Diane Coleman's Letter to Members of the Victoria Legislative Council Opposing Assisted Suicide

Diane Coleman, JD

I am writing behalf of Not Dead Yet, a national disability rights group in the U.S. that opposes legalization of assisted suicide. We understand that a proposal in Victoria would pertain specifically to neuromuscular disabilities. This letter will focus on misdiagnosis and the uncertainty of terminal predictions by doctors, as well as the significance of breathing support for those of us with these conditions. My own experience illustrates the issues.

Australia: Bill to Legalize Assisted Suicide and Euthanasia Defeated in New South Wales

NSW Legislative Council

Today, the New South Wales' Upper House voted against a purported "Voluntary Assisted Dying Bill."

The bill would have legalized assisted suicide and euthanasia, on both a voluntary and non-voluntary basis, for dying and non-dying people. The vote 19 to 20.

To learn more about assisted suicide and euthanasia in Australia, click here.

South Dakota: Measure Dead

An initiated measure, seeking to legalize assisted suicide and euthanasia in South Dakota, is dead. From the Associated Press:

"Supporters said Monday that they didn't collect enough signatures for the proposed ballot questions."

Thank you to everyone who worked so hard to get this result.

Margaret Dore, Esq., MBA, President

Victoria: Elder Abuse Demands No Vote

Margaret Dore

Margaret Dore, an experienced attorney specialising in elder law in Washington State, where assisted suicide is legal, has urged Victorian MPs “to reject the proposed bill seeking to legalize assisted suicide and euthanasia.”

Her analysis of the purported "Voluntary Assisted Dying Bill 2017," which would legalise euthanasia as well as assisted suicide, can be read in full here.

Dore points out that in “Oregon and Washington State, most people who die under their [assisted suicide] laws are elders, aged 65 or older. This demographic is already an especially at risk group for abuse and financial exploitation. This is true in both the US and Australia.

An Open Letter to the Parliament of Victoria: Say "No" to Assisted Suicide & Euthanasia

I am a lawyer in Washington State USA where assisted suicide is legal. Last year, I presented as an expert on assisted suicide to a Victoria Parliamentary Committee in Oregon USA. I am writing to urge you to vote "No" on the proposed euthanasia bill, which allows non-voluntary deaths for non-dying people.  

Specific problems:

1. Patient protections are unenforceable due to the bill's "accordance" language;
2. Assisting persons can have an agenda, for example, to obtain an inheritance, or in the case of a doctor, to obtain cover for medical error.
3. The bill allows the death to occur in private without witnesses. If the patient objected, or even struggled, who would know?

Victoria's Assisted Suicide and Euthanasia Bill: Oregon's Statistics Provide Little, If Any, Support for Passage Due to Physical Pain

By Margaret Dore, Esq., MBA

According to Oregon’s official government statistics, there were 47 people who died under its assisted suicide law in 2016, who expressed the following concerns:

Inadequate pain control or concern about it. (Emphasis added).[1]

With use of the word, “or,” the total number of persons with inadequate pain control could have been zero. In the alternative, the total number could have been as high as 47.

Margaret Dore Analysis Opposing Victoria Euthanasia Bill

Council Chamber

To view this analysis as a pdf, click the following links containing, an index; a memo; and an appendix

I.  INTRODUCTION

I am an attorney in Washington State USA where assisted suicide is legal.[1] I am also president of Choice is an Illusion, a nonprofit corporation opposed to assisted suicide and euthanasia. Last year, I met with a parliamentary delegation from the Legal and Social Issues Committee, Parliament of Victoria, to discuss Oregon’s law and related issues.

Washington’s law is based on Oregon’s law. Both laws are similar to the proposed bill, titled the “Voluntary Assisted Dying Bill.” The bill, however, is not limited to voluntary deaths or to people near death. I urge you to reject this measure.

Teen Accused of Helping Friend Commit Suicide Could Face Trial for Murder

Jchandra "Jelly" Brown

To see article and video, click here.

PROVO, Utah (KSTU) -- A judge will decide if a Spanish Fork man will face trial on a murder charge in the suicide of a 16-year-old girl.

