It appears, as with many people who are unemployed, they may have been looking for opportunities in Western Canada," Adams said.

"(But) their car broke down a week ago," he said, explaining the couple had been staying in Thunder Bay since then.

Adams wouldn't comment on any possible health issues the dead woman may have suffered from. And he offered little insight into the assisted suicide charge her husband now faces.

"It's a rare charge certainly," Adams admitted. "But based on the evidence presented to us at the time, our investigators felt they had enough grounds to lay the two charges."

Yanisa's death could rekindle the long-standing debate over whether Canada should legalize assisted suicide. But with so few details of the circumstances available, both opponents and proponents of the controversial issue were reluctant to comment.

Alex Schadenberg, of the Euthanasia Prevention Coalition, said it's understandable in the current "economic downturn" that people could become desperate.

"But the answer is not to commit suicide," he said. "The answer is to have the proper support system in place."

Martin Frith, of Dying With Dignity, said it is legal to watch someone end their own life but helping in any way, no matter how small, can result in charges.

Police have so far been unable to track down relatives.

Anyone who knows the couple is urged to call police at 1-807-684-1200.

Link to the article in the Toronto Sun:
http://www.torontosun.com/news/canada/2009/02/10/8332276-sun.html

Berlusconi accuses rivals Englaro's death

It is clear that the death of Eluana Englaro will lead to a serious political debate in Italy.

A reuters article is reporting on the political exchange. The article states:

Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi said Eluana Englaro, who died in the middle of a debate about her right to die after 17 years in coma, had been killed and the head of state was among those responsible.

Berlusconi is reported to have said:

"Eluana did not die a natural death, she was killed," the conservative premier told Libero newspaper, blaming Italy's leftist President Giorgio Napolitano for rejecting an emergency decree that would have forced doctors to resume feeding her.

"Napolitano made a serious mistake," another paper quoted Berlusconi as saying. The premier lamented that the bill he then sent to parliament to stop Eluana's nutrition from being suspended "did not make it in time."

Cardinal Angelo Bagnasco, the head of the Italian Conference of Catholic Bishops was reported to have stated:

"I hope God will help us to heal this wound," adding that the country "needs a just law, for the good of our society, to avoid "Inhuman" events like this being repeated."

Umberto Bossi, head of the Northern League stated:

"You cannot let someone die of hunger and thirst, ... It is something primitive, inhuman, unacceptable."

Dr. Gian Luigi Gigle, head of the "For Eluana" anti-euthanasia group stated:

"Something very strange has happened," Outside the Udine clinic where she died people prayed and sang through the night, holding candles.

Meanwhile the article stated that the l'Unita newspaper had as its headline:

"In Pace" -- "in peace."

No matter what side of the euthanasia debate people take, it should be universally accepted that killing a person, who is cognitively disabled and not otherwise dying, by dehydration is not a compassionate or dignified way to die. There should be a universal condemnation of these inhumane acts.

Link to the Reuters article:
http://www.reuters.com/article/newsMaps/idUSTRE5192JX20090210

Do you know what happens when a person who is not otherwise dying is dehydrated to death?

The death lobby is constantly talking about the freedom to choose and that euthanasia offers a compassionate and dignified death.

If this were true then the death lobby would not be promoting death by dehydration.

I have always said that once death by dehydration becomes a common and accepted practice, then people will demand death by injection because of the gruesome reality of what is experienced by people who are not otherwise dying, but dehydrated to death.

For more information about the bodily effects of death by dehydration, link to the article by Wesley Smith on the issue.

Link to Wesley Smith's article:
http://www.wesleyjsmith.com:80/blog/2009/02/eluana-englaro-dehydration-begins.html

Eluana Englaro has died

Eluana Englaro, the woman at the center of the euthanasia debate in Italy, has died only a few days after having her fluids and food withheld from her care. It is very sad that society may find it acceptable to kill someone by intentional dehydration.

To intentionally dehydrate someone to death, who is not otherwise dying, is euthanasia. The intention of the omission is to cause death and the death results from dehydration.

It is interesting that she died of dehydration so quickly. Usually it takes 10 - 14 days to die from dehydration. The question is, what did she actually die from?

