EPC-USA Disability Rights Opposition New Hampshire to Assisted Suicide Bill HB1283.

Dear Senator

Meghan Schrader

EPC-USA's Fact Sheet is testimony regarding the social harms attached to assisted suicide legislation like HB1283. However, given that assisted suicide’s negative impact is going to fall primarily on the disabled community, the EPC felt that we should submit a more detailed analysis of how assisted suicide undermines disability rights, and whose advice on this matter ought to be heeded by members of the Assembly.

Members of the EPC board with training in the fields of disability studies and advocacy have noted that some assisted suicide advocates are trying to hijack disability rights for their own purposes. For instance, an able-bodied man named Christopher Riddle has done pro-assisted suicide advocacy in the Northeast while presenting himself as a “disability rights advocate.” Riddle is a colleague of Udo Schuklenk, one of the architects of Canada’s euthanasia program, and Riddle enthusiastically approves of that program.

Moreover, Riddle’s theories about disability rights have been reasonably criticized as lacking any empirical grounding in the experiences of disabled people. He has no experience or personal stake in the practical implications of his ideas.

Furthermore, Riddle’s scholarship dehumanizes disabled people who are harmed by assisted suicide; he frames anyone who might be harmed by assisted suicide as the equivalent of a car accident statistic. He asserts that harm that assisted suicide might cause for people with disabilities “ought not to be of special concern.” Hence, Riddle is willing to sacrifice people with disabilities for the right to die movement’s agenda; he is not the “disability rights advocate” he claims to be.

For a more accurate understanding of how the disabled community has approached the issue of assisted suicide, we encourage you to watch a video created by disability studies ethicist Harold Braswell about disability rights opposition to assisted suicide. Braswell has studied the right to die issue extensively.

There are other very important facts that legislators must take into account when considering how assisted suicide is impacting the disabled community:

The American Association of Suicidology made a 2017 statement saying that “MAiD” was not suicide. But in 2023 the AAS had to retract that statement because it was used in the 2019 Truchon decision that expanded assisted suicide to disabled Canadians, which was opposed by the Canadian Association for Suicide Prevention.The consequences of the AAS’s statement are an example of how green lighting assisted suicide for the terminally ill easily results in violence against people with disabilities.

In 2021, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Rights of People with Disabilities asserted that all assisted suicide laws violate its Convention On The Rights of People with Disabilities.

Peer-reviewed research establishes that people are more likely to view suicide as acceptable if the victim is disabled, and people with disabilities often lack access to comprehensive suicide prevention care. This bill exacerbates that problem by laying the scaffolding for “MAiD” to become a substitute for the suicides of persons with disabilities.

Well-known right to die leader Thaddeus Mason Pope has tweeted that it’s good for disabled people to die by suicide; the director of Compassion and Choices appeared on Dr. Phil with Pope in 2023. If you pass this bill, you empower and reward a contingent of people who want disabled people’s suicides to be a “medical procedure.”

We urge you to allow HB1283 to die this session because regardless of its content, it rewards a movement that is hostile to people with disabilities. Exacerbating the oppression that disabled people already face so that the proponents can plan their deaths is unwise and unjust.

Sincerely,

Meghan Schrader, Disability Rights EPC-USA
Josephine L.A. Glaser, MD.,FAAFP
Colleen E. Barry, Chairperson
Kenneth Stevens, MD
William Toffler, MD
Gordon Friesen
Alex Schadenberg
Epc_USA@yahoo.com

Endnotes

1. https://twitter.com/cariddlephd/status/1373071051631038470
2. http://www.lpbr.net/2014/08/disability-and-justice-capabilities.html?m=1
3. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/09687599.2014.984931
4. https://philpapers.org/rec/RIDAD
5. https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/vdpwdt26wwq42ak0eraee/Braswell_PAS-Statement_To-Send-1.mov?rlkey=05vve2sis2s4sy51hma27jx2u&dl=0
6. https://www.slu.edu/arts-and-sciences/bioethics/faculty/braswell-harold.php
7. https://suicidology.org/2023/03/08/aas-update-on-previous-statement/
8. https://twitter.com/TrudoLemmens/status/1666067817035190272
9. https://suicideprevention.ca/media/statement-on-recent-maid-developments/
10. https://www.ohchr.org/en/press-releases/2021/01/disability-not-reason-sanction-medically-assisted-dying-un-experts
11. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/26402344/
12. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XXVrgtTNN2Y&t=2108s
13. https://twitter.com/ThaddeusPope/status/1669450726831976449