Utah County prosecutors argue that Tyerell Przybycien's actions led Jchandra Brown to kill herself, and he should be tried for first-degree felony murder and a class B misdemeanor charge of failure to report a body. His defense lawyers argued that Brown was responsible for her own actions.

Washington Post: "I’m dying of brain cancer. I prepared to end my life. Then I kept living."

To view the entire article, click here.

In April 2015, at the age of 55, I was diagnosed with one of the most lethal and aggressive brain tumors, a brainstem glioblastoma multiforme in an advanced stage. The prognosis was both grim and precise: Without treatment, I might have a few months; with treatment, I could last six months. If I beat overwhelming odds, I’d toast the new year one last time.

Bi-Partisan Resolution Opposing Assisted Suicide Introduced in Congress

By Rebecca Duberstein

Congressman Wenstrup

Yesterday on September 27, Congressman Brad Wenstrup (R-OH) held a press conference announcing the introduction of a resolution (H.Con.Res.80) expressing the sense of Congress that assisted suicide “puts everyone, including those most vulnerable, at risk of deadly harm and undermines the integrity of the health care system.”

New Zealand: Māori Party Candidate Urging No Vote on Labour Due to Assisted Suicide Support

http://www.newshub.co.nz/home/election/2017/09/m-ori-party-do-not-vote-for-labour-over-euthanasia.html

A Māori Party candidate is urging people not to vote for Labour because of the party's stance on assisted suicide.

In a statement released by the party, Tuilagi Saipele Esera, Māori Party Candidate for Manukau East, said Labour's intention to legalise euthanasia and assisted suicide was against Christian and Pacific cultural values. . . .

The Death with Dignity Bill was put to Parliament in 1995 and 2003 but failed to pass. In 2012, the End of Life Choice Bill was also unsuccessful.

U.S. House Votes to Repeal D.C.'s Death With Dignity Law (Assisted Suicide & Euthanasia)

Rep. Tom Graves

By Jenna Portnoy, The Washington Post

The U.S. House on Thursday passed a spending bill that would block five laws affecting the District of Columbia, including the city’s new assisted-suicide law.

Mayor Muriel E. Bowser (D) and Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton (D), the District’s nonvoting representative in Congress, must now rely on the Senate to not take up and approve identical measures. If the Senate does not act, it would effectively stall for another year congressional efforts to rein in the District through spending-related measures.

Rep. Tom Graves (R-Ga.), chairman of the House Appropriations subcommittee that has jurisdiction over the District, said Congress by law has extensive power over the District but has allowed the city to assume more power over time.

South Dakota: Reject Initiated Measure

An initiated measure pending in South Dakota seeks to legalize assisted suicide and euthanasia as those terms are traditionally defined. If enacted, it will apply to people with years or decades to live. It will also encourage elder abuse and financial exploitation, which are already significant problems in South Dakota. The measure will make a bad situation worse.

To learn more, click here.

Margaret Dore, Esq., MBA

New Zealand: Major inquiry on voluntary euthanasia does not recommend law change

Simon O' Connor

""It probably comes down to the simple question of 'How many errors would Parliament would be willing to accept in this space?'"

To read the entire article, click here:

Committee chairman Simon O'Connor said the report did not make any formal recommendations to the Government about whether euthanasia should be legalised. It instead provided a summary of the arguments for and against assisted dying.

New Zealand: Cultue of Glamorizing Death Behind Suicide Rise?

http://www.investigatemagazine.co.nz/Investigate/21439/culture-of-glamorizing-death-behind-suicide-rise

Several years ago, against the advice of many, restrictions on discussing suicide in the news media were lifted.

Change advocates, with the best of intentions, argued that our suicide problem had to be brought into the open in order to change things.

Opponents relied on research showing that wider discussion of suicide tended to tip already vulnerable people over the edge.

Now the figures are in. New Zealand is enduring a big jump in suicides, particularly in the 18-24 age group, and experts are again wondering whether we are discussing it too much.

Coupled with a continual push in parliament every year for the introduction of euthanasia, and the accompanying sympathetic news media coverage glamorizing what is in effect a culture of death, is it any surprise that vulnerable people are seizing opportunities to top themselves and add to the national hand-wringing that is building up?