The Euthanasia Prevention Coalition urges the Italian Senate to continue drafting a bill to prevent further intentional deaths by dehydration.

The link to the article:
http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2009/02/09/europe/EU-Italy-Right-to-Die.php
The text from the article:

ROME: The woman at the heart of a bitter right-to-die debate died Monday, just as lawmakers began debating a bill designed to keep her alive, news reports said.

Eluana Englaro, 38, had been in a vegetative state since she was in a car accident 17 years ago.

"Yes, she has left us," the ANSA news agency quoted her father, Beppino Englaro, as saying. "But I don't want to say anything, I just want to be alone."

Her doctors said her condition was irreversible. Late last year, her father won a decade-long court battle to allow her feeding tubes to be removed, saying that was her wish.

But Italy's center-right government, backed by the Vatican, had pressed to keep her alive, racing against time to pass legislation prohibiting food and water from being suspended for patients who depend on them.

Senators who had been debating a bill designed to prevent her feeding tubes from being removed observed a minute of silence when the news was read out in the Senate chamber.

Government officials vowed late Monday to pass the legislation even though it was too late to save Englaro.

Ontario police trying to track relatives of alleged assisted suicide woman

Link to the article:
http://news.therecord.com/News_Wire/National/article/484815

The Euthanasia Prevention Coalition will not comment on this case until there is more information.

The article stated:
THUNDER BAY, Ont. ­ Police were having difficulty Monday finding relatives or friends of a southern Ontario woman they said was the victim of an assisted suicide in Thunder Bay, Ont.

The woman, Yanisa Fonteece, 38, of Waterloo, Ont., was found in a north-end motel room on Friday morning after her husband, Peter Fonteece, 46, called emergency services, police said. "She was located in a motel room and her husband was present," said Chris Adams, a spokesman for the Thunder Bay police service.

"He had actually been the individual who contacted 911 to notify us of the death."

Results of an autopsy done in Toronto over the weekend were not immediately known and further tests would be needed, police added.

Fonteece, who was in custody, faces charges of criminal negligence causing death and assisting a suicide.

He appeared briefly in court on Saturday and was scheduled to appear again on Tuesday.

"There was enough evidence present" to support the charges, Adams said.

Police said they believed the unemployed couple was heading to western Canada in search of work when their car broke down last Monday in Thunder Bay.

They said they had no luck tracking down family or friends of the couple, and were appealing for help from the public.

"We are obviously having a challenge contacting family," Adams said, adding it would be "very useful" for anyone who knew the couple to come forward.

Anyone with information can call Thunder Bay police at 807-684-1200 or contact their local police detachment.

Assisted Suicide charge in Thunder Bay - 2

The report from the national post on the assisted suicide charge in Thunder Bay states that the man was also charged with criminal negligence causing death. The man is scheduled to appear in court in Thunder Bay today.

The Euthanasia Prevention Coalition will not comment until further information is available.

Link to the article:
http://www.nationalpost.com/news/canada/story.html?id=1269728

The article from the National Post:
Assisted suicide charges after woman found dead in motel
Canwest News Service - Monday, February 09, 2009

THUNDER BAY, Ont. A 46-year-old Waterloo, Ont., man is scheduled to appear in provincial court Monday to face an assisted suicide charge after Thunder Bay, Ont., police found the body of a 38-year-old woman in a motel Friday.

Thunder Bay police spokesman Chris Adams said the Waterloo man, who was also charged with criminal negligence causing death, was married to the woman, who was found in a room at the Super 8 Motel shortly after 6 a.m. following a 911 call.

Mr. Adams said police have not been able to locate next of kin and plan to release the couple's names sometime Monday.

The couple appeared to have been travelling west in a car when they stopped in Thunder Bay, Mr. Adams said.

Police are also awaiting autopsy results from Toronto, said Mr. Adams.

Police have not said who placed the 911 call, but Mr. Adams said the man was found in the room with the woman.

The man was arrested without incident, said Mr. Adams.