EPC-USA Disability Rights Statement in STRONG OPPOSITION to New York Assisted Suicide Bill

Dear Members of the New York Assembly:

The EPC-USA has already submitted testimony regarding the social harms attached to assisted suicide legislation like A995A. However, given that assisted suicide’s negative impact is going to fall primarily on the disabled community, the EPC felt that we should submit a more detailed analysis of how assisted suicide undermines disability rights, and whose advice on this matter ought to be heeded by members of the Assembly.

Members of the EPC board with training in the fields of disability studies and advocacy have noted that some assisted suicide advocates are trying to hijack disability rights for their own purposes. For instance, an able-bodied man named Christopher Riddle has done pro-assisted suicide advocacy in New York while presenting himself as a “disability rights advocate.” Riddle is a colleague of Udo Schuklenk, one of the architects of Canada’s euthanasia program, and Riddle enthusiastically approves of that program.

Moreover, Riddle’s theories about disability rights have been reasonably criticized as lacking any empirical grounding in the experiences of disabled people. He has no experience or personal stake in the practical implications of his ideas.

Furthermore, Riddle’s scholarship dehumanizes disabled people who are harmed by assisted suicide; he frames anyone who might be harmed by assisted suicide as the equivalent of a car accident statistic. He asserts that harm that assisted suicide might cause for people with disabilities “ought not to be of special concern.” Hence, Riddle is willing to sacrifice people with disabilities for the right to die movement’s agenda; he is not the “disability rights advocate” he claims to be.

For a more accurate understanding of how the disabled community has approached the issue of assisted suicide, we encourage you to watch a video created by disability studies ethicist Harold Braswell about disability rights opposition to assisted suicide. Braswell has studied the right to die issue extensively.

There are other very important facts that legislators must take into account when considering how assisted suicide is impacting the disabled community:

The American Association of Suicidology made a 2017 statement saying that “MAiD” was not suicide. But in 2023 the AAS had to retract that statement because it was used in the 2019 Truchon decision that expanded assisted suicide to disabled Canadians, which was opposed by the Canadian Association for Suicide Prevention.The consequences of the AAS’s statement are an example of how green lighting assisted suicide for the terminally ill easily results in violence against people with disabilities.

In 2021, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Rights of People with Disabilities asserted that all assisted suicide laws violate its Convention On The Rights of People with Disabilities.

Peer-reviewed research establishes that people are more likely to view suicide as acceptable if the victim is disabled, and people with disabilities often lack access to comprehensive suicide prevention care. This bill exacerbates that problem by laying the scaffolding for “MAiD” to become a substitute for the suicides of persons with disabilities.

Well-known right to die leader Thaddeus Mason Pope has tweeted that it’s good for disabled people to die by suicide; the director of Compassion and Choices appeared on Dr. Phil with Pope in 2023. If you pass this bill, you empower and reward a contingent of people who want disabled people’s suicides to be a “medical procedure.”

We urge you to allow A995A to die this session because regardless of its content, it rewards a movement that is hostile to people with disabilities. Exacerbating the oppression that disabled people already face so that the proponents can plan their deaths is unwise and unjust.

Sincerely,

Meghan Schrader, Disability Rights EPC-USA

Josephine L.A. Glaser, MD.,FAAFP

Colleen E. Barry, Chairperson

Kenneth Stevens, MD

William Toffler, MD

Gordon Friesen

Alex Schadenberg

Letter to New York Legislators opposing assisted suicide Bill S.2445.

Euthanasia Prevention Coalition-USA Statement in STRONG OPPOSITION to S.2445: Assisted Suicide–also known as “Medical Aid in Dying” 

Dear Senator:

Please let S.2445 die this session. Assisted suicide laws disguised as legally contrived, confusing, and euphemistic term, "medical aid in dying" is not healthcare. Assisted suicide proponents are trying to sell you a "pig in a poke." It's not about pain or a quick, peaceful death. It spawns more suicides and provides less healthcare. EPC-USA's physicians and disability advocates express strong opposition to assisted suicide.

