Proposed Federal Palliative Care Act Is a Springing Euthanasia Bill

By Margaret Dore, Esq., MBA

In 2012, an article in the New England Journal of Medicine reported that many doctors object to physician-assisted suicide.[1] The article's authors, Dr. Lisa Lehmann and Julian Prokopetz, argued back that assisted deaths need not be physician-assisted.[2] They said that a central government mechanism should provide the assistance instead:

We envision the development of a central state or federal mechanism to confirm the authenticity and eligibility of patients' requests, dispense medication [the lethal dose], and monitor demand and use.[3] 

Man Sentenced to 10 Years in Prison for Counseling Suicide to Obtain Life Insurance

Justice Peter Davis

To view original article, click here

“However, one can imagine many circumstances arising where people in positions of trust and responsibility could succumb to the temptation to counsel suicide for personal gain.”

By Hope Australia

These confronting words were spoken last week by Justice Davis in the Supreme Court of Queensland, as he sentenced Graham Robert Morant to 10 years imprisonment for counselling his wife to commit suicide.

Virginia: Legislative Panel Punts on Assisted Suicide-Euthanasia Proposal

Del. Scott Garrett, MD

To view the original article, click here.

By Katie O' Connor, Virginia Mercury

A group of lawmakers shot down proposals to allow medical-aid-in-dying, also known as physician-assisted suicide [and euthanasia], in Virginia on Wednesday in a review of a series of legislative recommendations on health care.

Del. Kaye Kory, D-Fairfax, requested that the Joint Commission on Health Care study the medical-aid-in-dying debate, in which a patient with less than six months to live obtains lethal drugs through a physician to end his or her life.

Australia: Husband Who Aided Wife's Suicide to Obtain Her Life Insurance Sentenced to Prison

Graham Morant, AAP Dan Peled

By Melanie Vujkovic

Graham Robert Morant was last month found guilty on two charges — counselling suicide and aiding suicide — for persuading his wife Jennifer Morant, 56, to kill herself in her car in 2014 and helping her buy the necessary equipment from a hardware store.

The court heard Morant was the sole beneficiary of Ms Morant's three life insurance policies, which Justice Peter Davis concluded was the motivation for his actions.

Why the Site HospiceFraud Exists

An excerpt below from "Hospice Fraud." 

This is not a site that supports hospice haters. This is a site that inspires solutions. You can't totally eliminate care for the elderly, disabled or dying or you will just have euthanasia! You have to have some type of caring whatever you call it and originally hospice was the appropriate way of caring for people using the best of science to relieve suffering without killing.

Today, much greed in the industry and those who have found ways to make a lot of money off of human suffering have changed the landscape. Hospice patients are simply a money crop.

Press Release: "Proposed Federal Hospice Act Must Be Defeated to 'Stop the Waste, Bleeding and Heartache'"

https://www.einnews.com/pr_news/465588180/proposed-federal-hospice-act-must-be-defeated-to-stop-the-waste-bleeding-and-heartache

Washington DC

Dore: "Existing federal hospice programs, such as the Medicare hospice benefit, are plagued by fraud, poor quality care, rampant abuse, arguably murder, and a gross waste of taxpayer dollars. Enacting another federal hospice program, when existing programs are far from being under control, makes no sense and will only cause more of the same."

"If my doctor had believed in assisted suicide, I would be dead"

Jeanette Hall and her son, Scott, in November 2000

By Jeanette Hall

I live in Oregon where assisted suicide is legal. Our law passed in 1997 by a ballot measure that I voted for.

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.

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.