Assisted-suicide laws are a prescription for abuse

http://altamontenterprise.com/01212016/assisted-suicide-laws-are-prescription-abuse

To the Editor:

I was glad to see the letter by Oregon doctor Kenneth Stevens, describing how legalizing assisted suicide in Oregon has led to steerage to suicide by the Oregon Health Plan (Medicaid).  ("No assisted suicide," Jan. 7, 2016).  I write to highlight another problem with legalization -- elder abuse.

I am a former three-term state representative in New Hampshire.  In 2014, the New Hampshire House of Representatives voted down a similar law.  The vote was an overwhelming 3-to-1 defeat, 219 to 66.

At that time, the House of Representatives was controlled by the Democrats.  Many representatives who initially thought that they were for the bill, became uncomfortable when they studied it further.

Contrary to promoting "choice" for older people, assisted-suicide laws are a prescription for abuse.  They empower heirs and other predators to pressure and abuse older people to cut short their lives.

This is especially an issue when the older person has money.  There is no assisted suicide bill that you can write to correct this huge problem.  Don't be fooled.

Nancy Elliott

Merrimack, New Hampshire
Post date: January 21, 2016

New York State Legal/Policy Analysis

Below, please find a legal/policy analysis by attorney Margaret Dore opposing bills seeking to legalize assisted suicide and euthanasia in New York State. A hard copy can be viewed by clicking here; the appendix can be viewed by clicking here.  Please find a web version below.

I. INTRODUCTION

I am an attorney in Washington State where assisted suicide is legal.[1] Our law is based on a similar law in Oregon. Both laws are similar to the proposed New York State bills, which seek to legalize physician-assisted suicide, assisted suicide and euthanasia as those terms are traditionally defined.[2]

The proposed bills are described as “aid in dying,” but their reach is not limited to dying people. “Eligible” persons may have years, even decades, to live. The bills are a recipe for elder abuse.  There are other problems.

I agree with proponents that assuring patient choice and control is paramount. The bills, however, are stacked against the patient. This is due to their actual language. Some of the words used do not have their normal meanings. I urge you to read the definitions and other provisions carefully. Don’t be fooled; please reject this measure.

New York State Assisted Suicide and Euthanasia Bills Are a Recipe for Elder Abuse

TUESDAY, JANUARY 12, 2016

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Dore: "Even if you like the concept of assisted suicide and euthanasia, the proposed New York bills have it all wrong.”

Contact: Margaret Dore (206) 697-1217

Albany, NY -- Attorney Margaret Dore, president of Choice is an Illusion, which has fought assisted suicide legalization efforts in many states and now New York State, made the following statement in connection with a legislative lobby day for proposed bills, which seek to legalize assisted suicide and euthanasia.

"There are bills pending before the New York State Legislature, which seek to legalize physician-assisted suicide, assisted suicide and euthanasia as those terms are traditionally defined," said Dore. "The bills are described as 'aid in dying,' but their reach is not limited to dying people. 'Eligible' persons may have years, even decades, to live."

Dore said, "The bills are a recipe for elder abuse. The patient's heir, who will financially benefit from the patient's death, is allowed to actively participate in signing the patient up for the lethal dose. There is no oversight over administration." Dore elaborated, "No doctor, not even a witness, is required to be present at the death. Even if the patient struggled, who would know? The bills create the perfect crime."  

Dore Legal and Policy Analysis of New York State Bills

Today, attorney Margaret Dore released a legal and policy analysis opposing bills seeking to legalize assisted suicide and euthanasia in New York State, addressed to members of the Health Committees of the New York State Legislature.  Her analysis can be viewed by clicking here; back up documentation can be viewed by clicking here.  Please find the introduction below.

INTRODUCTION

I am an attorney in Washington State where assisted suicide is legal. Our law is based on a similar law in Oregon. Both laws are similar to the proposed New York State bills, which seek to legalize physician-assisted suicide, assisted suicide and euthanasia as those terms are traditionally defined.

The proposed bills are described as “aid in dying,” but their reach is not limited to dying people. “Eligible” persons may have years, even decades, to live; the bills are a recipe for elder abuse. There are other problems.