The Euthanasia Prevention Coalition USA supports public policy that promotes positive measures to improve the quality of life of people living with a terminal illness and their families; we oppose euthanasia and assisted suicide. We are aging and disability advocates, lawyers, doctors, nurses and politicians.

Any safeguards are part of a deliberate bait and switch tactic by assisted suicide advocates to get a bill passed and then come back to amend it by gutting those safeguards. This was openly acknowledged by J.M. Sorrell, Executive Director of Massachusetts Death with Dignity, who was quoted on a similar bill saying, “Once you get something passed, you can always work on amendments later.” (Link) Oregon, Washington, California, Vermont, Hawaii, and New Mexico all have provisions that dramatically waive safeguards. 

This incremental strategy to promote legal and social acceptance of assisted suicide in the U.S. state by state since 1997 is confirmed by the Compassion & Choices (Link) strategic plan. 

It’s Not about Pain  

“I’m often asked if I want people to die in pain. You probably have been asked that question, too.” Dr. Lonny Shavelson, a California assisted suicide provider says promoting “aid in dying” as avoiding pain is a political sales pitch. See webinar minutes 25:24-27:53. He says people choose assisted suicide because they are low energy or afraid of losing control.  A Review of Oregon’s assisted dying law finds significant data gaps (Link). The review revealed that information on clinical complications is often missing, while key information on the factors behind medical decision-making, the effectiveness of the lethal drugs used, and the extent of palliative care support is not collected.

It’s Not about a Peaceful or Quick Death 

Dr. Shavelson says the idea that assisted suicide creates a peaceful beautiful death is another myth. See webinar minutes 37:35-41:00. 

No amount of bill language can change the fact that some people will suffer prolonged and agonizing deaths from the experimental lethal drug cocktails, with some regaining consciousness only to die of their terminal illness. Medical science cannot guarantee the peaceful death proponents claim. If lethal injections administered for capital punishment have resulted in inhumane deaths, oral ingestion of lethal drug compounds is far more likely to do so.

Assisted Suicide Spawns More Suicides and Attempted Suicides.

Assisted suicide laws send a message that suicide is an acceptable way to solve problems. Publicity about suicide also leads to more suicides. This is called suicide contagion. A special concern with NY High School students, as discussed in an article on Centers for Latina Girls.

Legalization of Assisted Suicide also impacts youths suicide. A 2019 report found teen suicides in California increased by 34% (Link) since that state legalized Assisted Suicide in 2016. Oregon’s youth suicides increased 79.3% from 2000 to 2018. Research about completed suicides in four states that legalized Assisted Suicide (Oregon, Washington, Vermont and Montana) found it was associated at least a 6.3% increase in the rate of all suicide deaths (Link).

Insurance Companies Use Assisted Suicide to Deny Curative Life-Saving Treatment

Insurers stop covering certain treatments due to the availability of Assisted Suicide. Dr. Brian Callister (Link) of Nevada says he was stunned when insurance would not cover life saving treatment for his patients who were transferring to California and Oregon, but offered to pay for Assisted Suicide instead. These were people who could be cured with the denied treatment (Link) rather than being rendered terminal. (Link) In effect, Assisted Suicide is used to shunt people off the curative, restorative medicine track, especially if they cannot afford to pay for treatments out of pocket.  

People of color understand this will be used to provide them poorer care. 

Even with insurance, people of color get poorer hospital care and pain relief. According to a New York Times (Link) article, people of color disproportionately died of COVID-19. So, it is unsurprising Black and Latinx people oppose Assisted Suicide by 2-1 margins. (Link) ... the voting results from Ballot Question 2 in 2012 show Assisted Suicide pits wealthier, whiter districts against those with poorer people of color according to Second Thoughts - Massachusetts.

EPC-USA's physicians remind us that Assisted Suicide laws exacerabate systematic inequalities that disabled people experience with respect to suicide prevention. A "Federal study found that the nation's assisted suicide laws are rife with dangers to people with disabilities" (Link)

EPC-USA’s physicians remind us that Physicians are fallible. Misdiagnoses and unreliable terminal prognoses are documented in at least three cases: Jeanette hall (Link), John Norton, (Link) and Rahamim Melamed an Rahamim Mlamed-Cohen (Link).

