tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-86812461558677487512024-03-25T16:48:39.260-07:00ColoradoA non-profit corporation opposed to assisted suicide, euthanasia and other forms of imposed death, worldwideUnknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger23125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8681246155867748751.post-60282197319355312023-12-28T18:38:00.000-08:002023-12-28T18:46:14.957-08:00My Mum Didn't Die<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhWP23JKxorW-iNPtNs0QfpU7Gfkl1sRvwIf9YcXB26ucUerfOtyG-16bABMf9kM9pDLrCS6EashcYRhNG8fx9_GyIRgEnR6phYbU9tQfQs_-C4eBXMlJFj3J4a4THVExOwg64mavnUoBPK030st6BmUxrjhnM50Tzix2gszEB_2oTQ701E1cau98_Pqtxy/s1800/AnitaCameron.webp" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1800" height="125" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhWP23JKxorW-iNPtNs0QfpU7Gfkl1sRvwIf9YcXB26ucUerfOtyG-16bABMf9kM9pDLrCS6EashcYRhNG8fx9_GyIRgEnR6phYbU9tQfQs_-C4eBXMlJFj3J4a4THVExOwg64mavnUoBPK030st6BmUxrjhnM50Tzix2gszEB_2oTQ701E1cau98_Pqtxy/w164-h125/AnitaCameron.webp" width="164" /></a></div>Good morning. I’m Anita Cameron, Director of Minority Outreach for Not Dead Yet, a national, grassroots disability organization opposed to medical discrimination, healthcare rationing, euthanasia and assisted suicide.<p></p><p>Assisted suicide laws are dangerous because though these laws are supposed to be for people with six months or less to live, doctors are often wrong about a terminal diagnosis. In 2009, while living in Washington state, my mother was determined to be at the end stage of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. I was told her death was imminent, that if I wanted to see her alive, I should get there in two days. She rallied, but was still quite ill, so she was placed in hospice. Her doctor said that her body had begun the process of dying.</p><p>Though she survived 6 months of hospice, her doctor convinced her that her body was still in the process of dying, and she moved home to Colorado to die.</p><p>My mum didn’t die. In fact, six weeks after returning to Colorado, she and I were arrested together in Washington, DC, fighting for disability justice. She became active in her community and lived almost 12 years!<span></span></p><a name='more'></a><p></p><p>Assisted suicide laws 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. </p><p>In 2021, Lisa Iezzoni, a professor of medicine at Harvard University, conducted a survey of 714 doctors around the country as part of a study. She found “82.4 percent reported that people with significant disability have worse quality of life than nondisabled people. Only 40.7 percent of physicians were very confident about their ability to provide the same quality of care to patients with disability, just 56.5 percent strongly agreed that they welcomed patients with disability into their practices, and 18.1 percent strongly agreed that the health care system often treats these patients unfairly.”</p><p>* * *</p><p><a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33523739">https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33523739</a></p><p>* Cameron’s Remarks Before the New York State Bar Association Task Force. Article provided by Diane Coleman, President and CEO of Not Dead Yet, a national disability rights group, which Coleman founded in 1996, to give voice to disability rights opposition to the legalization of assisted suicide and euthanasia. Original article dated 11/17/23.</p>Adminhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13314132820263802243noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8681246155867748751.post-11535326182978348292018-02-17T16:33:00.000-08:002023-12-28T14:40:40.719-08:00Law Punctuated by a Question Mark<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgOSNE8glYAphyphenhyphenXZwAYpxzvnISgT5q-tmzUFK4Ni6M8UaJMhOgzQLRcMQk4w9nVbQhFnWE_xsiIW-fcrqdKb6eCfdvyBSPXgk30JeZZM76OUMYmQrkgWuEaXNzeUHEusG5vTgaBzLPEUsC28SDZSxMVG7FCLEqumb0dQkjmIzD8ATJvckiN3KrlkcNAf3oO/s144/colorado-banner144.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="70" data-original-width="144" height="70" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgOSNE8glYAphyphenhyphenXZwAYpxzvnISgT5q-tmzUFK4Ni6M8UaJMhOgzQLRcMQk4w9nVbQhFnWE_xsiIW-fcrqdKb6eCfdvyBSPXgk30JeZZM76OUMYmQrkgWuEaXNzeUHEusG5vTgaBzLPEUsC28SDZSxMVG7FCLEqumb0dQkjmIzD8ATJvckiN3KrlkcNAf3oO/s1600/colorado-banner144.jpg" width="144" /></a></div>Joey Bunch, ColoradoPolitics.com<br />
<br />
<a href="http://gazette.com/insights-aid-in-dying-another-colorado-law-punctuated-by-a-question-mark/article/1621229" target="_blank">Click here</a> to view the article as published.<br />
<br />
No one expects to pass a law
that's going to have problems, but it's hardly uncommon to have those told-ya-so
moments that offer hollow gratification for those who opposed it from the start.
When it comes to governing life and death, these stumbles deserve a longer
look.<br />
<div id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1518909363700_15665">
<br /></div>
<div id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1518909363700_15653">
Jakob Rodgers of <i>The Gazette</i>
recently reported on the first data from Colorado's medical-aid-in-dying law,
which voters passed in 2016. Sixty-nine people sought prescriptions to end their
lives, and 50 of them reportedly picked up the lethal drugs from a
pharmacist.</div>
<div id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1518909363700_15669">
<br /></div>
<div dir="ltr" id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1518909363700_15654">
We don't know how many
died by choice, or what happened to the deadly prescriptions, if any, that
weren't used. Voters passed a law that doesn't require the state health
department to keep track of that kind of information.<br />
<a name='more'></a></div>
<div id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1518909363700_15075">
<div id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1518909363700_15671">
It gets more confusing. Death
certificates were found for 56 of the 69 people who were prescribed the drugs.
That doesn't shed any light on how many took the drugs, though, because the law
requires coroners to list the underlying terminal illness as the cause of death,
without so much as an asterisk.</div>
<div id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1518909363700_15748"><span></span></div></div><!--more--><p></p><p>
A handful of doctors hadn't yet
provided paperwork on those who sought the drugs, either. What do you expect?
There's no penalty for being late to encourage compliance.</p>
<div id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1518909363700_15749">
I listened to at last 16 hours of
testimony over two legislative sessions when lawmakers refused to craft a law,
leaving it instead to advocates to craft their own ballot question.</div>
<div id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1518909363700_15781">
<br /></div>
<div id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1518909363700_15750">
Arguments on both sides were
compelling and emotional. I wrote an in-depth piece about the issue last summer,
as well. Everyone is right. On one side, the terminally ill and their families
deserve to choose their hour of death and be spared the pain and anguish.</div>
<div id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1518909363700_15783">
<br /></div>
<div id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1518909363700_15751">
But the other side is right, too.