I agree with proponents that assuring patient choice and control is paramount. The bills, however, are stacked against the patient. This is due to their actual language. Some of the words used do not have their normal meanings. I urge you to read the definitions and other provisions carefully. 

Don’t be fooled  . . . .

MP Albrecht condemns U.S. court ruling on teen’s suicide

http://www.therecord.com/news-story/6213725-mp-albrecht-condemns-u-s-court-ruling-on-teen-s-suicide/
              

Waterloo Region Record

By Johanna Weidner

Nadia Kajouji embraced
by her father 

KITCHENER — Local MP Harold Albrecht criticized a U.S. court ruling that overturned the conviction of a man charged with encouraging a Brampton teen to take her own life.

William Melchert-Dinkel, a former nurse from Minnesota, was convicted in 2014 of attempting to assist the suicide of 18-year-old Nadia Kajouji, who died after jumping into the Rideau River in Ottawa in 2008.

The Minnesota Court of Appeals ruled Monday there wasn't enough evidence to uphold the conviction in the Carleton University student's death.

Quick Facts About Assisted Suicide

By Margaret Dore, Esq., MBA

For a pdf version, please click here

1.  Assisted Suicide

Assisted suicide means that someone provides the means and/or information for another person to commit suicide. When a physician is involved, the practice is physician-assisted suicide.

2. The Oregon and Washington Laws

In Oregon, physician-assisted suicide was legalized in 1997 via a ballot measure. In Washington State, a similar law was passed by another ballot measure in 2008 and went into effect in 2009.

3.  Problems With Legalization

The Oregon and Washington laws are a recipe for elder abuse and encourage people with years to live to throw away their lives. In Oregon, there are documented cases of the Oregon Heath Plan (Medicaid) steering patients to physician-assisted suicide via coverage incentives. Oregon’s conventional suicide rate has increased with legalization of assisted suicide, which is consistent with a suicide contagion. Patients and families are traumatized.

The Oregon and Washington laws require the death certificate to be falsified to reflect a natural death via a terminal disease, as opposed to the actual cause of death, a lethal dose. The significance is a lack of transparency and an inability to take legal action against overreaching parties.

The Cost of Physician-Assisted Suicide.

By Margaret Dore, Esq., MBA*
Updated November 25, 2015 

It is often assumed that legalizing physician-assisted suicide will save states money. Don’t be so sure. In Oregon, legalization is correlated with an increase in other suicides, the cost of which is "enormous."

More Suicide

Oregon's law legalizing physician-assisted suicide went into effect “in late 1997.”[1] Since then, Oregon has reported a small, but steadily rising number of deaths.[2]

Oregon's other suicides, which are tracked separately, have also increased. Indeed, by 2000, Oregon's suicide rate for other suicides was "increasing significantly."[2] By 2007, Oregon's suicide rate for other suicides was 35% above the national average.[3] By 2010, Oregon's suicide rate for other suicides was 41% above the national average.[4]

The Financial Cost

The financial cost of these other suicides (and suicide attempts) is huge for Oregon, a smaller population state. The Oregon Health Authority states:

The cost of suicide is enormous. In 2010 alone, self-inflicted injury hospitalization charges exceeded 41 million dollars; and the estimate of total lifetime cost of suicide in Oregon was over 680 million dollars. (Footnotes omitted).[5]

People With Disabilities Are a High Risk Group for Suicide; Legal Assisted Suicide Discussed as a Contributing Factor.

By Margaret Dore

Thank you Stephen Mendelsohn, of Second Thoughts Connecticut, for providing this important

Stephen Mendelsohn

news.

The State of Connecticut Suicide Prevention Plan for 2020 includes people with disabilities and chronic health conditions as a high-risk group (similar to military veterans or the LGBT community) and discusses assisted suicide as a possible contributing factor to the problem. The Plan states:

Until recently, the [Connecticut Suicide Advisory Board] CTSAB was considering assisted suicide of the terminally ill as a separate issue from suicide prevention. The active disability community in Connecticut, however, has been vocal on the need for suicide prevention services for people with disabilities. 

The Plan goes on:

There may be unintended consequences of assisted suicide legislation on people with disabilities. Peace (2012) writes that "Many assume that disability is a fate worse than death. So we admire people with a disability who want to die, and we shake our collective heads in confusion when they want to live.” People with disabilities have a right to responsive suicide prevention services. The CTSAB intends to continue to explore the needs of the disability community for such services. (Emphasis added).