In 2023, American Association of Suicidology (AAS) national organizations recognized their mistake and retracted their support for assisted suicide and its legally constructed term“MAiD”:

In 2017, the American Association of Suicidology (AAS) published their statement that “MAiD” was not suicide. In 2023, the AAS retracted their 2017 statement because their 2017 statement was used by assisted suicide advocates in the 2019 Truchon decision that expanded assisted suicide to disabled Canadians. The Canadian Association for Suicide Prevention opposes the expansion of MAiD legislation to include mental illness.

EPC-USA’s Disability Rights Advocates remind us Assisted Suicide for the terminally ill very clearly normalizes discussions about whether it might be ok to help disabled people die by suicide. Without realizing it we can be blind to the reality that supporting Assisted Suicide individually and corporately is an example of ableism and perpetuates systemic racism for the poor, disabled, lonely, vulnerable and marginalized young and elderly individuals.

Highly educated advocates for assisted suicide laws like Christopher Riddler and Udo Schuklenk are known for their assisted suicide advocacy in New York and Canada while misrepresenting themselves as a "disability rights advocates" Their philosophy blinds NY legislators in the reality of their ableist philosophy. 

No change in language alters the fact that offering suicide prevention to most people while offering suicide assistance (legally constructed as “medical aid in dying”) to an ever-widening subset of disabled people undermines disability rights and perpetuates lethal disability discrimination. Passing an assisted suicide law in New York is unwise and unjust.

 As the cheapest state-sponsored “treatment,” assisted suicide diminishes patient choice and takes away patient autonomy of the most vulnerable. Assisted suicide combined with a broken health care and home care system is a deadly mix for people who are economically poor, lonely, vulnerable, elderly, disabled, and historically marginalized in the US healthcare system. 

Advocates of assisted suicide assert that there has never been one case of abuse related to laws legalizing assisted suicide under the legally constructed and euphemistic term "medical aid in dying." Setting aside the inherent flaw of making such a broad assertion, the Disability Rights Education and Defense Fund (DREDF) has catalogued a long list of abuse cases (Link).

We urge you to oppose policies that provide legal immunity to assisted suicide providers and allow them to use their medical license to legally harm / kill patients who are not yet at death's door by prescribing them lethal drugs.

We urge you to allow S.2445 to die this session - a harmful, dangerous and deadly assisted suicide law.

Sincerely, 

Colleen E. Barry, Chairperson 347-245-9476

Josephine L.A. Glaser, MD.,FAAFP

Kenneth Stevens, MD

William Toffler, MD

Gordon Friesen

Alex Schadenberg

Euthanasia Prevention Coalition USA

Epc_USA@yahoo.com

Oregon 2021 assisted suicide report. Ingestion status unknown with 106 lethal prescriptions.

Alex Schadenberg
Executive Director, Euthanasia Prevention Coalition

The Oregon 2021 assisted suicide report indicates that there were 238 reported assisted suicide deaths and 383 lethal prescriptions written in 2021.

The number of reported assisted suicide deaths was lower in 2021 but that may be misleading. The 2020 report stated that 245 people reportedly died by assisted suicide and the ingestion status was unknown for 80 people who received lethal drugs. The 2021 report stated that 259 people died by assisted suicide in 2020. Therefore 14 reports from 2020 were received late by the Oregon Health Authority.

Since the 2021 report states that there were 238 reported assisted suicide deaths and the ingestion status is unknown for 106 people who received lethal drugs. Similar to last year people who received lethal drugs died by assisted suicide but the report has not yet been submitted.

As with previous years, the report implies that the deaths were voluntary (self-administered), but the information in the report does not address that subject.

According to the 2021 Oregon assisted suicide report.

• There were 238 reported assisted suicide deaths.
• There were 383 lethal prescriptions written which is up from 373 in 2020.
• 20 of the deaths, the lethal drugs were prescribed in previous years.
• 2 people were referred for a psychiatric evaluation.
• 1 person ingested the assisted suicide drugs but did not die.
  
• 106 people received lethal prescriptions, but their "ingestion" status is unknown. When the ingestion status is unknown, the person may have died by assisted suicide but no report was received as of the time of publishing the report.
  