They're uneasy about whether it's proper for government to assume a role between
patients, doctors and, in some cases, religious faith.</div>
<div id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1518909363700_15784">
<br /></div>
<div id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1518909363700_15752">
At the very least, however, it's
the job of the law to have a program above reproach. Inexact record-keeping
doesn't help. Craters of doubt fill in with anxiety.</div>
<div id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1518909363700_15790">
<br /></div>
<div id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1518909363700_15753">
Red flags don't necessarily mean
fouls, that's true. Others can argue that lives aren't statistics. Voters were
asked to pass this law on trust and faith.</div>
<div id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1518909363700_15796">
<br /></div>
<div id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1518909363700_15754">
Gaps in management and data,
however, create doubt in the program that certainly will be considered in other
states.</div>
<div id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1518909363700_15754">
<br /></div>
<div id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1518909363700_15755">
The state health department looked
at the new data, and Kirk Bol, the state health department's vital statistics
program manager, told Rodgers the number of prescriptions tracked with what
officials had expected.</div>
<div id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1518909363700_15798">
<br /></div>
<div id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1518909363700_15756">
"In short, no red flags here," he
said.</div>
<div id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1518909363700_15799">
<br /></div>
<div id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1518909363700_15757">
Carrie Ann Lucas, a Windsor
resident and a board member of the national Not Dead Yet advocacy group,
dismissed the missing reports from the first year as meaningless.</div>
<div id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1518909363700_15800">
<br /></div>
<div id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1518909363700_15758">
"The reporting is so minimal,
there will be no way to determine what abuse is occurring with this law," she
said.</div>
<div id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1518909363700_15758">
<br /></div>
<div id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1518909363700_15759">
If there are reporting problems
that persist, however, a fix is within reach.</div>
<div id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1518909363700_15801">
<br /></div>
<div id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1518909363700_15760">
Voters in 2016 passed a statutory
amendment, which means the General Assembly can amend the law. Had it been a
constitutional amendment, it would have required a vote of the people, which
takes a lot of money and political muscle to achieve.</div>
<div id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1518909363700_15802">
<br /></div>
<div id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1518909363700_15761">
There's no such thing as a perfect
law. We hear that in the Statehouse when these sort of things happen there
instead of the ballot. Despite a legal staff, battalions of tug-of-war
lobbyists, 100 elected legislators and a press corps that feeds on mistakes, the
Legislature doesn't always get it right.</div>
<div id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1518909363700_15809">
<br /></div>
<div id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1518909363700_15762">
The term "unintended consequences"
probably wasn't born in a statehouse, but it has a home in each and every
one.</div>
<div id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1518909363700_15762">
<br /></div>
<div id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1518909363700_15763">
Last year, Senate Bill 267 was
celebrated as a grand compromise to simultaneously rescue Colorado's rural
hospitals, funnel some money into transportation, raise Medicaid co-pays and
lower the state spending cap. But in doing all that, lawmakers inadvertently cut
special districts out of their share of local marijuana tax money. The oversight
took millions of dollars away from transit, libraries, rural firefighting and
other tax-supported programs.</div>
<div id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1518909363700_15816">
<br /></div>
<div id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1518909363700_15764">
The governor called a special
session in October to fix what everyone called an honest mistake, but the
problem just got worse as miffed Republicans raised questions about whether they
had the authority to restore a tax once it had been eliminated.</div>
<div id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1518909363700_15817">
<br /></div>
<div id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1518909363700_15765">
Simplicity never has a chance
against partisan politics.</div>
<div id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1518909363700_15818">
<br /></div>
<div id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1518909363700_15766">
Lawmakers this session also are
expected to take another run at a law passed in 2015 to stop online sweepstakes
offered as gambling in internet cafes. When local law enforcement tried to use
the law to shut down mom-and-pop arcades that offered cash payouts, a judge in
El Paso County called the law "constitutionally vague." Nothing in the original
law mentioned arcades.</div>
<div id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1518909363700_15820">
<br /></div>
<div id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1518909363700_15767">
Now lawmakers plan to redefine the
terms to distinguish between Ms. Pac Man and Las Vegas slots. But by defining a
"prize" as anything of value, they could hurt such operations as Chuck E. Cheese
and Dave & Busters, as well as prizes on a county fair midway.</div>
<div id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1518909363700_15821">
<br /></div>
<div dir="ltr" id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1518909363700_15768">
Nobody ever said
legislating is easy, and voters elect people, not perfection. Every January,
lawmakers get the chance to fix what was left by previous sessions. With the
aid-in-dying law, some Coloradans won't be around to see it when their state
gets it right.</div>
Adminhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13314132820263802243noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8681246155867748751.post-22604126629176496012016-10-28T01:19:00.000-07:002020-03-20T09:35:04.017-07:00Physician-Assisted Suicide Traumatic for Family Members<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgKGVSZDUdLYBBlFWkCOlvZw7zx1oSzu64Mh3ijAFaXFpTiULAiIeVMV2EsSkuN7Pw8JYwRnnoZ9cdxzW0twL8YYPDLu7flYUg_zkuwgYCLpg1PZU4EMqy5lW0vELKKwR2sC2n_3rm6XUc4/s1600/Photo+Swiss+Flag+Mountain.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgKGVSZDUdLYBBlFWkCOlvZw7zx1oSzu64Mh3ijAFaXFpTiULAiIeVMV2EsSkuN7Pw8JYwRnnoZ9cdxzW0twL8YYPDLu7flYUg_zkuwgYCLpg1PZU4EMqy5lW0vELKKwR2sC2n_3rm6XUc4/s1600/Photo+Swiss+Flag+Mountain.jpg" /></a></div>
By Margaret Dore, Esq.<br />
<br />
In 2012, a European research study addressed trauma suffered by persons who witnessed legal assisted suicide in Switzerland.[1] The study found that one out of five family members or friends present at an assisted suicide was traumatized. These people,<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
experienced full or sub-threshold PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder) related to the loss of a close person through assisted suicide.[2]<br />
<a name='more'></a></blockquote>
<span style="color: #3d85c6;">* * * </span><br />
[1] “Death by request in Switzerland: Posttraumatic stress disorder and complicated grief after witnessing assisted suicide,” B. Wagner, J. Muller, A. Maercker; European Psychiatry 27 (2012) 542-546, available at http://choiceisanillusion.files.wordpress.com/2012/10/family-members-traumatized-eur-psych-2012.pdf<br />
[2] Id.<br />