Plan, p. 44.

The Plan concludes with "Targeted Recommendations,"which push back against the idea of rational suicide for people with disabilities:

• Do not "assume" suicide is a "rational" response to disability.

• Treat mental health conditions as aggressively as with a person without disability. (Emphasis added)

Id.

German Jewry applauds defeat of liberalized assisted suicide laws

http://www.jta.org/2015/11/10/news-opinion/world/german-jewry-cheers-defeat-of-liberalized-assisted-suicide-laws

November 10, 2015 6:20am

(JTA) Assisted suicide laws will not be liberalized in Germany, a move that the country's Jewish community had vigorously opposed.

The Bundestag decided not to legalize organizations that promote or offer assisted suicide and to continue barring doctors from offering such assistance as a regular medical service.

Lawmakers instead toughened the national stance against commercialized assisted suicide. Such acts will now be punished with up to three years in jail, even if a doctor claims to have acted to relieve a patient's suffering. The bill was passed on Friday with 360 out of 602 votes, Reuters reported.

Dr. Josef Schuster, president of the Central Council of Jews in Germany, told the Bayerischen Rundfunk broadcasting company that he was "relieved" at the decision on easing assisted suicide laws "after a long, serious, and sometimes emotional debate."

Euthanasia is a particularly sensitive topic in Germany, as an estimated 200,000 people, most of them mentally and physically disabled, were murdered in the Nazi "euthanasia" program, their lives considered "unworthy" by the state.

Persons Living with HIV/AIDS: Is This What You Want?

By Margaret Dore, Esq

This is an updated version of an article I wrote three years ago in response to HIV/AIDS groups that had endorsed Ballot Question 2, seeking to legalize assisted suicide in Massachusetts. The ballot question failed, but there is now a similar proposal pending in the Massachusetts legislature (H.1991). I suggest that these groups and persons living with HIV/AIDS give the new proposal a close look. 

1.  "Terminal" does not mean dying. 

H.1991 applies to persons with a "terminal illness," defined in terms of less than six months to live with or without treatment.[1] 

In the 1980's, HIV/AIDS was a death sentence. Today, we have people living with HIV/AIDS, who do well, but who are dependent on treatment to live. Some of these persons are "terminal" under H.1991, i.e., if, without treatment, they "can reasonably be expected to die within 6 months."[2] 

2.  The significance of a terminal label.

Once a person is labeled "terminal," an easy justification can be made that his or her treatment should be denied in favor of someone more deserving. In Oregon, where assisted suicide is legal, "terminal" patients have not only been denied treatment, they have been offered assisted suicide instead. In a 2012 affidavit, Oregon doctor Kenneth Stevens put it this way:

Under the Oregon Health Plan [Medicaid], there is . . .  a financial incentive towards suicide because the Plan will not necessarily pay for a patient’s treatment. For example, patients with cancer are denied treatment if they have a "less than [two years] median survival with treatment" and fit other criteria. . . . 

All such persons . . .  will . . . be denied treatment. Their suicides under Oregon’s assisted suicide act will be covered."[3]

He also noted that some persons denied treatment as "terminal" would, if treated, in fact have years, even decades, to live. He stated: 

Some of the patients living longer than two years will likely live far longer than two years, as much as five, ten or twenty years depending on the type of cancer. This is because there are always some people who beat the odds.[4] 

Dore Professional Commentary

http://jurist.org/hotline/2015/10/margaret-dore-physician-assisted-suicide.php

California's New Assisted Suicide Law: Whose Choice Will it Be?

JURIST Guest Columnist, Margaret Dore, Esq., MBA

Editor, Maria Coladonato; 

©  WikiMedia (Christopher Padalinski)

California has passed a bill to legalize physician-assisted suicide, which is scheduled to go into effect during 2016. "The End of Life Option Act" was sold as giving patients choice and control at the end of life. The bill, in fact, is about ending the lives of people who are not necessarily dying anytime soon and giving other people the "option" to hurry them along. The bill is a recipe for elder abuse and family trauma.