• The time of death ranged from two minutes to 24 hours, but the data is only available when a health care provider was present.
• 1 physicians was referred to the Oregon Medical Board for failure to comply with the law in 2021.
• Anorexia is now listed as a condition for which assisted suicide is provided.
• As in previous years, the three most frequently reported end-of-life concerns were loss of autonomy (93%), decreasing ability to participate in activities that made life enjoyable (92%), and loss of dignity (68%)

• *Order the pamphlet - Shedding light on assisted suicide in America.

Expansion of assisted suicide.

Oregon Governor Kate Brown, in July 2019, signing Bill SB 0579 into law. This bill, essentially, eliminates the 15 day assisted suicide waiting period. This expansion of assisted suicide allows the physician to waive the waiting period, and if the patient is depressed, the patient loses the opportunity to change their mind.

 

In 81 cases the physician waived the 15 day waiting period - in some cases the lethal poison was ingested the day after being first requested.

Assisted suicide drug experimentation.

Assisted suicide activists have been experimenting for several years with lethal drug cocktails on people approved for assisted suicide. An article by Lisa Krieger published by the Medical Xpress on September 8, 2020 uncovers information about the lethal drug experiments:

A little-known secret, not publicized by advocates of aid-in-dying, was that while most deaths were speedy, others were very slow. Some patients lingered for six or nine hours; a few, more than three days. No one knew why, or what needed to change.

"The public thinks that you take a pill and you're done," said Dr. Gary Pasternak, chief medical officer of Mission Hospice in San Mateo. "But it's more complicated than that."

An article published in USA Today in February 2017 examined the experiments  being done on people to find a cheaper lethal drug cocktail for assisted suicide. The article states that assisted suicide researchers are promoting new generations of lethal drug cocktails. The results of the first two lethal drug cocktails were:

The (first) turned out to be too harsh, burning patients’ mouths and throats, causing some to scream in pain. The second drug mix, used 67 times, has led to deaths that stretched out hours in some patients — and up to 31 hours in one case.

The 2021 Oregon report emphasizes the use of the fourth generation of lethal drug cocktails show that the length of time to die has reduced but the problems with the use of these lethal drug cocktails continues.

 

Link to video by Dr William Toffler of Oregon on this topic (Link).

 

In December 2017, Fabian Stahle, a Swedish researcher who is concerned about assisted suicide, communicated by email with a representative of the Oregon Health Authority.

• Oregon Health Authority reveals hidden problems with the Oregon assisted suicide law.

Stahle confirmed that the definition of terminal illness, used by the Oregon Health Authority includes people who may become terminally ill if they refuse effective medical treatment.

• Hidden problems with the Oregon assisted suicide law.

The responses to Stahle from the Oregon Health Authority also confirmed that there is no effective oversight of the Oregon assisted suicide law.

 

The yearly Oregon DWD reports are based on data from the physicians who prescribe and carry-out the assisted suicide deaths and the data is not independently verified. 

 

Data concerning complications and length of time of death, etc., can only be verified when a healthcare provider is present at the death. In other words, we don't know if more complications were not reported or if abuse of the law has occurred or if all of the information from these reports is accurate.

Oregon 2020 assisted suicide report - 28% increase in assisted deaths.

Alex Schadenberg
Executive Director, Euthanasia Prevention Coalition

The 2020 Oregon assisted suicide report indicates that there was a 28% increase in the number of reported assisted suicide deaths since the 2019 Oregon assisted suicide report. As with previous years, the report implies that the deaths were voluntary (self-administered), but the information in the report does not address that subject.

According to the 2020 Oregon assisted suicide report.

• There were 245 reported assisted suicide deaths up from 191 in 2019.
• There were 370 lethal prescriptions written, up from 290 in 2019.
• 22 of the deaths, the lethal drugs were prescribed in previous years.
• 3 people were referred for a psychological or psychiatric evaluation.
• 1 physicians was referred to the Oregon Medical Board for failure to comply with the law in 2019.
  
• In 2019, the time of death ranged from 1 minute to 47 hours, in 2020 the time of death ranged from 6 minutes to 8 hours.
  
• 80 people received lethal prescriptions, but their "ingestion" status is unknown.

*Order the pamphlet - Shedding light on assisted suicide in America.

The increase in the number of assisted suicide deaths is likely related to the normalization of assisted suicide in Oregon and the change in the law to allow doctors to waive the waiting period.

 

There may be more assisted suicide deaths.