Posted by AdUnknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8681246155867748751.post-1333812360357047062016-10-28T00:38:00.001-07:002016-10-28T05:13:23.027-07:00In Oregon, Other Suicides Have Increased with Legalization of Physician-Assisted Suicide<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEicK6lnI0suISPmwxnhs2x7QJ5NIPDK-uFOLPppSV8y4duWkQdV8wmUXgjvpHVWCAxYyDQC1BOC-mSItjuD66cI0xqCVCYHyUkz0DvNgYaUaLJhmMP0TEQcF5hRXS5gHlkzAoRaxUSbmPy9/s1600/Oregon+pretty+and+dark+coastal+cliffs.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="146" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEicK6lnI0suISPmwxnhs2x7QJ5NIPDK-uFOLPppSV8y4duWkQdV8wmUXgjvpHVWCAxYyDQC1BOC-mSItjuD66cI0xqCVCYHyUkz0DvNgYaUaLJhmMP0TEQcF5hRXS5gHlkzAoRaxUSbmPy9/s200/Oregon+pretty+and+dark+coastal+cliffs.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: white;">By Margaret Dore, Esq., MBA</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: white; text-align: right;">A pdf version can be viewed </span><a href="https://choiceisanillusion.files.wordpress.com/2016/10/dore-prop-106-memo.pdf" style="background-color: white; color: #3d85c6; text-align: right; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">here</a> </span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: inherit; text-align: right;">and </span><a href="https://choiceisanillusion.files.wordpress.com/2016/10/dore-prop-106-attachments.pdf" style="background-color: white; color: #3d85c6; font-family: inherit; text-align: right; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">here</a><br />
<div style="text-align: right;">
</div>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: white;"></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: white;"></span></span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: white;">Since the passage of Oregon’s law allowing physician-assisted suicide, other suicides in Oregon have steadily </span></span><span style="background-color: white;">increased.</span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: inherit;"> </span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: inherit;">This is consistent with a suicide contagion in which the legalization of physician-assisted suicides has encouraged other suicides. </span><br />
<a name='more'></a><br />
<b style="background-color: white; font-family: inherit;">A. Suicide is Contagious <span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span></b><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><b style="background-color: white;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"><br /></span></b></span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: white;">It is well known that suicide is contagious. A famous example is Marilyn Monroe.[1] Her widely reported suicide was followed by “a spate of suicides.”[2]</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: white;"><br /></span></span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: white;">With the understanding that suicide is contagious, groups such as the National Institute of Mental Health and the World Health Organization have developed guidelines for the responsible reporting of suicide, to prevent contagion. Key points include that the risk of additional suicides increases:</span></span><br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq" style="background-color: white;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">[W]hen the story explicitly describes the suicide method, uses dramatic/graphic headlines or images, and repeated/extensive coverage sensationalizes or glamorizes a death.[3]</span></blockquote>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><b style="background-color: white;">B.<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Physician-Assisted Suicide in Oregon</b><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">In Oregon, prominent cases of physician-assisted suicide include Lovelle Svart and Brittany Maynard.</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">Lovelle Svart died in 2007.[4] </span><i style="background-color: white;">The Oregonian</i><span style="background-color: white;">, which is Oregon’s largest paper, violated the recommended guidelines for the responsible reporting of suicide by explicitly describing her suicide method and by employing “dramatic/graphic images.” Indeed, visitors to the paper’s website were invited “to hear and see when Lovelle swallowed the fatal dose.”[5] There are still photos of her online, lying in bed, dying.[6]</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">Brittany Maynard reportedly died from physician-assisted suicide in Oregon, on November 1, 2014. Contrary to the recommended guidelines, there was “repeated/extensive coverage” in multiple media, worldwide.[7] This coverage is ongoing, including in Colorado, where her image is now being used to promote Prop. 106.</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><b style="background-color: white;">C.<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>The Young Man Wanted to Die Like Brittany Maynard</b><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">A month after Ms. Maynard’s death, Dr. Will Johnston was presented with a twenty year old patient during an emergency appointment.[8] The young man, who had been brought in by his mother, was physically healthy, but had been acting oddly and talking about death.[9]</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">Dr. Johnston asked the young man if he had a plan.[10] The young man said "yes," that he had watched a video about Ms. Maynard.[11] He said that he was very impressed with her and that he identified with her and that he thought it was a good idea for him to die like her.[12] He also told Dr. Johnston that after watching the video he had been surfing the internet looking for suicide drugs.[13] Dr. Johnston’s declaration states:</span></span><br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq" style="background-color: white;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">He was actively suicidal and agreed to go to the hospital, where he stayed for five weeks until it was determined that he was sufficiently safe from self-harm to go home.[14]</span></blockquote>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: white;">The young man had wanted to die like Brittany Maynard.</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><b style="background-color: white;"><br /></b><span style="background-color: white;"></span><b style="background-color: white;">D.<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Other Suicides Have Increased</b><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">Oregon government reports show the following positive correlation between the legalization of physician-assisted suicide and an increase in other suicides. Per the reports:</span></span><br />
<ul style="background-color: white; line-height: 1.4; margin: 0.5em 0px; padding: 0px 2.5em;">
<li style="margin: 0px 0px 0.25em; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Oregon legalized physician-assisted suicide “in late 1997.”[15]</span></li>
<li style="margin: 0px 0px 0.25em; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">By 2000, Oregon’s conventional suicide rate was "increasing significantly."[16]</span></li>
<li style="margin: 0px 0px 0.25em; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">By 2007, Oregon's conventional suicide rate was 35% above the national average.[17]</span></li>
<li style="margin: 0px 0px 0.25em; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">By 2010, Oregon's conventional suicide rate was 41% above the national average.</span></li>
<li style="margin: 0px 0px 0.25em; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">By 2012, Oregon's conventional suicide rate was 42% above the national average.[18]</span></li>
</ul>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><b style="background-color: white;">E.<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>The Financial and Emotional Cost of Suicide in Oregon </b><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">Oregon’s most recent report, for 2012, describes the cost of suicide as “enormous.” The report states:</span></span><br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">The financial and emotional impacts of suicide on family members are devastating and long-lasting.[19]</span></blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: inherit;">Suicide is the second leading cause of death among Oregonians aged 15 to 34 year, and the eighth leading cause of death among all ages in Oregon. The cost of suicide is enormous. In 201[2] alone, self-inflicted injury hospitalization charges in Oregon exceeded $54 million; and the estimate of total lifetime cost of suicide in Oregon was over $677 million. The loss to families and communities broadens the impact of each death.[20]</span></blockquote>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><b style="background-color: white;">F.<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>The Significance for Colorado</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><b style="background-color: white;"><br /></b></span><span style="background-color: white;">Colorado already has a higher suicide rate than Oregon.[21] In 2015, there were 1,093 suicides among Colorado residents.[22] This is the highest number of suicide deaths ever recorded in Colorado.[23] To compare,<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span></span><br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="background-color: white;">the number of suicide deaths in [Colorado in] 2015 exceeded the number of deaths from homicide (205), motor vehicle crashes (586), influenza and pneumonia (658), breast cancer (585) and diabetes (884).[24]</span></blockquote>