Man charged with assisted suicide in Thunder Bay

Man accused of assisted suicide
Tb News Source - Feb 6, 2009

A Thunder Bay man is in custody and faces charges of assisted suicide after the death of his wife Friday.

Thunder Bay Police Service officers responded to a Memorial Avenue motel with members of the Superior North EMS near 6 a.m. Friday.

Officers and paramedics found a dead 38-year-old woman in a motel room. The woman’s husband was also present and taken into custody by police.

Police cannot release the name of the woman pending notification of her next of kin.

A postmortem examination in Toronto is also still pending.

The woman’s husband now faces charges of criminal negligence causing death and assisted suicide.

Police continue its investigation.

Comment:
The Euthanasia Prevention Coalition will not comment on this case until we have conclusive information.

Dignitas Clinic - Follow the Cash

Mark Mostert

Mark Mostert has written a commentary about the Article in London's Daily Mail concerning the Dignitas Clinic and the way Ludwig Minelli, the founder treated the suicide "clients" and hungered for cash.

Link to the commentary:
http://disabilitymatters.blogspot.com/2009/01/swiss-way-part-iii-follow-cash.html

The Swiss Way Part III: Follow the Cash

Well, I hadn't planned a Part III about the Swiss death machine Dignitas, but as I suspected, we're starting to see a trickle of information about the rotten underbelly of the business of killing in the heart of civilized Europe.

It's the money, stupid……..

Soraya Wernli

On Sunday, London's Daily Mail reported that nurse Soraya Wernli, who was all for helping people kill themselves, went to work for Dignitas several years ago.

Dignitas bigwig Ludwig Minelli put Nurse Wernli quickly to work sorting out the contents of black plastic bin liners that were cluttering a stairwell.

What she found changed what she thought of Dignitas, it’s claims to dignified dying, and put pay to the whole notion of patients and their loved ones being treated with respect:

Minelli said I should empty the sacks onto a long table - they were huge - and sort through everything. I opened one up and was horrified by what was inside. Mobile phones, handbags, ladies' tights, shoes, spectacles, money, purses, wallets, jewels.

I realised these were possessions which had been left behind by the dead. They had never been returned to family members. Minelli made his patients sign forms saying the possessions were now the property of Dignitas and then sold everything on to pawn and second-hand shops.

Ludwig Minelli

I felt disgusted. You see these old photos of people in Nazi death camps sorting through the possessions of those who had been gassed. Well, right then and there, that is how I felt.

Wernli soon realized that Dignitas was, first and foremost, about cold, hard, cash. It was, she said, a 'production line of death concerned only with profits.'

She recalls clashing with Minelli about his deadly production-line. One case that especially irked her was the death of 74-year old Brit Reginald Crew:

Mr. Crew arrived in the morning and was dead just hours later,' she says. 'This was another of my many clashes with Minelli. I argued that it wasn't right that people land at the airport, are ferried to his office, have their requisite half-an-hour with a doctor, get the barbiturates they need and are then sent off to die.

This is the biggest step anyone will ever take. They should at least be allowed to stay overnight, to think about what they are doing. But Minelli would have none of it. He once said to me that if he had his way, he would have vending machines where people could buy barbiturates to end their lives as easily as if they were buying a soft drink or a bar of chocolate. I support assisted suicide - but not the way he went about it.

All well and good, Nurse Wernli, but your assumption is [misguided] compassion.

Minelli's is money. A simple cash flow issue.

More people dead, more money made.

A win-win:

People want to die.

Minelli charges to help kill them.

They die.

He goes to the bank.

What's not to like?

Down the Slippery Slope

This is a very interesting commentary by a County Health Officer in Montana concerning the court imposed assisted suicide in that State.

Link to the article:
http://highline.townnews.com:80/articles/2009/01/20/news/news7.txt

The article presents an interesting perspective against legalizing assisted suicide. The fact is that Judge McCarter is an activist Judge who is not concerned about vulnerable people in Montana who could be killed by this judgement. The decision by McCarter was appealed to the Montana Supreme Court.