According to the 2020 Oregon report, the ingestion status was unknown in 80 deaths. When the ingestion status is unknown, the Oregon Health Authority knows that the person received lethal drugs but they have no idea how the person died. It is possible that all or some of the unknown deaths are unreported assisted suicide deaths. 

The 2019 report stated that 188 people died by assisted suicide, but the 2020 report amends teh 2019 data by stating that there were 191 reported assisted suicide deaths.

Expansion of assisted suicide.

Oregon Governor Kate Brown, in July 2019, signing Bill SB 0579 into law. This bill, essentially, eliminates the 15 day assisted suicide waiting period. This expansion of assisted suicide allows the physician to waive the waiting period, and if the patient is depressed, the patient loses the opportunity to change their mind.

Assisted suicide drug experimentation.

Assisted suicide activists have been experimenting for several years with lethal drug cocktails on people approved for assisted suicide. An article by Lisa Krieger published by the Medical Xpress on September 8, 2020 uncovers information about the lethal drug experiments:

A little-known secret, not publicized by advocates of aid-in-dying, was that while most deaths were speedy, others were very slow. Some patients lingered for six or nine hours; a few, more than three days. No one knew why, or what needed to change.

"The public thinks that you take a pill and you're done," said Dr. Gary Pasternak, chief medical officer of Mission Hospice in San Mateo. "But it's more complicated than that."

An article published in USA Today in February 2017 examined the experiments  being done on people to find a cheaper lethal drug cocktail for assisted suicide. The article states that assisted suicide researchers are promoting new generations of lethal drug cocktails. The results of the first two lethal drug cocktails were:

The (first) turned out to be too harsh, burning patients’ mouths and throats, causing some to scream in pain. The second drug mix, used 67 times, has led to deaths that stretched out hours in some patients — and up to 31 hours in one case.

The 2020 Oregon report emphasizes the use of the fourth generation of lethal drug cocktails show that the length of time to die has reduced but the problems with the use of these lethal drug cocktails continue.

 

Link to video by Dr William Toffler of Oregon on this topic (Link).

In December 2017, Fabian Stahle, a Swedish researcher who is concerned about assisted suicide, communicated by email with a representative of the Oregon Health Authority.

• Oregon Health Authority reveals hidden problems with the Oregon assisted suicide law.

Stahle confirmed that the definition of terminal illness, used by the Oregon Health Authority includes people who may become terminally ill if they refuse effective medical treatment.

• Hidden problems with the Oregon assisted suicide law.

The responses to Stahle from the Oregon Health Authority also confirmed that there is no effective oversight of the Oregon assisted suicide law.

 

The yearly Oregon DWD reports are based on data from the physicians who prescribe and carry-out the assisted suicide death and the data is not independently verified. Therefore, we don't know if the information from these reports is accurate or if abuse of the law occurs.

There is no effective oversight of assisted suicide laws.

Alex Schadenberg
Executive Director, Euthanasia Prevention Coalition

Assisted suicide laws work by giving a doctor, the power to decide that a person qualifies to die by lethal drugs. The same doctor is given the right in law to prescribe lethal drugs, and finally the same doctor, after the death, submits a report to the relevant authorities. This self-reporting system is designed to protect doctors who are willing to cause the death of a patient.

Dr William Toffler, a physician in Oregon where assisted suicide is legal, explains, in the Fatal Flaws film, how the Oregon assisted suicide law works.

My job as a doctor is to alleviate their suffering its not to be a vending machine when they when they make a good rational argument that they would be better off dead.

Its like being a lawyer for the defense and a lawyer for the prosecution in the same court room. Am I arguing for the health and well-being to extend life as long as is reasonable or am I advocating for their early demise because after all their going to die anyhow? And then, by the way, if you don't think that's a conflict of interest I'm also the Judge to decide which arguement is the best. If your not bothered by that I'm also the executioner.

There are about 200 doctors in the State of Oregon who believe they can keep all that conflict of interest straight. Its a dilusion.

Say no to assisted suicide. 

Order the Fatal Flaws film from the Euthanasia Prevention Coalition (Link).

EPC International Euthanasia Symposium - Sept 20 in Rome

Alex Schadenberg
Executive Director, Euthanasia Prevention Coalition

Instituto Maria Bambina
top of the hill beside columns

On Friday September 20, 2019 there is a one-day Euthanasia Symposium in Rome sponsored by the Euthanasia Prevention Coalition. The Symposium features recognized leaders and amazing speakers in an incredible location. The Symposium will be followed by a leaders meeting on September 21.