<span style="background-color: white;">If Prop. 106 is enacted and Colorado repeats Oregon’s experience, the situation will get worse.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white;"><br /></span><span style="background-color: white;"><b>Footnotes</b></span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: inherit;"><b><br /></b></span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: inherit;">[1] Margot Sanger-Katz, “The Science Behind Suicide Contagion,” <i>The New York Times</i>, August 13, 2014. See this link at A-64: .<a href="https://choiceisanillusion.files.wordpress.com/2016/10/suicide-contagion-exhbits.pdf" style="color: #3d85c6; text-decoration: none;">https://choiceisanillusion.files.wordpress.com/2016/10/suicide-contagion-exhbits.pdf</a><br />[2] Id., page 1<br />[3] “Recommendations for Reporting on Suicide,” <i>The National Institute of Mental Health</i>. See this link at A-65: .<a href="https://choiceisanillusion.files.wordpress.com/2016/10/suicide-contagion-exhbits.pdf" style="color: #3d85c6; text-decoration: none;">https://choiceisanillusion.files.wordpress.com/2016/10/suicide-contagion-exhbits.pdf</a> See also “Preventing Suicide: A Resource for Media Professionals,” <i>World Health Organization</i>, at<a href="http://www.who.int/mental_health/prevention/suicide/resource_media.pdf" style="color: #3d85c6; text-decoration: none;">http://www.who.int/mental_health/prevention/suicide/resource_media.pdf</a><br />[4] Ed Madrid, “Lovelle Svart, 1945 - 2007, The Oregonian, September 28, 2007. See this link at A-66: <a href="https://choiceisanillusion.files.wordpress.com/2016/10/suicide-contagion-exhbits.pdf" style="color: #3d85c6; text-decoration: none;">https://choiceisanillusion.files.wordpress.com/2016/10/suicide-contagion-exhbits.pdf</a><br />[5] Id.<br />[6] See photos at A-67 & A-68 at this link: <a href="https://choiceisanillusion.files.wordpress.com/2016/10/suicide-contagion-exhbits.pdf" style="color: #3d85c6; text-decoration: none;">https://choiceisanillusion.files.wordpress.com/2016/10/suicide-contagion-exhbits.pdf</a><br />[7] The worldwide coverage of Ms. Maynard in multiple media started with an exclusive cover story in <i>People Magazine</i>. The cover can be viewed at this link at A-69:<a href="https://choiceisanillusion.files.wordpress.com/2016/10/suicide-contagion-exhbits.pdf" style="color: #3d85c6; text-decoration: none;">https://choiceisanillusion.files.wordpress.com/2016/10/suicide-contagion-exhbits.pdf</a> Other media included TV, radio, print, web and social media.<br />[8] Declaration of Williard Johnston, MD, May 24, 2015, can be viewed at A-70 to A-71 at this link: <a href="https://choiceisanillusion.files.wordpress.com/2016/10/suicide-contagion-exhbits.pdf" style="color: #3d85c6; text-decoration: none;">https://choiceisanillusion.files.wordpress.com/2016/10/suicide-contagion-exhbits.pdf</a><br />[9] Id.<br />[10] Id.<br />[11] Id.<br />[12] Id.<br />[13] Id.<br />[14] Id.<br />[15] Oregon Death with Dignity Report, attached hereto at A-31<br />[16] Oregon Health Authority News Release, September 9, 2010, at <a href="http://www.oregon.gov/DHS/news/2010news/2010-0909a.pdf" style="color: #3d85c6; text-decoration: none;">http://www.oregon.gov/DHS/news/2010news/2010-0909a.pdf</a> ("After decreasing in the 1990s, suicide rates have been increasing significantly since 2000"). Can be viewed at A-72 at this link: <a href="https://choiceisanillusion.files.wordpress.com/2016/10/suicide-contagion-exhbits.pdf" style="color: #3d85c6; text-decoration: none;">https://choiceisanillusion.files.wordpress.com/2016/10/suicide-contagion-exhbits.pdf</a><br />[17] Suicides in Oregon: Trend and Risk Factors, issued September 2010 (data through 2007). Can be viewed at A-73 & A-75 at this link: <a href="https://choiceisanillusion.files.wordpress.com/2016/10/suicide-contagion-exhbits.pdf" style="color: #3d85c6; text-decoration: none;">https://choiceisanillusion.files.wordpress.com/2016/10/suicide-contagion-exhbits.pdf</a><br />[18] “Suicides in Oregon: Trends and Associated Factors, 2003-2012 (data through 2012). See this link at A-76: <a href="https://choiceisanillusion.files.wordpress.com/2016/10/suicide-contagion-exhbits.pdf" style="color: #3d85c6; text-decoration: none;">https://choiceisanillusion.files.wordpress.com/2016/10/suicide-contagion-exhbits.pdf</a><br />[19] Id.<br />[20] Id., at A-77.<br />[21] CDC Centers For Disease Control and Prevention, Age Adjusted Suicide Rates by State, US, 2012. See this link at A-79: <a href="https://choiceisanillusion.files.wordpress.com/2016/10/suicide-contagion-exhbits.pdf" style="color: #3d85c6; text-decoration: none;">https://choiceisanillusion.files.wordpress.com/2016/10/suicide-contagion-exhbits.pdf</a><br />[22] Colorado government publication, see this link at A-80: <a href="https://choiceisanillusion.files.wordpress.com/2016/10/suicide-contagion-exhbits.pdf" style="color: #3d85c6; text-decoration: none;">https://choiceisanillusion.files.wordpress.com/2016/10/suicide-contagion-exhbits.pdf</a><br />[23] Id.<br />[24] Id.</span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8681246155867748751.post-80104736457887432672016-10-28T00:29:00.001-07:002016-10-28T00:29:09.152-07:00Prop. 106 Legalizes Euthanasia<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_wJnAfGwYU8LbRDT00L1H6cCiaLuYV6lRuF53XiPWonFyZvRrjPyermiVFhWtSsYPlZI-WOZHmq6gAy21iKV9wm5AgoSysKHuxPvQtIl3S_u-5CdXuo4DheHikds1WJSMjWckfJO1HRyj/s1600/Photo+Stevens+Quebec+near+square.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_wJnAfGwYU8LbRDT00L1H6cCiaLuYV6lRuF53XiPWonFyZvRrjPyermiVFhWtSsYPlZI-WOZHmq6gAy21iKV9wm5AgoSysKHuxPvQtIl3S_u-5CdXuo4DheHikds1WJSMjWckfJO1HRyj/s1600/Photo+Stevens+Quebec+near+square.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Kenneth Stevens MD</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><i>To view similar information in a pdf format, see "Dore Memo Opposing </i><i>Prop. 106,"</i><i> which can be viewed <a href="https://choiceisanillusion.files.wordpress.com/2016/10/dore-prop-106-memo.pdf" style="color: #3d85c6; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">here</a> and <a href="https://choiceisanillusion.files.wordpress.com/2016/10/dore-prop-106-attachments.pdf" style="color: #3d85c6; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">here</a>.</i></span></div>
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<br style="background-color: white; font-family: Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" /><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: white; text-align: right;">By Margaret Dore, Esq., MBA</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white; text-align: right;"></span><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white; text-align: right;"></span><span style="background-color: white;">Prop. 106 is sold as physician-assisted suicide in which a patient self-administers the lethal dose. In the fine print, Prop. 106 also allows euthanasia. This is true for two reasons: (1) Prop. 106 defines "medical aid in dying" (a euphemism for assisted suicide and euthanasia) as a "medical practice;" and (2) on close examination, self administration is not required.[1] See below.</span></span><br />
<a name='more'></a><br style="background-color: white; font-family: Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" /><b style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">A. Normal Medical Practice</span></b><br />
<b style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></b>
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: inherit;">Generally accepted medical practice allows a doctor or a person acting under the direction of a doctor, to administer medication to a patient.[2] </span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: inherit;">A person acting under the direction of a doctor can be a healthcare professional or a non-medical person.[3] Kenneth Stevens MD states:</span><br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq" style="background-color: white;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Common examples of persons acting under the direction of a doctor, include: . . . parents who act under the direction of a doctor to administer drugs to their children in a home setting; and adult children who act under the direction of a doctor to administer drugs to their parents in a home setting.[4]</span></blockquote>
