Assisted suicide activists ramp up national campaign

Excerpted from "Assisted suicide movement gaining traction across U.S.," Washington Times, January 21, 2015 - The highly publicized physician-assisted suicide of 29-year-old brain cancer patient Brittany Maynard has given the ailing right-to-die movement a new lease on life. A national campaign advocating state right-to-die legislation kicked off Wednesday in Sacramento with the introduction of the California End of Life Option Act, modeled after Oregon's 1994 law allowing doctors to aid terminally ill adults who want to end their lives.

Another dozen states are expected to follow with similar legislation, including Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware and Missouri. The D.C. Council is considering a "death with dignity" proposal introduced last week by council member Mary M. Cheh, Ward 3 Democrat, and the New Jersey Assembly passed an Oregon-style bill in November.

"We have a goal of 10 in 10. In the next 10 years, we're anticipating having 10 more states," said George Eighmey, a former Oregon state legislator who serves as vice president of the Death with Dignity National Center in Portland, Oregon. "It's sort of like the other social movements that are out there — the gay rights movement, the legalizing marijuana movement. All those things get to a critical mass and once they get to that critical mass, you start seeing other states get on board very quickly," said Mr. Eighmey, who advised on the California bill.

Plugging Maynard's story behind the scenes was Compassion & Choices, a right-to-die group funded by liberal billionaire George Soros that emerged from the ashes of the now-defunct Hemlock Society.

After Oregon voters approved the Death with Dignity Act, the movement stalled. It took until 2008 for voters in a second state, Washington, to enact a similar law. In 2013, Vermont Gov. Peter Shumlin signed into law the Patient Choice and Control at End of Life Act.

The Montana and New Mexico high courts have ruled that physicians may prescribe lethal drugs to the competent terminally ill. At the same time, state legislatures have snuffed dozens of right-to-die bills over the years, and Massachusetts voters defeated in November 2012 a "death with dignity" initiative by 51 percent to 49 percent. One big reason: The disabled community, led by groups such as Not Dead Yet, has mobilized against assisted-suicide measures, including the California bill, arguing that they are ripe for abuse.

"If this bill passes, some people's lives will be ended without their consent, through mistakes and abuse," Marilyn Golden, senior policy analyst for the Disabled Rights Education & Defense Fund, said in a Wednesday statement. "No safeguards have ever been enacted or proposed that can prevent this outcome, which can never be undone."

Commentary

CMDA CEO David Stevens, MD, MA (Ethics): “A tidal wave of physician-assisted suicide (PAS) legislation is hitting the shores of state capitals across the country. CMDA is tracking efforts in 23 states, not a dozen as this article reports. Last fall, I completed statewide speaking tours in Montana and New Jersey to train church leaders, healthcare professionals and community leaders for this battle. I’m representing you in radio, TV and print interviews as well responding to op-ed pieces. In New Jersey, I met with individual legislators and was invited to address the minority party caucus in the state assembly. I stood with disability rights and other activists to speak your concerns at a news conference in the state capital.

“In Montana, where there is no law legalizing it, Compassion & Choices (C&C) representatives showed up at four of the five cities where I spoke to challenge my points during the question and answer period. During the first night’s session, a physician heading a hospice organization proudly and publically announced that she was already prescribing lethal drugs to her patients.

“The poignant Brittany Maynard story received enormous positive media coverage, and C&C is now using Brittany’s husband to lobby legislators. Billionaire activist George Soros’ money is funding an enormous effort and I’m extremely concerned that a half dozen more states will legalize PAS this year.

“CMDA staff members cannot stem this tide alone. As Christian healthcare professionals, we must link arms to halt this flood. I’m asking you to step up and be part of a leadership team in your state if it is targeted. My staff and I will come alongside each team to train and give you the tools and direction needed for this battle. We will guide you each step of the way.

“Once PAS is legalized, I doubt it will ever be reversed. Now is the time to halt this evil tide that will affect you and your patients.