The euthanasia Symposium is organized with the Matercare 15th International Conference. The conference is at the Instituto Maria SS Bambina across from St. Peter's Basilica in Rome. Link to register for the conference.

For more information contact: info@epcc.ca

The speakers include:

Alex Schadenberg

Alex Schadenberg, Executive Director and International Chair, Euthanasia Prevention Coalition will speak about the world-wide situation. Alex is an author, leader, and world expert. 

Dr Paul Saba, Coalition of Physicians for Social Justice in Québec will speak about child euthanasia and the expansion of euthanasia, in Canada, once legalized. Dr Saba is an author with experience as a physician in Québec. 

Dr Anne Hanson

Dr Annette Hanson is a forensic psychiatrist and assisted professor of psychiatry at Tufts University School of Medicine will speak about euthanasia for psychiatric reasons. Dr Hanson has published research articles including the 12 myths about assisted suicide and medical aid in dying.

Catherine Glenn Foster, (lawyer) Americans United for Life, will speak about the culture shift after assisted suicide is legalized. She was the founding Executive Director of EPC-USA.  

Dr William Toffler

Dr William Toffler, Physicians for Compassionate Care Oregon, will talk about the effect of 20 years of assisted suicide in Oregon. Dr Toffler is a leading voice against assisted suicide in America. 

Amy Hasbrouck, (lawyer) Not Dead Yet leader and Euthanasia Prevention Coalition President will speak on eugenics and the concerns of people with disabilities. Amy has extensive experience as an American who now lives in Canada. 

Gordon Macdonald

Dr Gordon Macdonald, Care Not Killing Alliance UK, will speak about the politics of assisted suicide in the medical community. Dr Macdonald has extensive experience in the BMA debate on assisted suicide. 

Fabian Stahle, a researcher from Sweden will speak about Moral Disengagement and the legalization of assisted death. 

Register for the full conference or for one day at (Registration link). You can stay at the Maria Bambina. 

EPC has also organized a leaders meeting for September 21 at the same location.

Successful screenings of Fatal Flaws in Oregon

By Dr Kenneth Stevens
President, Physicians for Compassionate Care

Dr Bill Toffler, Dr Chuck Bentz, Alex Schadenberg, Dr Ken Stevens

The “Fatal Flaws – Legalizing Assisted Death” film was shown to over 200 people in Portland, Salem and Medford Oregon on February 17 - 19, 2019. This important film produced by Kevin Dunn of DunnMedia & Entertainment and Alex Schadenberg of the Euthanasia Prevention Coalition shows both sides of the assisted suicide and euthanasia experience in Europe and North America. The version shown was the 56 minute International educational version. Link to order the film.

Fatal Flaws film will change the way you view assisted death.

Alex Schadenberg, the Executive Director of the Euthanasia Prevention Coalition from Ontario, Canada was present at all three presentations to introduce and provide additional information about this important film.

Drs. Bill Toffler, Chuck Bentz and Ken Stevens were also present to answer questions and provide additional commentary regarding assisted suicide.
 
Oregon Right to Life helped by organizing, advertising and obtaining venues for each of the presentations.

Each presentation was received with much interest and enthusiasm, with many appropriate questions and comments from attendees.

We appreciate all the effort that went into the production of this important film production; and to Alex Schadenberg in coming to Oregon from Ontario, Canada for these presentations.

We encourage those interested in assisted suicide and euthanasia information and experience, to purchase the Fatal Flaws film and accompanying printed pamphlets, and to show the film to others in your communities. You may be able to book Alex Schadenberg for your event.

See www.FatalFlawsFilm.com for more information.

Vote "No" on New Mexico Euthanasia Act

By Margaret Dore - Choice is an Illusion

1. The Act

The Act (HB 90 as amended, and SB 153) seeks to legalize medical “aid in dying,” a traditional euphemism for active euthanasia and physician-assisted suicide.[1]

2. Who is Especially at Risk?

Individuals with money, meaning the middle class and above.