Down the Slippery Slope

Tuesday, January 20, 2009

In December 2008 District Judge, Dorothy McCarter, of Helena ruled that the state homicide laws were unconstitutional. Specifically, a terminally ill 75 year-old man (Robert Baxter) with Leukemia had petitioned the court to permit his physicians to administer a lethal injection. After due legal process, Judge McCarter rules that a mentally competent, “terminally ill” (whatever that means) patient could be administered a lethal injection without his physician incurring any legal risk. This ruling was to take effect immediately in her issue of the decision.

Attorney General, Mike McGrath has submitted a motion defending Montana state law asking for a summary judgment that “unless and until Montana's legislature decides to start down the rarely traveled path towards a regulated regimen of physician assisted suicide, the court should refuse to blaze a trail.”

As yet this writer is not aware of just what is legal in Montana. The patient for whom the case was brought to Judge McCarter's court died in his sleep before his judgment was rendered. At this time the ruling is in the process of litigation but if it is upheld, Montana will become the third state in the country to legalize assisted suicide. Oregon has had legalized physician assisted suicide for some 10 years. In November 2008 the voters in Washington state similarly legalized physician assisted suicide by means of a ballot initiative. Otherwise it is illegal for a physician to ever put anyone to death except in those states where they are exempted from legal action if they assist in a court ordered execution by lethal injection.

The Montana Medical Association has taken no action on this issue as of this time. There is definitely going to be considerable discussion and debate over the ethics and morality of this issue. At his point there is no problem when it comes to how lethal injection is done, rather the question is can it be justified?

The writer has been begged and beseeched on several occasions to terminate the life of a person who is believed to be incurably ill and suffering - even to the point of being told that it was his duty to end a patient's life. For moral, legal, and theological reasons, these requests have always been refused; although he has frequently dispatched a suffering animal with no qualms of conscience.

The Netherlands has legally permitted physician assisted suicide for many years and on reviewing the reports of some writers, it is less than a wonderful social program. Many thousands of chronically ill and elderly people have been put to death by lethal injection. In some situations frail old people are terrified of going to the hospital, especially of they suspect relatives would be better off if they were not an ongoing burden. There is increasing agitation to get that law repealed. Adolph Hitler and his associates felt that German society could be greatly improved economically and physically if certain types of people such as Jews, Gypsies, Poles, homosexuals, and people with certain types of mental retardation and mental illness could be eliminated. This was done with remarkable efficiency in various death camps.

The Eskimos (Inuit) who really could not afford to feed and clothe non-productive individuals, would take the old and feeble out onto the ice and leave them. A very good and careful doctor who worked with Native Americans told the writer of an incident described to him while taking a family history. The patient told him “When we traveled to the reservation, our grandmother was very weak and riding in the back of the wagon. When we arrived, she was gone and we never went back to look for her.”

Modern medicine has excellent and effective ways of relieving pain and sustaining life. The entire hospice program does an excellent job of helping people to remain relatively pain free and die with dignity.

This writer is absolutely committed to providing reasonable dignified care regardless of the cost for as long as life lasts. After all, he is rapidly approaching the point of being useless, worthless, and expensive to maintain.

Signed,
Richard S. Buker Jr., M.D.
County Health Officer

Bill HB 304 - New Hampshire's bill to legalize assisted suicide

Rita Marker, the incredible leader of the International Task Force on Euthanasia and Assisted Suicide has published an excellent analysis of the Bill to legalize assisted suicide in the state of New Hampshire.

The International Task Force analysis states:

Currently, assisted suicide is a crime in New Hampshire. It is a class B felony, punishable for up to seven years in prison, if a person aids another to commit suicide and that aid results in suicide or in an attempt to commit suicide. [N.H. Rev. Stat. § 630:4]

H.B. 304, called the "Death with Dignity Act," is modeled on Oregon's assisted-suicide law.
It would transform the crime of assisted suicide into a medical treatment.

NEW HAMPSHIRE'S ASSISTED-SUICIDE BILL:

◊ Gives government health programs, managed care programs and others the opportunity to cut health care costs by encouraging vulnerable patients to request assisted suicide.

