Speaking in Washington State USA

Margaret Dore

This evening, Margaret Dore, a lawyer and president of Choice is an Illusion, was the featured speaker at St. Louise Parish Hall in Bellevue, Washington State.

Her main topics included problems with assisted suicide in Washington and how to win in the future against legalization. She also discussed suicide contagion in Oregon.

To learn more about assisted suicide in Washington State, click here, here and here.

Special thanks to Debby Ummel who organized the event.

Washington State Act Must Be Overturned

Click here for pdf version.

Washington State’s Death with Dignity Act was passed by the voters as Initiative1000. During the election, backers touted it as providing "choice" for individuals. A glossy brochure declared, "Only the patient — and no one else — may administer the [lethal dose]." The Act does not say this anywhere.[1]

•  The Act legalized assisted suicide as that term is traditionally defined. In the fine print, the Act allows euthanasia.

New Office of Inspector General Report: Hospice Deficiencies Pose Risks to Medicare Beneficiaries

WHY WE DID THIS STUDY  

The Office of Inspector General (OIG) has identified significant vulnerabilities in the Medicare hospice benefit and found that hospices did not always provide needed services to beneficiaries and sometimes provided poor quality care.  Click here to view report.

"Do or Refer" Doctors Are Not Allowed to Use Their Best Judgment for Individual Patients (No More Jeanette Halls)

Jeanette Hall with her son Scott
shortly after she changed
her mind.

Margaret Dore Esq., MBA*

Yesterday, a doctor asked me about "do or refer" provisions in some of the newer bills seeking to legalize assisted suicide in the United States. For this reason, I now address the subject in the context of a 2018 Wisconsin bill, which did not pass.

The bill, AB 216, required the patient's attending physician to "fulfill the request for medication or refer," i.e. to write a lethal prescription for the purpose of killing the patient, or to make an effective referral to another physician, who would do it.

The bill also said that the attending physician's failure to comply would be "unprofessional conduct" such that the physician would be subject to discipline. The bill states:

Nevada: Bill All But Dead

SB 165, which would have legalized assisted suicide and euthanasia in Nevada, failed to make it out of its house of origin, so that it is now all but dead. According to 3 News Las Vegas:

While the bills the couldn't make it out of committee are technically off the table, they won't officially be out of the question until the Legislative Session ends in June.

The next major deadline comes on May 17. 

Maine: Tell the Legislature to Reject Bill LD 1313; Say "No" to Assisted Suicide & Euthanasia

By Margaret Dore, Esq., MBA

Click here for pdf version.

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. In the fine print, both laws allow euthanasia. Both laws are similar to the proposed bill, LD 1313.[2]

The proposed bill seeks to legalize physician-assisted suicide and euthanasia as those terms are traditionally defined. If enacted, the bill will apply to people with years or decades to live. Individuals with money, meaning the middle class and above, will be especially at risk. I urge you to reject LD 1313.