Promoters of Assisted Suicide admitted in their public testimony to the Public Health Committee of the Connecticut General Assembly that some 'safeguards" were unnecessary. Compassion & Choices has sued several states to remove safeguards, such as residency requirements. Vermont's state house of representatives has already passed a removal of the residency requirement in response to litigation, and the senate is expected to pass it soon.
Consequences:
-
American Clinicians Academy On Aid in Dying, the ethics panel for assisted suicide practitioners:
- No legal barrier: voluntary stopping of eating and drinking qualify as a terminal illness for assisted suicide.
- Anyone can qualify.
- "Denver doctor helped patients with severe anorexia obtain aid-in-dying medication, spurring national ethics debate- A recent case study shocked psychiatrists across the country and added fuel to a long debate about whether right-to-die laws would lead to state-sanctioned deaths of people with mental illness and disabilities-" Colorado Sun, March 14, 2022.
- Assisted-suicide law prompts insurance company to deny coverage to terminally ill California woman. Washington Times, October 20, 2016
- Litany of Abuse of over 15 Patients in Oregon and Washington. DREDF testimony to Nevada Legislature, 2019.
- Jackie Bieber claims that her daughter, 25 suffering from depression, followed directions on a 'pro-choice' suicide website that included following a recipe with exact dosages. DailyMail, May 30, 2019.
Complications:
- "Occasionally the dying process is interrupted as a result of incomplete ingestion or vomiting of medications, confusion about timing of dying trajectory, familial emotional distress, and other variables. A case is presented here of a patient who arrived by ambulance to an urban ED after ingesting physician-assisted dying medication. Stepwise analysis of communication and actions between providers (paramedics, emergency physician, and admitting physician), risk management, and family are described chronologically. This case highlights the significant distress experienced by each party." "No Easy Way Out: A Case of Physician-Assisted Dying in the Emergency Department," Wang, MD. Science Direct. Oct 2017.
- "Physicians reported unease with prognosticating six-month life expectancy and some felt “compelled” to consult their hospital for legal or ethics support. [20]. A California report described apprehension in qualifying a patient as eligible for EAD when the patient had a disease state currently stabilized with invasive life-prolonging treatment." Science Direct, 2016.
Past is Prologue in Canada:
-
Canada moves one step closer to euthanizing CHILDREN: Critics slam 'reckless' and 'horrible' panel urging government to pass law allowing minors under 18 with terminal illnesses to die by assisted suicide
- Top government panel recommends assisted suicides for 'mature minors'
- Law could change as soon as this year; critics slam a 'reckless' proposal
- Canada already has the world's most expansive program of assisted dying
- DailyMail, February 24, 2023.
-
I’ve been pressured to do an assisted suicide. They asked if I want an assisted death. I don't. I was told that I would be charged $1,800 per day [for Canadian hospital care]. Nurses here told me that I should end my life. That shocked me.” -Roger Foley,Canada, NY Post.
- Grim $$$ report: In a Parliamentary Budget Officer report, released Oct. 2020, "a financial analysis predicted an estimated 6,465 assisted suicide deaths in 2021 under the current [assisted suicide]law, with over $66 million saved in provincial health budgets due to these deaths."
Data from: The Third Annual Report on Medical Assistance in Dying in Canada 2021.