3. Assisting Persons Can Have an Agenda

Persons assisting a suicide or euthanasia can have an agenda. Consider Tammy Sawyer, trustee for Thomas Middleton in Oregon, which has a similar law. Two days after his death by legal assisted suicide, she sold his home and deposited the proceeds into bank accounts for her own benefit.[2] Consider also Graham Morant, recently convicted of counseling his wife to kill herself in Australia, to get the life insurance. The Court found:

[Y]ou counseled and aided your wife to kill herself because you wanted ... the 1.4 million.[3]

Medical professionals too can have an agenda. Michael Swango, MD, now incarcerated, got a thrill from killing his patients.[4] Consider also Harold Shipman, a doctor in the UK, who not only killed his patients, but stole from them and in one case made himself a beneficiary of the patient’s will.[5]

4. “Even If the Patient Struggled, Who Would Know?”

The Act has no required oversight over administration of the lethal dose, not even a witness is required to be present at the death.[6] The drugs used are water or alcohol soluble, such that they can be injected into a sleeping or restrained person without consent.[7] Alex Schadenberg, Executive Director for the Euthanasia Prevention Coalition, puts it this way:

With assisted suicide laws in Washington and Oregon [and with the proposed Act], perpetrators can . . . take a “legal” route, by getting an elder to sign a lethal dose request. Once the prescription is filled, there is no supervision over administration. Even if a patient struggled, “who would know?” (Emphasis added).[8]

5. Cover for Murder

With the lack of witnesses to say otherwise, perpetrators will be able report deaths as “self-administered.” Per the Act, this will require death certificates to list a terminal illness as the cause of death. See the Act, Section 7, “Death Certificate - Cause of Death.” The official legal cause of death will be a terminal illness (not murder) as a matter of law.

6. “Eligible” Persons May Have Years or Decades to Live

The Act applies to persons with a terminal illness, which is expected to result in death “within six months” (HB 90, as amended). Oregon’s law has a similar criteria, which is interpreted to include chronic conditions such as diabetes mellitus, better known as diabetes. This is because the six months to live is determined without treatment. Oregon doctor, William Toffler, explains:

In Oregon, people with chronic conditions are “terminal,” if without their medications, they have less than six months to live. This is significant when you consider that a typical insulin-dependent 20 year-old will live less than a month without insulin.

Such persons, with insulin, are likely to have decades to live; in fact, most diabetics have a normal life span given appropriate control of their blood sugar. [9]

(Link to PDF of this article).

Footnotes

[1] Craig A. Brandt, “Model Aid-in-Dying Act,” Iowa Law Review, 1989 Oct; 75(1): 125-215, (“Subject: Active Euthanasia ....”), at https://repository.library.georgetown.edu/handle/10822/738671 and Maria T. CeloCruz, “Aid-in-Dying: Should We Decriminalize Physician-Assisted Suicide and Physician-Committed Euthanasia?,” American Journal of Law and Medicine 1992 (“Subject: Active Euthanasia ....”) at https://repository.library.georgetown.edu/handle/10822/744116

[2] KTVZ.com, “Sawyer Arraigned on State Fraud Charges,” at https://choiceisanillusion.files.wordpress.com/2016/10/sawyer-arraigned-a-63.pdf

[3] R v Morant , 11/02/18, p. 11, ¶ 78, at https://archive.sclqld.org.au/qjudgment/2018/QSC18-251.pdf

[4] Charlie Leduff, “Prosecutors Say Doctor Killed to Feel a Thrill,” The New York Times, 09/07/00 (“Basically, Dr. Swango liked to kill people. By his own admission in his diary, he killed because it thrilled him.”)

[5] David Batty, “Q & A: Harold Shipman,” The Guardian, 08/25/05, at https://www.theguardian.com/society/2005/aug/25/health.shipman

[6] See HB 90 and SB 153, in their entirety.

[7] In Oregon, the drugs used include Secobarbital, and Pentobarbital (Nembutal) , which are water and alcohol soluble. See http://www.drugs.com/pr/seconal-sodium.html and http://www.drugs.com/pro/nembutal.html

[8] Alex Schadenberg, Letter to the Editor, “Elder abuse a growing problem,” The Advocate, Official Publication of the Idaho State Bar, October 2010

[9] Toffler Declaration, at https://choiceisanillusion.files.wordpress.com/2019/01/toffler-decl-new-mexico-01-23-19.pdf