Tragically, elder abuse is a common occurrence in today's society. Elderly patients could easily be pressured by family members or unscrupulous health care providers into requesting assisted suicide. Although the bill specifically states that it prohibits coercing or using undue influence on a patient to request the deadly drugs [137-L:15, II], nothing in the bill prohibits managed care providers, insurance companies or others from suggesting assisted suicide to a patient or from encouraging a patient to request a lethal prescription.

During debate on a similar proposal in California, Sen. Joe Dunn (D-Santa Ana) cast the deciding "No" vote to defeat the bill because the "power of money" would influence HMO's, health insurers and the state to save money while cutting back on patient care. 1

In Oregon, some patients have been told by their health insurance provider that a costly drug prescribed by a doctor to treat the patient's illness would not be covered but inexpensive lethal drugs for assisted suicide would be.2

◊ Permits doctors to prescribe assisted-suicide drugs for individuals who have a long life expectancy.

Under the proposal, "terminal condition means an incurable and irreversible condition, for the end stage of which there is no known treatment which will alter its course to death, and which, in the opinion of the attending physician and consulting physician competent in that disease category, will result in premature death." [137-L:2, XIII]

Note that the definition does not state that a patient must be in the "end stage" of the condition, only that there is no known treatment that will alter the condition's course to death once it does reach its end stage. Thus, a person who has been diagnosed with early Parkinson's Disease or emphysema would be considered "terminal" for the purpose of this law. And it doesn't stop there. A person with quadriplegia, spinal muscular atrophy, HIV/AIDS, Multiple Sclerosis and other life-shortening conditions would also be assisted-suicide eligible under New Hampshire's bill.

◊ Lets greedy heirs, exhausted caregivers, or uncaring health care providers and their friends serve as witnesses for a patient's written assisted-suicide request.

A patient's written request for assisted suicide must be witnessed by two people. One of those witnesses may not be a relative or a person who would inherit the patient's property or an owner, operator or employee of the health care facility where the patient is being treated. [137-L:4, II] But this means that one of the witnesses may fall into those categories. Then, that person could select a personal friend or acquaintance to be the second witness.

This sets the stage for elder abuse and premature transfer of assets. It allows those who will benefit from the patient's death to play a key role in facilitating an assisted-suicide prescription.

◊ Permits doctors to prescribe assisted-suicide drugs to patients who are not New Hampshire residents.

A person need not be a state resident to be assisted in committing suicide. One need only be someone who is "regularly treated" in a New Hampshire health care facility. [137-L:2, XII] A person could travel to New Hampshire several times seeking treatment for any ailment (such as a skin condition) and be considered "regularly treated" in a New Hampshire facility. Then, if that individual has any condition that would meet the criteria of "terminal," he or she could qualify for assisted suicide in the state.

◊ Lets doctors help depressed or mentally ill patients commit suicide without providing any type of counseling or psychological evaluation.

A referral for counseling is only necessary "if, in the opinion of the attending physician or the consulting physician, a patient may be suffering from a psychiatric or psychological disorder, or depression causing impaired judgment." [137-L:7; emphasis added] So, while a person may be depressed or mentally ill, a referral for counseling is necessary only if the physician believes the patient's judgment is impaired (i.e., the patient is unable to make decisions regarding personal, interpersonal, financial and/or medical affairs). Many people who are depressed or mentally ill are certainly capable of making such decisions.

According to Oregon's tenth annual assisted-suicide report, not one patient was referred for a psychological or psychiatric evaluation before receiving a lethal drug prescription. 3 Yet a recent Oregon Health & Science University study found that one in four Oregonians who request assisted suicide are likely to be clinically depressed, and the assisted-suicide law may fail to protect these patients. 4

◊ Lets a doctor help a patient commit suicide even after the patient is found to have impaired judgment.

Counseling that is required if the physician believes the patient's judgment is impaired consists of only one consultation between the patient and a psychiatrist or psychologist. [137-L:2, V] Even if a patient is found to have impaired judgment, the assisted-suicide bill does not prohibit a health care provider, family member or other person from arranging for the patient to be evaluated by other counselors until one is found who will declare the patient capable of choosing assisted suicide.

