Soyer: Who has the Choice in Assisted Suicide?

http://daily-iowan.com/2016/10/25/soyer-who-has-the-choice-in-assisted-suicide

Hannah Soyer

I am a very large supporter of individual choices and the right for individuals to make choices in regard to their own lives. Though, in the context of California’s most recent legislation concerning assisted suicide, the idea of “choice” may be disputed rather than upheld.

Stephanie Packer, a woman living in California who has a terminal form of scleroderma, an autoimmune disease, recently came out saying that her insurance company denied her coverage of chemotherapy but said it would cover doctor-assisted suicide. The insurance originally was going to cover her chemo, but then the End of Life Option Act went into effect on June 9. . .

Soon after this law was passed, Packer received a letter from her insurance company saying it was no longer going to cover her treatment, although the life-ending drugs would be covered.

Brittany Maynard's Story Sends the Wrong Message to Young People

Will Johnston, MD

Dear Editor:

I agree with the Gazette editorial board that legal assisted suicide sends the wrong message to young people. ("Vote 'no' on more suicide," 09/26/16). I also write to describe the damaging impact of the highly publicized case of Brittany Maynard, on my young adult patient who became actively suicidal after watching her video. I understand that her story is now being used to promote assisted suicide legalization in Colorado.

Ms. Maynard died in November 2014. A month later, I was presented with my young adult patient during an emergency appointment. He was physically healthy. His mother told me that he had been acting oddly and talking about death.

Montana: Say "No" to the Oregon Experience

By Margaret Dore, Esq., MBA

To view pdf version with footnotes, click here.

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.

Denver Post Switches Sides: Votes "NO" on Prop. 106

https://www.denverpost.com/2016/10/11/no-on-proposition-106-aid-in-dying-measure-lacks-proper-safeguards/

After a lot of soul-searching, we are asking voters to reject Proposition 106, a measure that would give patients the legal right to end their life, because we fear the cultural, legal and medical shift that it would create in Colorado.

Nancy Valko on Oregon: What hides in the dark?

"No other area of medical practice-even lethal injection-is allowed such secrecy and immunity." Nancy Valko, RN

"What hides in
 the dark?"

Edited by Margaret Dore, Esq., MBA

Note two provisions in Oregon's law:

“The Health Services shall make rules to facilitate the collection of information regarding compliance with ORS 127.800 to 127.897. Except as otherwise required by law, the information collected shall not be a public record and may not be made available for inspection by the public.” (Only an “an annual statistical report of information” is made public.) (Emphasis added.)

And 

“No person shall be subject to civil or criminal liability or professional disciplinary action for participating in good faith compliance with ORS 127.800 to 127.897. ” (Emphasis added.)

There is also no requirement that the doctor or anyone else witness or even be present at the lethal overdose.

Colorado Springs Gazette Editorial Board: "Vote 'no' on more suicide"

http://gazette.com/editorial-vote-no-on-more-suicide/article/1586396

Proposition 106 would establish the assisted suicide trade for doctors willing to participate. An out-of-state special interest, funded mostly by billionaire George Soros, has marketed this measure as a form of compassion.

Suicide rates are a crisis in Colorado, and a poorly written plan to legitimize these tragedies raises big concerns.

NEW DATE! Early Warning: Enjoy an Interesting Evening In Missoula Montana

Rep. Brad Tschida

Rolling Back the Suicide Epidemic:

Why are Physician-Assisted Suicide

and Euthanasia Bad News for Montana?

THURSDAY, Oct. 13, 2016, 7 p.m.
New date!

Click here to view flyer with the new date     

Presenters:   

Senator Jennifer Fielder

• Brad Tschida, Montana State Representative, a legislative leader in the fight to prevent suicide.
• Jennifer Fielder, Montana State Senator, a legislative leader in the fight to prevent suicide.
• Philip Tummarello, retired Sgt. Inspector of the San Francisco Police Department, who implemented and supervised the San Francisco Elder Abuse Task Force.
• Margaret Dore, a lawyer in Washington State where assisted suicide and euthanasia are legal, and president of Choice is an Illusion, a nonprofit corporation. 

DC Bill: Patients Have No Right to be Told of Options for Cure or to Extend Life; Patient Choice is Not Assured

"Ejusdem generis, Latin for
"of the same kind.”

By Margaret Dore, Esq., MBA

"Ejusdem generis" is Latin for "of the same kind."[1] The phrase is also a rule of statutory construction, which is used to interpret loosely written statutes[2]. The rule states:

"Where a law lists specific classes of persons or things and then refers to them in general, the general statements only apply to the same kind of persons or things specifically listed. Example:  if a law refers to automobiles, trucks, tractors, motorcycles and other motor-powered vehicles, 'vehicles' would not include airplanes, since the list was of land-based transportation." (Emphasis added). [3]

'Death with Dignity' Imperils the Poor

Reprint from 2004

http://realchangenews.org/index.php/site/archives/9122

Last week’s article by an assisted suicide/euthanasia advocate struck me as a bizarre article  

for Real Change, which advocates for the dignity and self-determination of the poor. (“Terminally ill patients face shortage of right-to-die drug amid controversy over capital punishment,” Real Change, June 18, 2014)