There would be few adults who haven't - even if only for a split second - considered the option in response to what seems like an overwhelming problem at the time.

Reasons for suicide are complex. Commentators argue economic pressure is a factor, and on the surface that is undoubtedly true. But it is more about 'expectations'. Our media and society create expectations about what life should be like in NZ, and if life doesn't match the dream we get depressed.I was shocked fifteen years ago when we sent an Investigate magazine journalist to the Philippines to discover that our suicide rate was much higher than that country where kids raided garbage bins for food. The people there, despite their lot, were collectively happier than rich but
dissatisfied New Zealand.

Sometimes suicide is purely about glamour, like a series of high school kids who killed themselves in 1984 in Auckland as part of a cult of death they'd become emotionally entangled in. They were not individually suicidal as such, but peer pressure and the sadness spread like a virus.

The bigger issue is: is talking about it every day in the media, and endorsing it as an option via euthanasia, sending a blunt message to the vulnerable? We cannot on the one hand decry suicide, yet on the other speak up in favour of killing yourself in other circumstances. A mentally unwell person doesn't make the fine distinction between physical pain from a terminal illness and the mental pain they themselves are suffering - they just hear community support for suicide.

Maybe it's time to think again about how much attention we give suicides in the media.

In Oregon, Other Suicides Have Increased with the Legalization of Physician-Assisted Suicide

By Margaret K. Dore, Esq.

Since the passage of Oregon’s law allowing physician-assisted suicide, other suicides in Oregon have steadily increased. This is consistent with a suicide contagion in which the legalization of physician-assisted suicides has encouraged other suicides. In Oregon, the financial and emotional impacts of suicide on family members and the broader community are devastating and long-lasting.[1]

A.  Suicide is Contagious 

It is well known that suicide is contagious. A famous example is Marilyn Monroe.[2] Her widely reported suicide was followed by “a spate of suicides.”[3]

With the understanding that suicide is contagious, groups such as the National Institute of Mental Health and the World Health Organization have developed guidelines for the responsible reporting of suicide, to prevent contagion. Key points include that the risk of additional suicides increases:

[W]hen the story explicitly describes the suicide method, uses dramatic/graphic headlines or images, and repeated/extensive coverage sensationalizes or glamorizes a death.[4] 

B. Physician-Assisted Suicide in Oregon

In Oregon, prominent cases of physician-assisted suicide include Lovelle Svart and Brittany Maynard.

Lovelle Svart died in 2007.[5] The Oregonian, which is Oregon’s largest paper, violated the recommended guidelines for the responsible reporting of suicide by explicitly describing her suicide method and by employing “dramatic/graphic images.” Indeed, visitors to the paper’s website were invited “to hear and see when Lovelle swallowed the fatal dose.”[6] Today, ten years later, there are still photos of her online, lying in bed, dying.[7]

Brittany Maynard reportedly died from physician-assisted suicide in Oregon, on November 1, 2014. Contrary to the recommended guidelines, there was “repeated/extensive coverage” in multiple media, worldwide.[8] This coverage is ongoing, albeit on a smaller and less intense scale.

C. The Young Man Wanted to Die Like Brittany Maynard

A month after Ms. Maynard’s death, Dr. Will Johnston was presented with a twenty year old patient during an emergency appointment.[9] The young man, who had been brought in by his mother, was physically healthy, but had been acting oddly and talking about death.[10]

Dr. Johnston asked the young man if he had a plan.[11] The young man said "yes," that he had watched a video about Ms. Maynard.[12] He said that he was very impressed with her and that he identified with her and that he thought it was a good idea for him to die like her.[13] He also told Dr. Johnston that after watching the video he had been surfing the internet looking for suicide drugs.[14] Dr. Johnston’s declaration states:

He was actively suicidal and agreed to go to the hospital, where he stayed for five weeks until it was determined that he was sufficiently safe from self-harm to go home.[15]

The young man had wanted to die like Brittany Maynard.

