The very dangerous assisted suicide bill passed by the House on May 1, 2013 will be debated and voted on by the Senate next Tuesday, May 7.
Please call the State House Sgt.at Arms Monday, May 6. The numbers are 802 828 2228 or 1-800-322-5616. Leave a message for your senator(s) asking them to oppose this legislation, modeled on that of another state and funded by out of state money as well. Please also email your senator(s) this weekend. The bill tramples on the freedoms we take for granted. You can find your senators’ contact information at http://www.leg.state.vt.us/legdir/districts.cfm?Body=S&Session=2014.
Please come to the State House on Tuesday. Volunteers will be there with stickers you can wear to show your opposition to assisted suicide.
In case we need to say it again, here are a few examples of how this bill tramples on our freedom:
- It will deprive people with incorrect prognoses or who choose suicide instead of treatment of the chance to live many more years. See the case of Jeanette Hall: http://mtstandard.com/news/opinion/mailbag/letter-oregon-cancer-survivor-no-fan-of-state-s-assisted/article_aeef3982-9a98-11df-8db2-001cc4c002e0.html.
- It will subject the elderly and very sick to abuse or even murder, because it requires no witnesses at the time the lethal dose is taken. See http://www.ktvz.com/news/Sawyer-Arraigned-on-State-Fraud-Charges/-/413192/619440/-/view/print/-/1w9ly3z/-/index.html.
- It will push people to suicide by telling them the state approves of it as a solution to some problems. Oregon’s general suicide rate began to rise three years after assisted suicide became legal and is now 141% of the national average. These statistics are consistent with suicide contagion (http://public.health.oregon.gov/DiseasesConditions/InjuryFatalityData/Documents/NVD RS/Suicide%20in%20Oregon%202012%20report.pdf).
- It will allow government run health insurance programs to steer some patients to suicide by denying coverage of life-prolonging or pain relieving treatment while offering coverage of assisted suicide. See the cases of Oregonians Barbara Wagner and Randy Stroup: (http://abcnews.go.com/Health/story?id=5517492&page=1#.UYQXI8r2V-4)
- It will tell people with disabilities who cannot live autonomously that their lives are undignified and also transmit this idea to the medical community, which even now often pressures them to sign Do Not Resuscitate orders when they are in the hospital. It will give the same idea to the government, with which they often have to fight to get the services they need simply to survive ((http://www.forbes.com/2009/07/24/obamacare-medicare-death-business-healthcare-obamacare.html).
- It will provide assistance in suicide rather than help to people with treatable clinical depression. Although statistics show high percentages of depression in terminally ill patients, they also show a good response to treatment in such patients (http://www.nursingcenter.com/lnc/cearticle?tid=1364981).