<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">This is normal medical practice.[5]</span></span><br style="background-color: white; font-family: Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: inherit; font-size: x-small;"><br /></span><span style="background-color: white;"></span><span style="background-color: white;"><b><span style="font-family: inherit;">B. "Medical Aid in Dying" is a "Medical Practice"</span></b></span><br style="background-color: white; font-family: Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: inherit; font-size: x-small;"><b><br /></b></span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: white;">Prop. 106 defines medical aid in dying as the “medical practice” of prescribing “medical aid-in-dying medication” (the lethal dose) that a patient “may" choose to self-administer. Prop. 106 states:</span></span><br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq" style="background-color: white;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><i>“Medical aid in dying” means the medical practice</i> of a physician prescribing medical aid-in-dying <i>medication</i> to a qualified individual <i>that the individual may chose to self-administer</i> to bring about a peaceful death. (Emphasis added).[6]</span></blockquote>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: white;">With use of the word, "may," self-administration is not mandatory. With self-administration not mandatory and “medical aid in dying” a “medical practice,” a doctor or other person acting under the direction of a doctor is allowed to administer the lethal dose (medication) to the patient. Moreover, as with other "medical practices," the administering person can be the doctor or another person such as a family member acting under the doctor's direction.</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">In other words, taking the language of Prop. 106 to its logical conclusion, an adult child will be allowed to administer the lethal dose to his or her parent.</span></span><br style="background-color: white; font-family: Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" /><br style="background-color: white; font-family: Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" /><span style="font-family: inherit;"><b style="background-color: white;">C.</b><b style="background-color: white;"> Allowing Someone Else to Administer the Lethal Dose is Euthanasia</b><br style="background-color: white;" /><b style="background-color: white;"><br /></b><span style="background-color: white;">Allowing someone else to administer the lethal dose is euthanasia under generally accepted medical terminology. The AMA Code of Ethics, Opinion 2.21, states:</span></span><br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq" style="background-color: white;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Euthanasia is the administration of a lethal agent <i>by another person to a patient</i> . . . . (Emphasis added).[7]</span></blockquote>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: white;">Prop. 106 legalizes euthanasia.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br style="background-color: white;" /></span><b style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Footnotes</span></b><br style="background-color: white; font-family: Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" /><span style="font-family: inherit;"><b style="background-color: white;"><br /></b><span style="background-color: white;">[1] “Aid in Dying” is a traditional euphemism for physician-assisted suicide and euthanasia. See e.g., Maria T. Celocruz, “‘</span><a href="https://repository.library.georgetown.edu/handle/10822/744116" style="background-color: white; color: #3d85c6; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">Aid-in-Dying’: Should we decriminalize Physician-Assisted Suicide and Physician-Committed Euthanasia?”, <i>American Journal of Law and Medicine,</i>” 1992</a><span style="background-color: white;">.</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">[2] Oregon doctor, Kenneth Stevens, testifies:</span></span><br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq" style="background-color: white;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Generally accepted medical practice allows a doctor, or a person acting under the direction of a doctor, to administer prescription drugs to a patient. <i>Common examples of persons acting under the direction of a doctor, include</i>: nurses and other healthcare professionals who act under the direction of a doctor to administer drugs in a hospital setting; parents who act under the direction of a doctor to administer drugs to their children in a home setting; and adult children who act under the direction of a doctor to administer drugs to their parents in a home setting. (Emphasis added). See <a href="https://choiceisanillusion.files.wordpress.com/2016/10/md-stevens-2016.pdf" style="color: #3d85c6; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">Declaration of Dr. Kenneth Stevens, MD, 01/06/16</a>, at A-50, ¶10. </span></blockquote>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: white;">[3] Id.</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">[4] Id.</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">[5] Id.</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">[6] Prop. 106, § 25-48-102(7), can be viewed at A-6 at this link: </span><a href="https://choiceisanillusion.files.wordpress.com/2016/10/prop-106.pdf" style="background-color: white; color: #3d85c6; text-decoration: none;">https://choiceisanillusion.files.wordpress.com/2016/10/prop-106.pdf</a><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">[7] The AMA Code of Medical Ethics, Opinion 2.21, Euthanasia (A-18), linked hereto at </span><a href="https://choiceisanillusion.files.wordpress.com/2016/10/md-ama-opn-euthanasia_001.pdf" style="background-color: white; color: #3d85c6; text-decoration: none;">https://choiceisanillusion.files.wordpress.com/2016/10/md-ama-opn-euthanasia_001.pdf</a></span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8681246155867748751.post-29330035407476350772016-10-27T23:30:00.000-07:002016-10-28T01:10:59.148-07:00"Even if a patient struggled, who would know?"<br />
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: "verdana" , "geneva" , sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">By Margaret Dore, Esq., MBA</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: "verdana" , "geneva" , sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">Prop. 106 allows the death by lethal dose to occur in private without supervision.[1] The drugs used are water and alcohol soluble, such that they can be administered to a restrained or sleeping person without consent.[2] Alex Schadenberg, Executive Director for the Euthanasia Prevention Coalition, puts it this way:</span><br />
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With assisted suicide laws in Washington and Oregon [and with Prop. 106], 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. . . . <i>Even if a patient struggled, “who would know?</i>” (Emphasis added).[3]</blockquote>
<b style="background-color: white; font-family: Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">Footnotes</b><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="background-color: white; font-family: "verdana" , "geneva" , sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px; white-space: pre;"> </span><br />
<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="background-color: white; font-family: "verdana" , "geneva" , sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px; white-space: pre;"><br /></span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "verdana" , "geneva" , sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">[1] See Prop. 106 in its entirety, at </span><a href="https://choiceisanillusion.files.wordpress.com/2016/10/prop-106.pdf" style="background-color: white; color: #3d85c6; font-family: Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px; text-decoration: none;">https://choiceisanillusion.files.wordpress.com/2016/10/prop-106.pdf</a><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: "verdana" , "geneva" , sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">[2] The drugs used for assisted suicide in Oregon and Washington include Secobarbital and Pentobarbital (Nembutal), which are water and alcohol soluble, such that they can be injected without consent. See "Secobarbital Sodium Capsules, Drugs.Com, at </span><a href="http://www.drugs.com/pr/seconal-sodium.html" style="background-color: white; color: #3d85c6; font-family: Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px; text-decoration: none;">http://www.drugs.com/pr/seconal-sodium.html</a><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "verdana" , "geneva" , sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;"> and </span><a href="http://www.drugs.com/pro/nembutal.html" style="background-color: white; color: #3d85c6; font-family: Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px; text-decoration: none;">http://www.drugs.com/pro/nembutal.html</a><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "verdana" , "geneva" , sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;"> See also Oregon’s government report, page 6, attached to </span><a href="https://choiceisanillusion.files.wordpress.com/2016/10/md-toffler-decl.pdf" style="background-color: white; color: #3d85c6; font-family: Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">Dr. Toffler's Declaration</a><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "verdana" , "geneva" , sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;"> at A-35 (listing these drugs).