Maryland Psychiatrists Oppose Medical-aid-in-dying Bill for Good Reason

 https://www.baltimoresun.com/2024/02/23/psychiatrists-oppose-suicide-bill

Photo from last year: O. J. Brigance, a former Ravens football player who has the neurodegenerative disease ALS, waits to testify against a bill to legalize physician-assisted death last year.

This year, the Legislative Action Committee of the Maryland Psychiatric Society, an organization that represents physician psychiatrists in Maryland (excluding Montgomery and Prince George’s counties), voted to oppose the End-of-Life Option Act (Senate Bill 443/House Bill 403), which has been discussed in the Senate and House this month.

This bill would allow physicians to prescribe lethal drugs to terminally ill and mentally capable adults who request to die. The practice has alternately been known as “physician-assisted suicide,” “medical aid in dying” or “death with dignity.” However, its essence remains: It involves medical professionals as active agents in the death of patients. The bill, as written, supports a practice that is contrary to the professional philosophy of psychiatrists, our training and the reasons why we choose this occupation.

Delaware Talking Points

By Margaret Dore, Esq., MBA

“Aid in Dying” has been a euphemism for physician-assisted suicide and euthanasia since at least 1992.

Per the American Medical Association, "physician-assisted suicide" occurs when a doctor facilitates a patient’s death by providing the means or information to enable a patient to perform the life-ending act. "Euthanasia" is the administration of a lethal agent by another person.

Persons assisting a suicide can have an agenda. Reported motives include: the “thrill” of getting other people to kill themselves; a desire for sympathy and attention; and wanting to see someone die.

Canadian Bill C-62 Regarding Mental Illness

Federal Bill C-62 seeks to amend Canada's Criminal Code, to provide that persons are not eligible, until March 17, 2027, to receive medical assistance in dying “if their sole underlying medical condition is a mental illness” continues its legislative journey.*

The adoption of a motion this week allowed this Bill to be expedited. Note that there was a failed attempt by the Bloc Québécois to add the issue of advance requests to C-62.

We thank psychiatrists Pierre Gagnon and Sonu Gaind who spent  Valentine's evening participating in the only meeting of the Standing Committee on Health studying the Bill.

West Virginia Proposes Constitutional Protection From Medically-Assisted Suicide and Euthanasia

House Joint Resolution 28

Proposing an amendment to the Constitution of the State of West Virginia amending Article III thereof by adding thereto a new section, designated section twenty-three, relating to the protection from medically-assisted suicide or euthanasia in West Virginia; numbering and designating such proposed amendment; and providing a summarized statement of the purpose of such proposed amendment.

Nine States Have Strengthened Their Laws Against Assisted Suicide

Alabama Governor
Kay Ivey

By Margaret Dore, Esq., MBA

In the last thirteen years, at least nine states have strengthened their laws against assisted suicide and/or euthanasia. They are:

1.  Alabama:  In 2017, Alabama enacted the Assisted Suicide Ban Act;
2.  Arizona:  In 2014, Arizona strengthened its law against assisted suicide.
3.  Georgia:  In 2012, Georgia strengthened its law against assisted suicide.
4.  Idaho:  On April 5, 2011, Idaho strengthened its law against assisted suicide.
5.  Indiana:  On January 29, 2024, the Indiana House and Senate supported a joint resolution opposing  and condemning assisted medical suicide.

Indiana House Resolution Opposing Assisted Suicide; Senate Concurring

To view the entire document, click here.

Be it resolved by the House of Representatives of the General Assembly of the State of Indiana, the Senate concurring: 

SECTION 1. That the Indiana General Assembly strongly opposes and condemns assisted medical suicide because the Indiana General Assembly has an unqualified interest in the preservation of human life. 

SECTION 2. That the Indiana General Assembly strongly opposes and condemns assisted medical suicide because anything less than a prohibition leads to foreseeable abuses and eventually to euthanasia by devaluing human life, particularly the lives of the terminally ill, elderly, disabled, and depressed whose lives are of no less value or quality than any other citizen of this state. 

Declaration of Jeanette Hall 23 Years After She Was Talked Out of Assisted Suicide in Oregon

Jeanette with her son Scott, shortly
after she changed her mind

I, JEANETTE HALL, declare as follows:

1.  I live in Oregon where assisted suicide is legal. Our law was enacted in 1997 via a ballot measure that I voted for.

2.  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.

3.  I did not want to suffer. I wanted to do our law and I wanted Dr. Stevens to help me. Instead, he encouraged me to not give up and ultimately I decided to fight the cancer. I had both chemotherapy and radiation. I am happy to be alive!

Proposed Bill Renders Delaware Residents Sitting Ducks to Their Heirs and Other Predators

Attorney Margaret Dore, President of Choice is an Illusion, which has fought against assisted suicide and euthanasia legalization throughout the United States, and internationally, has issued the following statement regarding House Bill 140, still pending in the Delaware General Assembly. The proposed bill seeks to legalize assisted suicide, physician-assisted suicide and euthanasia, on both a voluntary and involuntary basis. The Act, deceptively titled End of Life Options, refers to these practices as medical aid in dying.

“Aid in Dying has been a euphemism for physician-assisted suicide and euthanasia since at least 1992," said Dore. “Per the American Medical Association, ‘physician-assisted suicide’ occurs when a doctor facilitates a patient’s death by providing the means or information to enable a patient to perform the life-ending act. ‘Euthanasia’ is the administration of a lethal agent by another person.”

Anita Cameron’s Powerful Statement At Maryland Press Conference

By Diane Coleman

On February 8, the Maryland Senate's Judicial Proceedings Committee held a public hearing on a proposed assisted suicide bill (SB0443). That morning prior to the hearing, the Patients Rights Action Fund organized a press conference of opponents. Anita Cameron represented Not Dead Yet and made the following compelling arguments against the bill:

I'm Anita Cameron, Director of Minority Outreach for Not Dead Yet, a national disability organization opposed to medical discrimination, healthcare rationing, euthanasia and assisted suicide.

SB 0443 will put sick people, seniors and disabled people, especially, at risk due to the view of doctors that disabled people have a lower quality of life, therefore leading them to devalue our lives.