D. In Oregon, Other Suicides Have Increased with Legalization of Physician-Assisted Suicide

Oregon government reports show the following positive correlation between the legalization of physician-assisted suicide and an increase in other suicides.  Per the reports:

• Oregon legalized physician-assisted suicide “in late 1997.”[16]
• By 2000, Oregon’s conventional suicide rate was "increasing significantly."[17]
• By 2007, Oregon's conventional suicide rate was 35% above the national average.[18]
• By 2010, Oregon's conventional suicide rate was 41% above the national average.[19]
• By 2012, Oregon's conventional suicide rate was 42% above the national average.[20]
• By 2014, Oregon's conventional suicide rate was 43.1% higher than the national average.[21]

E. The Financial and Emotional Cost of Suicide in Oregon 

Oregon’s report for 2012 describes the cost of suicide as “enormous.” The report states:

Suicide is the second leading cause of death among Oregonians aged 15 to 34 years, and the eighth leading cause of death among all ages in Oregon. The cost of suicide is enormous. In 201[2] alone, self-inflicted injury hospitalization charges in Oregon exceeded $54 million; and the estimate of total lifetime cost of suicide in Oregon was over $677 million. The loss to families and communities broadens the impact of each death. (footnotes omitted).[22]

F. The Significance for Montana

In Montana, the law on assisted suicide is governed by   the Montana Supreme Court decision, Baxter v. State, 354 Mont. 234 (2009). Baxter gives doctors who assist a suicide a potential defense to criminal prosecution.[23] Baxter does not legalize assisted suicide by giving doctors or anyone else immunity.[24]

The decision, however, is also confusing so that it can be read different ways. More importantly, some doctors are claiming to have assisted suicides in Montana. If nothing is done to clarify the law, there will at some point be de facto legality.

Montana already has a higher suicide rate than Oregon.[25] If Baxter is not overturned and/or the law clarified that assisted suicide is not legal, the suicide problem in Montana will only get worse. Montana does not need the Oregon experience.

Footnotes:

[1]  Shen X., Millet L., Suicides in Oregon: Trends and Associated Factors. 2003-2012, Oregon Health Authority, Portland Oregon, p.3, Executive Summary. 

[2]  Margot Sanger-Katz, “The Science Behind Suicide Contagion,” The New York Times, August 13, 2014.

[3]  Id.

[4]  "Recommendations for Reporting on Suicide,” The National Institute of Mental Health. See also “Preventing Suicide: A Resource for Media Professionals,” World Health Organization, at http://www.who.int/mental_health/prevention/suicide/resource_media.pdf.

[5]  Ed Madrid, “Lovelle Svart, 1945 - 2007, The Oregonian, September 28, 2007. 

[6]  Id.

[7]  The still shots at this link, are still up today, July 7, 2017.

[8]  The worldwide coverage of Ms. Maynard in multiple media started with an exclusive cover story in People Magazine. Other coverage has included TV, radio, print, web and social media.

[9]  Declaration of Williard Johnston, MD, May 24, 2015. 

[10]  Id.

[11]  Id.

[12]  Id.

[13]  Id.

[14]  Id.

[15]  Id.

[16]  Oregon's Death with Dignity report for 2016, p. 4, first line. 

[17]  Oregon Health Authority News Release, September 9, 2010, at https://choiceisanillusion.files.wordpress.com/2017/07/news-release-09-09-10.pdf ("After decreasing in the 1990s, suicide rates have been increasing significantly since 2000").  

[18]  Suicides in Oregon: Trend and Risk Factors, issued September 2010 (data through 2007). 

[19]  Suicides in Oregon: Trends and Risk Factors, 2012 Report (data through 2010). 
[20]  Suicides in Oregon: Trends and Associated Factors, 2003-2012 (data through 2012). 
[21] Oregon Vital Statistics Report 2015 (data through 2014;
at page 6-26, third full paragraph)

[22]  See https://choiceisanillusion.files.wordpress.com/2017/07/suicides-in-oregon-2003-2012-p-6.pdf  

[23]  Greg Jackson, Esq. & Matt Bowman, Esq., "Analysis of Implications of the Baxter Case on Potential Criminal Liability," April 2010.
[24]  State Senator Jim Shockley and Margaret Dore, Esq., "No, physician-assisted suicide is not legal in Montana: It's a recipe for elder abuse and more," The Montana Lawyer," The State Bar of Montana, November 2011.
[25]  CDC Centers For Disease Control and Prevention, "QuickStats: Age Adjusted Suicide Rates by State, United States, 2012," published on November 14, 2014.