In Oregon, it has been noted that "a psychological disorder - senility, for example - does not necessarily disqualify a person" from receiving assisted suicide. There, a woman who was suffering from early dementia died of assisted suicide even though her own physician declined to provide the lethal prescription. When counseling to determine her capacity was sought, a psychiatrist determined that she was not eligible for assisted suicide since she was not explicitly seeking it, and because her daughter seemed to be coaching her to do so. She was then taken to a psychologist who determined that she was competent but possibly under the influence of her daughter who was "somewhat coercive." Finally, a managed care ethicist, who was overseeing her case, determined that she was qualified for assisted suicide, and the drugs were prescribed. 5

◊ Lets a doctor write an assisted-suicide prescription for a patient without seeing the patient in person after diagnosis of a terminal condition is made.

The bill requires patients to make three requests for assisted suicide - two oral requests which do not need to be witnessed and one written witnessed request. [137-L:10] However, none of those requests must be made in person. The two oral requests could be made by telephone and the written request could be sent by mail or fax.

◊ Allows drugs for suicide to be sent to the patient by mail or courier.

Nothing in the bill requires that the drugs be provided in person to the patient. In one known Oregon assisted-suicide death, the patient received his lethal overdose by Federal Express. 6

◊ Forces hospitals, nursing homes and other care facilities to allow doctors to prescribe lethal drugs or otherwise participate in patients' assisted-suicide deaths on the premises.

The bill states that providers shall not be under any duty to participate in assisted suicide. [137-L:14, IV] However, under the bill, no health care provider may subject a person to any penalty, including loss of privileges at the facility, for participating in assisted suicide. [137-L:14, II]

In addition, the New Hampshire assisted-suicide bill has:

◊ No safeguards for the patient at the time the drug overdose is taken.

The bill covers only the time until the prescription for suicide is written. The lethal drugs could be stored over time, with no concern for public safety or patient protection. There are no provisions to insure that the patient knowingly and/or willingly takes the overdose.

According to Dr. Katrina Hedberg, lead author of most of Oregon's official reports, the state's job "is to make sure that all the steps happened up to the point the prescription was written and the "law itself only provides for writing the prescription, not for what happens afterwards." 7

◊ No provisions to investigate inaccurate, incomplete and misleading reports or to investigate abuse surrounding assisted-suicide deaths.

Although assisted-suicide advocates claim that Oregon's official reports about the practice of assisted suicide prove that there have been no problems or abuses, those claims are, at best, misleading. According to data provided by Compassion & Choices -- the assisted-suicide advocacy group that is the chief promoter of "Death with Dignity" bills -- the organization has participated in three quarters of Oregon's assisted-suicide deaths. 8

According to Oregon's largest newspaper, "Essentially, a coterie of insiders run the program, with a handful of doctors and others deciding what the public may know." 9

As with Oregon's assisted-suicide law, the New Hampshire bill requires doctors who write prescriptions for assisted-suicide drugs to report those cases to the state [137-L:12] but, as in Oregon's law, there are no penalties for non-reporting or for inaccurate or incomplete reporting.

From the time that Oregon's law went into effect, state officials have acknowledged that "it is difficult, if not impossible to detect accurately" whether reports are complete. 10 State officials have acknowledged that they "assume, however, that physicians were their usual careful and accurate selves" when filing reports about their involvement in assisted suicide. 11

Oregon's Dr. Hedberg explained that investigation into potential assisted-suicide irregularities cannot take place since "not only do we not have the resources to do it, but we do not have any legal authority to insert ourselves." 12

__________________________

1 Greg Lucas, "Committee votes down assisted-suicide bill," San Francisco Chronicle, June 27, 2006.

2 KATU TV; Portland, OR; July 31, 2008.

3 DHS, "Tenth Annual Report on Oregon's Death with Dignity Act," March 18, 2008, Table I.

4 Linda Ganzini, Elizabeth Goy, Steven Dobscha, "Prevalence of depression and anxiety in patients requesting physician' aid in dying: cross sectional survey," British Medical Journal, Oct. 8, 2007, pp. 973-975.

