Memo to the U.S. Senate HELP Committee: Vote No on the Palliative Care and Hospice Education and Training Act

By Margaret Dore, Esq., MBA

For a summary sheet including a similar House bill (H.R. 1676), click here. For a pdf version of this memo, click here.

I.  INTRODUCTION

I am an elder law attorney and president of Choice is an Illusion, a nonprofit corporation opposed to assisted suicide and euthanasia.[1] Formed in 2010, Choice is an Illusion fights against assisted suicide and euthanasia throughout the U.S. and in other countries.[2] We also fight against hospice and palliative care abuse.

S. 693, the Palliative Care and Hospice Education & Training Act," amends the existing Public Health Service Act to require financial support for “Palliative Care and Hospice Education Centers.”[3] This is a new program, which will include direct patient care.[4]

Existing federal palliative care programs, such as the Medicare hospice benefit, are plagued by fraud, poor quality care and a gross waste of taxpayer money.[5] S. 693 must be rejected unless problems with existing programs are resolved; Congress must not throw good money after bad. The bill must also be rejected for the reasons set forth below. 

Australian Man Convicted of Assisting Suicide

An Australian man has been convicted of aiding his wife's suicide, after a court heard he had coveted payouts from her life insurance.

Jennifer Morant, 56, had suffered from chronic pain but was not terminally ill when she died in 2014, a court heard.

A jury found that Graham Morant, 69, counselled and aided his wife to take her life. He had denied both charges.

South Africa: Euthanasia Society President Charged with Murder of Disabled Man

EUTHANASIA-FREE NZ: MEDIA RELEASE

Click here to view.

Sean Davison, a New Zealand citizen who was convicted of assisted suicide in Dunedin, appeared in a South African court on Wednesday on a murder charge.

The charge is in relation to the death of Anrich Burger, 53, who became a quadriplegic after a motor vehicle accident in 2005. He was not terminally ill.

The Letter the Kansas City Star Refused to Print

Wrong on Suicide

Dear Editor

I am an attorney and president of Choice is an Illusion, a nonprofit corporation opposed to assisted suicide and euthanasia. Formed in 2010, Choice is an Illusion fights against assisted suicide and euthanasia throughout the US and in other countries. 

David Grube’s guest commentary claims that Oregon’s suicide rates “overall have gone down ... since its Death with Dignity Act went into effect in 1997.” This claim is false.

Australia: Man pleads not guilty to assisting his wife's suicide, as prosecutors claim he did so to access her life insurance

By Melanie Vujkovic, click here to view original article

A 69-year-old man who has pleaded not guilty to assisting his wife to kill herself in 2014 had "1.4 million reasons" to intentionally help her end her life because she had three life insurance policies, a court has heard.

Graham Robert Morant is on trial in the Supreme Court in Brisbane on two counts, including one of counselling and one of aiding Jennifer Morant, 56, to kill herself.

Roger Foley Challenges Canada's Euthanasia Law

https://nationalpost.com/news/canada/denied-assisted-life-by-hospital-ontario-man-is-offered-death-instead-lawsuit

An Ontario hospital that wants to discharge a suicidal man [Roger Foley] with a crippling brain disease threatened to start charging him $1,800 a day, and suggested his other options included medically assisted death [non-voluntary euthanasia], according to a new lawsuit.

It also claims Canada’s new assisted dying laws are unconstitutional and should be struck down because they do not require doctors “to even try to help relieve intolerable suffering” before offering to kill a terminally ill patient.