Dear Assemblymembers:
I have been a cancer doctor in Oregon for 49 years. I am opposed to legalized assisted suicide.
It encourages people to prematurely throw away their lives. The California bill ABX-15 is modeled after the Oregon law. It applies to people predicted to have less than six months to live. That does not necessarily mean that they are dying.
Fifteen years ago I had a patient with inoperable anal cancer who wanted assisted suicide for herself, and who was refusing radiation and chemotherapy. Because she was refusing treatment she was eligible for assisted suicide. I encouraged her to be treated, which she later agreed to, and now she is very alive and happy 15 years later.
Even patients with insulin-dependent diabetes are eligible for assisted suicide if they stop using insulin – Diabetic patients have died in Oregon from assisted suicide!
I urge you to vote against ABX2-15, in order to save people’s lives.
Thank you,
Dr. Kenneth Stevens, MD
Sherwood, OR