</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: "verdana" , "geneva" , sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">[3] Alex Schadenberg, Letter to the Editor, “Elder abuse a growing problem,” </span><i style="background-color: white; font-family: Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">The Advocate</i><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "verdana" , "geneva" , sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">, Official Publication of the Idaho State Bar, October 2010, page 14, available at </span><a href="http://www.margaretdore.com/info/October_Letters.pdf" style="background-color: white; color: #3d85c6; font-family: Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px; text-decoration: none;">http://www.margaretdore.com/info/October_Letters.pdf</a>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8681246155867748751.post-37488240160987901062016-10-27T22:56:00.004-07:002016-10-28T01:36:16.226-07:00Prop. 106 Will Create New Paths of Elder Abuse<div style="text-align: right;">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhqy7mTX1l48Xyc4KoMTOxwNXTXssGm_OmeUBvYSZgSCMaLsCQFXup66NduCVhMkyy4YONprIUnjfNDXefQ942Lv1-mG-JjfhnR5Ati4Ie8A3eZWYs_B8sS6iBOljZwICiE7BDk3wK_3_kg/s1600/photo+man-480_360.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhqy7mTX1l48Xyc4KoMTOxwNXTXssGm_OmeUBvYSZgSCMaLsCQFXup66NduCVhMkyy4YONprIUnjfNDXefQ942Lv1-mG-JjfhnR5Ati4Ie8A3eZWYs_B8sS6iBOljZwICiE7BDk3wK_3_kg/s320/photo+man-480_360.jpg" width="320" /></a><i style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">To view similar information in a pdf format, go to "Dore Memo Opposing Prop. 106," which can be viewed <a href="https://choiceisanillusion.files.wordpress.com/2016/10/dore-prop-106-memo.pdf" style="color: #3d85c6; text-align: right; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">here</a><span style="text-align: right;"> and </span><a href="https://choiceisanillusion.files.wordpress.com/2016/10/dore-prop-106-attachments.pdf" style="color: #3d85c6; text-align: right; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">here</a>.</span></i><br />
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<span style="background-color: white;">By Margaret Dore, Esq, MBA</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white;"><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: white;">Elder abuse is already a problem in Colorado. Passage of Prop. 106 will make it worse. See below.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white;"><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: white;"><b>A. Elder Abuse is a Pervasive Problem, Which Includes the Abuse, Financial Exploitation and Murder of Older Adults</b></span><br />
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There are more than 11,000 cases of adult abuse, including elder abuse, reported each year in Colorado.[1] Elder abuse perpetrators are often family members.[2] They typically start out with small crimes, such as stealing jewelry and blank checks, before moving on to larger items or to coercing victims to sign over deeds to their homes, change their wills or liquidate their assets.[3] Victims may even be murdered.[4] Amy Mix, of the AARP Legal Counsel of the Elderly, states:</div>
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<blockquote class="tr_bq">
[D]efendants are family members, lots are friends, often people who befriend a senior through church . . . . We had a senior victim who had given her life savings away to some scammer who told her that she’d won the lottery and would have to pay the taxes ahead of time. . . . The scammer found the victim using information in her husband’s obituary.[5]</blockquote>
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Elder abuse is prevalent in part because victims do not report it. “One study estimates that only 1 in 14 cases ever comes to the attention of the authorities.”[6] In another study, it was 1 out of 25 cases.[7] According to Denver Human Services, victims are: afraid to speak up, worried about retaliation and embarrassed.[8] Another explanation:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
[They] don’t want to report their own child as an abuser.[9]</blockquote>
<b>B. "Even if a Patient Struggled, 'Who Would Know?"</b><br />
<br />
Prop. 106 allows the death by lethal dose to occur in private without supervision.[10] The drugs used are water and alcohol soluble, such that they can be administered to a restrained or sleeping person without consent.[11] Alex Schadenberg, Executive Director for the Euthanasia Prevention Coalition, puts it this way:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
With assisted suicide laws in Washington and Oregon [and with Prop. 106], 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. . . . <i>Even if a patient struggled, “who would know?”</i> (Emphasis added).[12]</blockquote>
Prop. 106 will render people sitting ducks to their heirs and other predators - even more than they already are.<br />
<br />
<b>Footnotes</b><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span><br />
<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"><br /></span>
[1] Denver Human Services, <a href="https://www.denvergov.org/content/denvergov/en/denver-human-services/protection-prevention/adult-protection-elder-abuse.html">https://www.denvergov.org/content/denvergov/en/denver-human-services/protection-prevention/adult-protection-elder-abuse.html</a> (As of January 29, 2016).<br />
[2] Id. and MetLife Mature Market Institute Study: “Broken Trust: Elders, Family and Finances,” March 2009, available at <a href="https://www.metlife.com/assets/cao/mmi/publications/studies/mmi-study-broken-trust-elders-family-finances.pdf">https://www.metlife.com/assets/cao/mmi/publications/studies/mmi-study-broken-trust-elders-family-finances.pdf</a><br />
[3] MetLife, supra, at p. 14.<br />
[4] Id., p. 24.<br />
[5] Kathryn Alfisi, “Breaking the Silence on Elder Abuse,” <i>Washington Lawyer</i>, February 2015. (A-52 to A-53, quote at A-53). See also <a href="https://www.dcbar.org/bar-resources/publications/washington-lawyer/articles/february-2015-elder-abuse.cfm">https://www.dcbar.org/bar-resources/publications/washington-lawyer/articles/february-2015-elder-abuse.cfm</a><br />
[6] See e.g., National Center on Elder Abuse, Administration on Aging, <a href="http://www.ncea.aoa.gov/Library/Data">http://www.ncea.aoa.gov/Library/Data</a>, p.2.<br />
[7] Id.<br />
[8] Denver Human Services, supra.<br />
[9] “Adult Abuse Defined,” DC Department of Human Services, as of January 25, 2016. See <a href="http://dhs.dc.gov/service/adult-abuse">http://dhs.dc.gov/service/adult-abuse</a>, (A-54).<br />
[10] See Prop. 106 in its entirety, at <a href="https://choiceisanillusion.files.wordpress.com/2016/10/prop-106.pdf">https://choiceisanillusion.files.wordpress.com/2016/10/prop-106.pdf</a><br />
[11] The drugs used for assisted suicide in Oregon and Washington include Secobarbital and Pentobarbital (Nembutal), which are water and alcohol soluble, such that they can be injected without consent. See "Secobarbital Sodium Capsules, Drugs.Com, at <a href="http://www.drugs.com/pr/seconal-sodium.html">http://www.drugs.com/pr/seconal-sodium.html</a> and <a href="http://www.drugs.com/pro/nembutal.html">http://www.drugs.com/pro/nembutal.html</a> See also Oregon’s government report, page 6, attached to <a href="https://choiceisanillusion.files.wordpress.com/2016/10/md-toffler-decl.pdf" target="_blank">Dr. Toffler's Declaration</a> at A-35 (listing these drugs).<br />