Hawaii: Thank You Representative Oshiro!

Representative Marcus Oshiro (in green)

This is a belated thank you to Representative Marcus Oshiro, one of the many people instrumental to the defeat of SB 1129, which had sought to legalize assisted suicide and euthanasia in Hawaii.

Representative Oshiro took the lead to make stopping the bill one of his main goals for the legislative session. From my viewpoint, he was a major reason we won in what was also a great team effort. Choice is an Illusion got him a plaque in appreciation.

Hawaii Assisted Suicide Dealt Another Blow

http://www.bigislandvideonews.com/2017/07/15/medical-aid-in-dying-dealt-another-blow-in-hawaii/

Doug Chin, Hawaii AG

ARTICLE SUMMARY- They failed at the legislature this year, and now a court dismissed a lawsuit, but advocates have not given up.

(BIVN) – An Oahu circuit judge on Friday [07/14/17] dismissed a lawsuit asking the court to prevent existing Hawaii criminal laws from being applied to medical aid in dying [assisted suicide] practices.

In its decision, the court relied upon state legal precedent that prohibited it from issuing such relief, the state attorney general said in a media release. The attorney general opposed the suit, filing the successful motion to dismiss.

US House Committee Votes to Repeal DC Assisted Suicide Law

Rep. Harris

Yesterday, the US House Appropriations Committee voted to prohibit funds for physician-assisted suicide in the District of Columbia, and to repeal the District's Death with Dignity Act. The vote was taken pursuant to an amendment proposed by Representative Andy Harris, which was approved 28 to 24.

For more information about the vote, see this Press Release: "Appropriations Committee Approves Fiscal Year 2018 Financial Services Bill."

For more information about the DC Act, click here.

Alabama: Assisted Suicide Ban Act to Go Into Effect

Governor Ivey

By Margaret K. Dore

On May 4, 2017, Governor Kay Ivey approved "Alabama's Assisted Suicide Ban Act." The Act's legislative findings include that in almost every state, it is a crime to assist a suicide.

Per the Act, any person who deliberately assists another person to commit suicide is guilty of a Class C felony. Violators are also subject to liability for damages, actions for wrongful death and suspension or revocation of professional healthcare licenses.

The Act provides that it "shall become effective on the first day of the third month following its passage and approval by the Governor."

To view a copy of the Act as enrolled, click here.

Delaware: Tell Legislators to Vote "No" on HB 160

For hard copy to hand out, click here
For supporting documentation, click here

• HB 160 legalizes assisted suicide and euthanasia as those terms are traditionally defined.

• The bill applies to people with years or decades to live.

• Assisting persons can have their own agendas: an adult child wanting an inheritance; a financial predator seeking financial gain; or a doctor wanting to hide malpractice.

Massachusetts: Michelle Carter Convicted of Involuntary Manslaughter Due to Assisting Suicide

Conrad Roy III

NPR  A Massachusetts judge has found Michelle Carter guilty of involuntary manslaughter after, prosecutors say, the then-teenager sent a fellow teenager text messages that urged him to commit suicide.

Juvenile Court Judge Lawrence Moniz decided the case, which Carter had opted to be heard by a judge rather than a jury. Even before Moniz read his verdict Friday, Carter, 20, was weeping and holding a tissue in the courtroom. The judge agreed with prosecutors that Carter's "wanton and reckless conduct" had resulted in the death of Conrad Roy III.

Delaware Assisted Suicide Euthanasia Bill: Proposed Oversight is a Sham

State House, Dover DE

To view a pdf version, click these links to view the index, memo and appendix.

I.  INTRODUCTION 

HB 160 legalizes assisted suicide and euthanasia as those terms are traditionally defined. The bill is based on a similar law in Oregon, which has a near complete lack of transparency.

If Delaware enacts HB 160 and follows Oregon practice, there will be a similar lack of transparency. The safety and welfare of individuals will be unverifiable from state sources.