The New York State Bar Association (NYSBA) adopted a resolution in 2023 that supports the provisions of the assisted suicide bill before the legislature. This position is based on a report by its Task Force on Medical Aid in Dying. The report is extensive but seems more of defense of assisted suicide rather than a balanced inquiry into the myriad issues raised by its legalization.
Dear Friends: ...
Sylvie Berube (BQ) MP sponsored Bill C-390, a bill that would extend Canada’s law by allowing euthanasia approvals by advanced request. The bill amends the federal euthanasia law by adding to sections of the law the words: “or an applicable provincial framework.” Last year, the Québec government passed Bill 11, which expanded the Québec law by (among other things) allowing euthanasia by advanced request. Bill C-390, if passed, would amend Canada’s euthanasia law by changing the federal law based on amendments to provincial laws. In other words, Québec could legislate federally.
Colleagues,
[Theo Boer, Professor of Health Care Ethics in the Netherlands] spoke last Friday. Many asked that I send the link to the lecture when available. Here it is: https://doctorssayno.net/webinars/
[Professor Boer] spoke about the decades of experience with euthanasia in that country and how it has affected and changed some fundamental cultural values there regarding life, death, and disability. He document[ed] how it grew vastly beyond the initial parameters.
This was a very worthwhile talk by Dr. Boer who was involved in the early days of the medical euthanasia's roll out in the Netherlands. He was initially supportive, but saw it get quite out of hand. So he became an opponent, and a Cassandra, warning other countries to not go down that path.
Liz Carr’s newest groundbreaking documentary on assisted suicide is a in-depth exploration of the emotions and societal pressures that lie at the heart of disability opposition to a public policy that threatens ours lives. The Guardian called it “blistering.” Her gripping and personal narrative, a must-see tour-de-force is available HERE for now. ...
In 2013, Liz Carr created a two part BBC documentary called “When Assisted Suicide Is Legal” about what she called her Euthanasia Road Trip in Europe, Oregon and Washington State. NDY covered Part 1 and Part 2 with excerpts and commentary in our blog, and the audio documentary is still live online:
Featured Speaker Professor Theo Boer, pictured below.
Please click HERE to join: Password: 089934, check your time zones listed below.
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Dr. Komrad:
By Gabrielle Peters (article excerpt).
“On the question of religious hospitals, despite being a lesbian couple, Patricia and I would tolerate life-size crucifixes in the treatment room if it meant being safe from MAID.” ~ Catherine Frazee, (pictured here).*
Disabled people often talk about being made invisible. This feeling is particularly striking around issues that are specific to us like MAID, "Medical Assistance in Dying." The lobbyists and proponents for Canada’s MAID regime routinely mischaracterize or, more often, omit mention of disabled people or our reasons for opposition entirely.
https://www.concordmonitor.com/NH-Senate-kills-MAID-55151269
The bill, which was struck down in the senate with a vote of 17-7 and referred to an interim study, proposed granting individuals aged 18 and above, diagnosed with a terminal illness and a prognosis of six months or less, and having sound mental capacity, the option to end their lives without suffering from the disease. ...
By Alex Schadenberg
Life expectancy for Canadians has dropped for at least three straight years from 2019 to 2022.
The drop in life expectancy also occurred in the US during Covid, but life expectancy rebounded in the US in 2022, whereas in Canada life expectancy has remained a year lower.
Based on the sheer number of euthanasia deaths in Canada, and the fact that Canadians are not required to be terminally ill in order to be killed by euthanasia, deaths by euthanasia have strongly affected Canada’s death rate resulting in the average Canadian dying one year earlier than in 2019.
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I, JEANETTE HALL (pictured with her son), declare as follows:
1. I live in Oregon where assisted suicide is legal. Our law was enacted in 1997 via a ballot measure that I voted for.
2. In 2000, I was diagnosed with cancer and told that I had 6 months to a year to live. I knew that our law had passed, but I didn’t know exactly how to go about doing it. I tried to ask my doctor, Kenneth Stevens MD, but he didn’t really answer me. In hindsight, he was stalling me.
3. I did not want to suffer. I wanted to do our law and I wanted Dr. Stevens to help me. Instead, he encouraged me to not give up and ultimately I decided to fight the cancer. I have both chemotherapy and radiation. I am so happy to be alive!
May 3, 2024
Last November, Not Dead Yet (NDY) filed a Public Comment on HHS/OCR Proposed Section 504 Healthcare Regulations. This week, the Department of Health and Human Services announced the finalization of the new regulation prohibiting disability discrimination in healthcare under Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act.
While the primary focus of our public comment was the denial of life-sustaining healthcare treatment based on negative disability biases, we mentioned the issue of equality in suicide prevention as well, for example, here:
As HHS has indicated in its discussion of the proposed rule, biases about the impact disabilities have on “quality of life” are endemic among medical professionals. One manifestation of these discriminatory attitudes is the failure to treat suicidal depression in people with disabilities, including older individuals, although other people with suicide ideation are routinely offered suicide prevention services.
By Amanda Prestigiacomo, Jan 9, 2020 DailyWire.com
By Margaret Dore, Esq., MBA
Consideration of the pending climate change petition is outside of the jurisdiction of the PSC, set forth here: https://psc.mt.gov/
In the event that providing such jurisdiction would be advisable, it would be up to the Montana Legislature to enact appropriate legislation regarding same.
Without such legislation, addressing the pending climate change petition is ultra vires, meaning beyond the scope of the PSC's scope of authority.
The Commission has no authority to go forward.
Going forward is a waste of our taxpayer dollars.
"At this point, there is a reluctance from many around me to take up this discussion, and the future is unclear,” Blakespear said in a statement. “The topic, however, remains of great interest to me and to those who have supported this bill thus far.”
Senator Susan Eggman, who authored the original act in 2016, commented that pushing forward now would create a risk of pushback. She stated:
Stephen Mendelsohn (pictured here): "Meaning she supports further expansion, just not this much this fast if it will cause a backlash and help our side."
This letter is filed on behalf of Not Dead Yet, a national disability organization headquartered in New York with members in California. We oppose the SB 1196 amendments to the California End of Life Option Act for several reasons.
ELIGIBILITY: First and most importantly, the proposed amendments provide for a greatly expanded eligibility for receiving a lethal prescription, removing the current provision based on a “terminal” diagnosis expected to lead to a natural death within six months. The SB 1196 amendment makes millions more people eligible, people with chronic conditions and disabilities who are nowhere near the “end of life” except for their proposed eligibility for assisted suicide.