5 Erin Barnett, "A family struggle: Is Mom capable of choosing to die?" Oregonian, Oct. 17, 1999.

6 Erin Hoover, "Dilemma of assisted suicide: When?" Oregonian, Jan. 17,1999.

7 Testimony of Dr. Katrina Hedberg before the House of Lords Select Committee on the Assisted Dying for the Terminally Ill Bill, Assisted Dying for the Terminally Ill Bill [HL], Volume II: Evidence. Apr. 4, 2005, p. 259, question 566.

8 "Compassion & Choices of Oregon Summary of Deceased Patients, 1/1/98 through 9/25/08" distributed by George Eighmey, Executive Director of C & C of Oregon, Vancouver, WA Public Library Forum on I-1000, Sept. 25, 2008.

9 Editorial Board, "Washington state's assisted-suicide measure: Don't go there," Oregonian, Sept. 20, 2008.

10 New Eng. J. Med, Feb. 18, 1999, p. 583.

11 OHD, CD Summary, vol. 48, no. 6, March 16, 1999.

12 Testimony of Dr. Katrina Hedberg before the House of Lords Select Committee on the Assisted Dying for the Terminally Ill Bill, Assisted Dying for the Terminally Ill Bill [HL], Volume II: Evidence. Apr. 4, 2005, p. 266, question 615.

Assisted Suicide legislation in Wyoming

Wesley Smith has made a very important comment concerning the effect of the new trend of medical associations becoming neutral on assisted suicide. Please read:

Link to blog comment:
http://www.wesleyjsmith.com/blog/2009/01/assisted-suicide-in-wyoming-neutrality.html

A call to compassionate action

The Coalition Against Assisted Suicide in Washington State is responding to the passage of the I-1000 assisted suicide initiative by organizing compassionate care throughout Washington State

From the website:
There is so much to do, so many vulnerable people to protect... And so little time.

The situation here in Washington State is urgent. Hospitals, nursing homes, hospices and physicians across the state are determining RIGHT NOW if they will assist in suicides. The decisions they make will last for years to come. And many don’t know that under I-1000 they have the right to refrain from involvement in assisted suicide. They need to hear from you. So does the Department of Health, which is writing rules that will govern the practice. See our ‘What can I do?’ link directly above. (The ‘What can I do?’ section is updated frequently with timely action items.)

Assisted suicide directly threatens the lives of the most vulnerable people in our culture. People with disabilities, the dependent elderly, those who live with depression and mental illness and the poor are all directly threatened by assisted suicide in Washington State and elsewhere.

Take a moment: write a letter, save a life.

Our Mission
The Coalition Against Assisted Suicide (CAAS) advocates for life-affirming choices, comprehensive community support, and excellence in end-of-life care. We believe that genuine compassion provides life affirming choices for people with serious illnesses and disabilities. Through education, legislation, social policy, and community action, we endeavor to advance true compassion and true choices.

Link to the Coalition Against Assisted Suicide
http://www.noassistedsuicide.com/

Maryland Bill Would Require Doctors to Promote Suicide as Option to Patients

Lifenews.com is reporting that a bill is being introduced in the Maryland legislature that will promote suicide as an option for patients.

This would be a similar statute to the California AB2747 that was passed last year.

Link to the article:
http://www.lifenews.com/bio2707.html

Assisted Suicide laws will never be permissive enough

The latest blog comment by bioethicist and lawyer Wesley Smith concerns the insatiable appetite by the death lobby to make euthanasia and assisted suicide an unlimited reality.

Link to Wesley Smith's comment:
http://www.wesleyjsmith.com/blog/2009/01/assisted-suicide-laws-will-never-be.html

Assisted Suicide and Elder Abuse

By Alex Schadenberg
Executive Director - Euthanasia Prevention Coalition

Society is learning about the vulnerability of elderly people and people with cognitive disabilities. Society is responding with new laws to protect people from Elder Abuse.

The Euthanasia Prevention Coalition recognized the connection between Elder Abuse and Assisted Suicide many years ago. Our group researched and published a document on the issue entitled: Elder Abuse, Euthanasia & Assisted Suicide: Must we consider the link?