“All that is required for evil to win is for good men and women to be too busy to fight it. This is a battle we dare not lose.”

Action

If you would like to help, contact Margie Shealy, who leads our state initiatives, at Margie.Shealy@cmda.org or call 423-844-1000.

Resources
State Legislative Issues
Kara Tippets Interview
CMDA Resources on physician-assisted suicide

Terminally ill patient ends her life

Excerpted from “Brittany Maynard, right-to-die advocate, ends her life,” USA Today. November 3, 2014 — Brittany Maynard, the 29-year-old face of the controversial right-to-death movement, has died. She captivated millions via social media with her public decision to end her life.

Sean Crowley, spokesman for the non-profit organization Compassion & Choices, confirmed Maynard's death Sunday evening. "She died peacefully on Saturday, Nov. 1 in her Portland home, surrounded by family and friends," according to a statement from Compassion & Choices. The statement said Maynard suffered "increasingly frequent and longer seizures, severe head and neck pain, and stroke-like symptoms." She chose to take the "aid-in-dying medication she received months ago."

Her death brings a new element to the movement in the age of social media because the conversation has included younger people. "She's changed the debate by changing the audience of the debate," Abraham Schwab, an associate professor of philosophy at Indiana University-Purdue University Fort Wayne, told the Associated Press earlier.

Maynard was diagnosed with a stage 4 malignant brain tumor. She moved with her family from California to Oregon, where she could legally die with medication prescribed under the Oregon Death With Dignity Act.

"I understand she may be in great pain, and her treatment options are limited and have their own devastating side effects, but I believe Brittany is missing a critical factor in her formula for death: God," said Joni Eareckson Tada last month in an article for Religion News Service.

Commentary

CMDA CEO David Stevens, MD, MA (Ethics): “I’m deeply saddened by Brittany Maynard’s suicide. As far as we know, she had no hope—despite Joni Erickson Tada, Kara Tippets (who is dying with Stage 4 breast cancer) and others pointing her toward God, our real source of hope. I’m saddened because Compassion and Choices used and possibly abused her as their ‘poster child’ for legalizing physician-assisted suicide in a slick media campaign that drew millions of Facebook and YouTube hits, as well as enormous favorable media attention. I can’t help but wonder why she announced she was going to postpone her suicide, only to take her life two days later? Did she feel pressured or obligated to do it?

“I’m even more saddened that many more patients are likely to die because Ms. Maynard glorified suicide as the answer to suffering, and it won’t just be highly controlling, terminally ill patients like her. In the short term, it will be vulnerable teens and the depressed. In the long run, it will be handicapped newborns, Alzheimer’s patients, the chronically sick and the mentally ill, as we have already seen in Europe. It’s inevitable, despite all the so-called safeguards. Who can deny ‘this right to death with dignity’ to anyone who is suffering or is even afraid they may suffer in the future? And if the patient is incompetent, should the physician, exhausted caregiver or the son or daughter set to inherit the estate decide ‘on their behalf?’ Ultimately, it will kill the ethos of healthcare as doctor-patient trust is destroyed.

“It is too late for Brittany, but not for you and me to speak the truth in love to alter the predictable future. I’m heading to New Jersey next week to meet with legislators to urge them to say ‘No’ on an expected physician-assisted suicide vote scheduled for Thursday, November 13. I’m then traveling from one end of Montana to the other, speaking out against physician-assisted suicide in every major city and doing media interviews along the way to hopefully halt their march off the physician-assisted suicide cliff.

“What are you going to do to alter the future—before it is too late?”

Resources

CDD STAT Interview with Kara Tippetts, a stage-four cancer patient
Euthanizing Medicine, a presentation on the implications of legalizing physician-assisted suicide
Top Reasons Why Physician-Assisted Suicide Should Not Be Legal

Action

Physician-assisted suicide legislation is now being attempted in California, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico and Pennsylvania. If you’d like to get involved in the fight against this dangerous legislation, please contact communications@cmda.org.