[12] Alex Schadenberg, Letter to the Editor, “Elder abuse a growing problem,” <i>The Advocate</i>, Official Publication of the Idaho State Bar, October 2010, page 14, available at <a href="http://www.margaretdore.com/info/October_Letters.pdf">http://www.margaretdore.com/info/October_Letters.pdf</a>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8681246155867748751.post-1403075028683798912016-10-27T21:26:00.000-07:002016-10-27T21:26:32.458-07:00If Colorado follows Oregon’s interpretation of “six months to live,” assisted suicide will be legalized for people with insulin dependent diabetes<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiXhxKbpeJ91K9itkG4f2XpDSeEMZI0nylhyphenhypheniZhbsjuJx7SdCdd9q7YAiaLrac7qA-4k-L3E2P0uIdzucQyFB27YmEfqXnoLO-PUDrkWdwpJ_fPET9uR4z9qYy4YYwOEJVUQomF4n3EvRd5/s1600/Photo+William_Toffler.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiXhxKbpeJ91K9itkG4f2XpDSeEMZI0nylhyphenhypheniZhbsjuJx7SdCdd9q7YAiaLrac7qA-4k-L3E2P0uIdzucQyFB27YmEfqXnoLO-PUDrkWdwpJ_fPET9uR4z9qYy4YYwOEJVUQomF4n3EvRd5/s200/Photo+William_Toffler.jpg" width="162" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">William Toffler, MD</td></tr>
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<i>To view this information in a pdf format, go to "Dore Memo Opposing Prop. 106," which can be viewe<span style="font-family: inherit;">d <a href="https://choiceisanillusion.files.wordpress.com/2016/10/dore-prop-106-memo.pdf" style="background-color: white; color: #3d85c6; text-align: right; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">here</a><span style="background-color: white; text-align: right;"> and </span><a href="https://choiceisanillusion.files.wordpress.com/2016/10/dore-prop-106-attachments.pdf" style="background-color: white; color: #3d85c6; text-align: right; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">here</a>.</span></i><br />
<br />
By Margaret Dore, Esq., MBA<br />
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Prop. 106 applies to patients whose terminal illness is incurable and irreversible and which has been medically confirmed and will within reasonable medical judgment, result in death “within six months.”[1]<br />
<a name='more'></a><br />
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Oregon’s law applies to terminal patients who meet these same criteria. Oregon’s law states:<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span><br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
“Terminal disease” means an incurable and irreversible disease that has been medically confirmed and will, within reasonable medical judgment, produce death <i>within six months</i>. (Emphasis added).[2]<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span></blockquote>
In Oregon, these criteria are interpreted to include chronic conditions such as “chronic lower respiratory disease” and “diabetes mellitus” (better known as “diabetes”).[3] Indeed, these conditions are listed in Oregon government reports as “underlying illnesses” sufficient to justify assisted suicide.[4]<br />
<br />
One reason that chronic conditions qualify for assisted suicide is that the six months to live is determined without treatment. Oregon doctor, William Toffler, explains:<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span><br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
In Oregon, people with chronic conditions are “terminal” [and eligible for assisted suicide] <i>if without their medications, they have less than six months [to] live</i>.[5]</blockquote>
Dr. Toffler elaborates:<br />
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<i>This is significant when you consider that a typical insulin-dependent 20 year-old-year will live less than a month without insulin</i>.</blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<i>Such persons, with insulin, are likely to have decades to live</i>; in fact, most diabetics have a normal life span given appropriate control of their blood sugar. (Emphasis and spacing changed).[6]<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span></blockquote>
If Colorado enacts Prop. 106 and follows Oregon’s interpretation of “six months” to live, assisted suicide will be legalized for people with chronic conditions such as insulin dependent diabetes. As noted by Dr. Toffler, such persons can have “decades to live.”[7]<br />
<br />
<b>Footnotes:</b><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: white;">[1] </span><a href="https://choiceisanillusion.files.wordpress.com/2016/10/prop-106.pdf" style="background-color: white; color: #3d85c6; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">Prop. 106,</a><span style="background-color: white;"> § 25-48-101, (13), (12) & (16) state:</span></span><br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq" style="background-color: white;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">“<i>Qualified individual” means a terminally ill adult with a prognosis of six months or less</i> . . . . </span></blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq" style="background-color: white;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><i>“Prognosis of six months or less” means</i> a prognosis resulting from a terminal illness that the illness will, within reasonable medical judgment, result in death <i>within six months</i> and which has been medically confirmed. . . .</span></blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq" style="background-color: white;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>“Terminal illness” means an incurable and irreversible illness that will, within reasonable medical judgment, result in death. (Emphasis added).</span></blockquote>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: white;">[2] </span><a href="http://public.health.oregon.gov/ProviderPartnerResources/EvaluationResearch/DeathwithDignityAct/Pages/ors.aspx" style="background-color: white; color: #3d85c6; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">Or. Rev. Stat. § 127.800</a><span style="background-color: white;"> s.1.01.(12). ( A-27).</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">[3] <a href="https://choiceisanillusion.files.wordpress.com/2016/10/md-toffler-decl.pdf" style="color: #3d85c6; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">Declaration of William Toffler,</a> MD (A-27 & A-28, ¶¶ 2, 3 & 6).</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">[4] Id., "Exhibit B" (A-35 & A-36)</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">[5] Id., </span><span style="background-color: white;">¶</span><span style="background-color: white;"> 4</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">[6] Id.</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">[7] Id.</span></span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8681246155867748751.post-71661288332688003172016-10-27T20:03:00.001-07:002016-10-29T14:57:25.119-07:00"Taking the language of Prop. 106 to its logical conclusion, an adult child is legally allowed to administer the lethal dose to his or her parent"<div style="text-align: right;">
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiuxFJHiBfniXu2NPKgLWBuMJH0UngMYcGAxlDsACweWnjyd8B7Btmm7ZBEvjGPQORaFFZ5PVCqXn4bfKtPcbpbmSSNN5D4ubBQpv8iqh7MMgVb8Ar2utF4xGjVUPL43fElC5bZVxRLtiet/s1600/photo+MD+brighter+headshot.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiuxFJHiBfniXu2NPKgLWBuMJH0UngMYcGAxlDsACweWnjyd8B7Btmm7ZBEvjGPQORaFFZ5PVCqXn4bfKtPcbpbmSSNN5D4ubBQpv8iqh7MMgVb8Ar2utF4xGjVUPL43fElC5bZVxRLtiet/s1600/photo+MD+brighter+headshot.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Margaret Dore, Esq.</td></tr>
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<i style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">To view similar information in a pdf format, see "Dore Memo Opposing </span></i><i style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Prop. 106,"</span></i><i style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"> which can be viewed <a href="https://choiceisanillusion.files.wordpress.com/2016/10/dore-prop-106-memo.pdf" style="color: #3d85c6; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">here</a> and <a href="https://choiceisanillusion.files.wordpress.com/2016/10/dore-prop-106-attachments.pdf" style="color: #3d85c6; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">here</a>.</span></i></div>
</div>
<br />
<span style="text-align: right;">By Margaret Dore, Esq., MBA</span><br />
<span style="text-align: right;"></span><br />
<span style="text-align: right;"></span>Prop. 106 is sold as physician-assisted suicide in which a patient self-administers the lethal dose. In the fine print, Prop. 106 also allows euthanasia. This is true for two reasons: (1) Prop. 106 defines "medical aid in dying" (a euphemism for assisted suicide and euthanasia) as a "medical practice;" and (2) on close examination, self administration is not required.[1] See below.<br />
<a name='more'></a><br />
<b style="font-family: inherit;">A. Normal Medical Practice</b><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">Generally accepted medical practice allows a doctor or a person acting under the direction of a doctor, to administer medication to a patient.[2] </span><span style="font-family: inherit;">A person acting under the direction of a doctor can be a healthcare professional or a non-medical person.[3] Kenneth Stevens MD states:</span><br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