The first link between Elder Abuse and assisted suicide is evident by the fact of the rapid growth in cases of physical abuse of the Elderly and the vulnerable. People with disabilities have long experienced increased incidence of abuse in relation to the rest of society but now society is acknowledging a change in societal attitudes toward the Elderly.

Legalizing assisted suicide establishes the primacy of the autonomy of an individual in society. Unfortunately this radical form of autonomy is being expressed in society by a lack of concern for the vulnerable individual who will become the unfortunate victim of societal attitudes that will redefine choice based on the greater good that is accomplished by the duty to die.

In case you think that I am alarmist, consider the case of Kate Cheney in Oregon, who's doctor believed that due to dementia she was unable to choose to die by assisted suicide. Family pressure and the support from the Health Insurance company helped to assure Cheney's death.

Safeguards?
The vulnerable in society will never be protected by the supposed safeguards that are being proposed by the euthanasia lobby. Compassion & Choices has effectively controlled the information and referals related to the assisted suicide law in Oregon and the government reports do not provide the social context of decisions to die.

When considering the several studies that have shown a connection between a feeling of helplessness, a feeling of a loss of purpose or depression being connected to assisted suicide, we must question the actual reasons why someone is "choosing" to die.

Further to that, when the social context of a decision is based on either abandonment, a lack of support, or subtle pressure to end life - can there ever be a "free choice".

I am concerned that a culture that is dedicated to radical individual autonomy will not hesitate to encourage people to end their own lives. Society will turn a blind eye or offer an understanding ear to those who felt compelled to end the life of an elderly dependent. The venear of choice will also cover-up the social pressure that created the decision to kill. In fact, abuse will probably become redefined in order to end the involuntary dependancy related to elder-care.

Elder abuse takes many forms, but the ultimate elder abuse is the act of killing a vulnerable dependent person. This ultimate abuse will appear as merciful but will often be cold, calculated killing, just like the many studies are beginning to show is true today.

Link to articles concerning elder abuse:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-486031/Drugged-oblivion-The-shocking-truth-elderly-treated-care-homes.html

http://www.justicenewsflash.com/2009/01/07/72-yearold-minnesota-man-starves-death-nursing-home-family-files-lawsuit_20090107555.html

http://www.bellinghamherald.com:80/102/story/744497.html

http://www.wyff4.com:80/news/18433023/detail.html

Peddlers of death look to Africa

This is a copy of Mark Mostert's blog comment on the push by the peddlers of death look to Africa:

For the last several years, ground zero for the promulgation of assisted suicide and euthanasia has been Europe.

The Netherlands now legally sanctions assisted suicide for almost anyone for any reason. There’s also lots of evidence that hundreds of Dutch patients are euthanized against their will every year.

In Switzerland, Dignitas, whose sole purpose is to facilitate the deaths of its clients, routinely hosts patients from other countries where assisted suicide is illegal.

Belgium recently legalized assisted suicide. It’s being seriously considered in almost every European capital.

In the UK, proponents of assisted suicide are waging a fierce battle to have it legalized. A Scottish parliamentarian is calling for legalized assisted suicide for children.

The warriors of the culture of death are now looking to make their ideas mainstream in Africa.

No surprise there.

However, they’re using a novel, utilitarian argument.

From east Africa's Business Daily:

Mr John Hurst, a British investor and the managing director of Dignity International, is the man behind the plans to introduce the Doctor Assisted Suicide (DAS) in Kenya. He says the logic behind assisted-suicide is that since the terminally ill patient will eventually die, it would be better to hasten their death to save the patient from pain and the family from the financial burden that may arise after prolonged treatment.

Note, Hurst is an investor. Could it be that he wants to make money on killing people? (Of course).

Note the logic:

The patient is going to die (so, why not kill them sooner rather than later?)

Killing earlier saves suffering later (no mention that not every terminally ill person is in pain, let alone unbearable pain)

Killing is a cost saving measure (particularly appealing t people in the developing world who are poor).

How crass.

How brutal.

How absolutely predicable.
Africans need to begin mounting opposition to this horrible influence – NOW.

Link to Mark Mostert's Blog comments:
http://whatsupwithbioethics.blogspot.com/2009/01/peddlers-of-death-look-to-africa.html