Common examples of persons acting under the direction of a doctor, include: . . . parents who act under the direction of a doctor to administer drugs to their children in a home setting; and adult children who act under the direction of a doctor to administer drugs to their parents in a home setting.[4]</blockquote>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">This is normal medical practice.[5]</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;"><b>B. "Medical Aid in Dying" is a "Medical Practice"</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;"><b><br /></b></span>Prop. 106 defines medical aid in dying as the “medical practice” of prescribing “medical aid-in-dying medication” (the lethal dose) that a patient “may" choose to self-administer. Prop. 106 states:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<i>“Medical aid in dying” means the medical practice</i> of a physician prescribing medical aid-in-dying <i>medication</i> to a qualified individual <i>that the individual may chose to self-administer</i> to bring about a peaceful death. (Emphasis added).[6]</blockquote>
With use of the word, "may," self-administration is not mandatory. With self-administration not mandatory and “medical aid in dying” a “medical practice,” a doctor or other person acting under the direction of a doctor is allowed to administer the lethal dose (medication) to the patient. Moreover, as with other "medical practices," the administering person can be the doctor or another person such as a family member acting under the doctor's direction.<br />
<br />
In other words, taking the language of Prop. 106 to its logical conclusion, an adult child will be legally allowed to administer the lethal dose to his or her parent.<br />
<br />
<b>C.</b><b> Allowing Someone Else to Administer the Lethal Dose is Euthanasia</b><br />
<b><br /></b>Allowing someone else to administer the lethal dose is euthanasia under generally accepted medical terminology. The AMA Code of Ethics, Opinion 2.21, states:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
Euthanasia is the administration of a lethal agent <i>by another person to a patient</i> . . . . (Emphasis added).[7]</blockquote>
Prop. 106 allows euthanasia.<br />
<br />
<b>Footnotes</b><br />
<b><br /></b>[1] “Aid in Dying” is a traditional euphemism for physician-assisted suicide and euthanasia. See e.g., Maria T. Celocruz, “‘<a href="https://repository.library.georgetown.edu/handle/10822/744116" target="_blank">Aid-in-Dying’: Should we decriminalize Physician-Assisted Suicide and Physician-Committed Euthanasia?”, <i>American Journal of Law and Medicine,</i>” 1992</a>.<br />
[2] Oregon doctor, Kenneth Stevens, testifies:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
Generally accepted medical practice allows a doctor, or a person acting under the direction of a doctor, to administer prescription drugs to a patient. <i>Common examples of persons acting under the direction of a doctor, include</i>: nurses and other healthcare professionals who act under the direction of a doctor to administer drugs in a hospital setting; parents who act under the direction of a doctor to administer drugs to their children in a home setting; and adult children who act under the direction of a doctor to administer drugs to their parents in a home setting. (Emphasis added). See <a href="https://choiceisanillusion.files.wordpress.com/2016/10/md-stevens-2016.pdf" target="_blank">Declaration of Dr. Kenneth Stevens, MD, 01/06/16</a>, at A-50, ¶10. </blockquote>
[3] Id.<br />
[4] Id.<br />
[5] Id.<br />
[6] Prop. 106, § 25-48-102(7), can be viewed at A-6 at this link: <a href="https://choiceisanillusion.files.wordpress.com/2016/10/prop-106.pdf">https://choiceisanillusion.files.wordpress.com/2016/10/prop-106.pdf</a><br />
[7] Cf. Declaration of Kenneth Stevens, MD, supra at note 46.<br />
[8] Id.<br />
[9] The AMA Code of Medical Ethics, Opinion 2.21, Euthanasia (A-18), linked hereto at <a href="https://choiceisanillusion.files.wordpress.com/2016/10/md-ama-opn-euthanasia_001.pdf">https://choiceisanillusion.files.wordpress.com/2016/10/md-ama-opn-euthanasia_001.pdf</a>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8681246155867748751.post-73204126335465521652016-10-27T16:33:00.000-07:002016-10-27T19:29:31.007-07:00Patients May Have Years or Decades to Live<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZ4fXmZrrVuj1ScSESSxzMIpap4k9v89XXUOPc9qMjVuoPe2aH1y_zX4nyYeF0TPRAAl4e61E3zk9f-ACbff71Izv6_r_IIU6dGCvSJHROyqIq42y3Jc9fY7iolupYugN5VMNLw70iQT22/s1600/Photo+William_Toffler.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZ4fXmZrrVuj1ScSESSxzMIpap4k9v89XXUOPc9qMjVuoPe2aH1y_zX4nyYeF0TPRAAl4e61E3zk9f-ACbff71Izv6_r_IIU6dGCvSJHROyqIq42y3Jc9fY7iolupYugN5VMNLw70iQT22/s200/Photo+William_Toffler.jpg" width="162" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">William Toffler, MD</td></tr>
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<i style="background-color: white; font-family: Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">To view similar information in a pdf format, see "Dore Memo Opposing </span></i><i style="background-color: white; font-family: Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Prop. 106,"</span></i><i style="background-color: white; font-family: Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"> which can be viewed <a href="https://choiceisanillusion.files.wordpress.com/2016/10/dore-prop-106-memo.pdf" style="color: #3d85c6; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">here</a> and <a href="https://choiceisanillusion.files.wordpress.com/2016/10/dore-prop-106-attachments.pdf" style="color: #3d85c6; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">here</a>. </span></i><br />
<br />
By Margaret Dore, Esq., MBA<br />
<div>
<br /></div>
Prop. 106 applies to "terminal" persons predicted to have "less than six months to live." Such persons may actually have years or decades, to live. This is true for three reasons.<br />
<a name='more'></a><br />
<b>1. If Colorado follows Oregon’s interpretation of “six months to live,” assisted suicide will be legalized for people with chronic conditions such as insulin dependent diabetes</b><br />
<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span><br />
Prop. 106 applies to patients whose terminal illness is incurable and irreversible and which has been medically confirmed and will within reasonable medical judgment, result in death “within six months.”[1]<br />
<br />
<br />
Oregon’s law applies to terminal patients who meet these same criteria. Oregon’s law states:<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span><br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
“Terminal disease” means an incurable and irreversible disease that has been medically confirmed and will, within reasonable medical judgment, produce death <i>within six months</i>. (Emphasis added).[2]<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span></blockquote>
In Oregon, these criteria are interpreted to include chronic conditions such as “chronic lower respiratory disease” and “diabetes mellitus” (better known as “diabetes”).[3] Indeed, these conditions are listed in Oregon government reports as “underlying illnesses” sufficient to justify assisted suicide.[4]<br />
<br />
One reason that chronic conditions qualify for assisted suicide is that the six months to live is determined without treatment. Oregon doctor, William Toffler, explains:<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span><br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
In Oregon, people with chronic conditions are “terminal” [and eligible for assisted suicide] <i>if without their medications, they have less than six months [to] live</i>.[5]</blockquote>
Dr. Toffler elaborates:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<i>This is significant when you consider that a typical insulin-dependent 20 year-old-year will live less than a month without insulin</i>.</blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<i>Such persons, with insulin, are likely to have decades to live</i>; in fact, most diabetics have a normal life span given appropriate control of their blood sugar. (Emphasis and spacing changed).[6]<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span></blockquote>
If Colorado enacts Prop. 106 and follows Oregon’s interpretation of “six months” to live, assisted suicide will be legalized for people with chronic conditions such as insulin dependent diabetes. As noted by Dr. Toffler, such persons can have “decades to live.”[7]<br />
<br />
<b>2. Predictions of life expectancy can be wrong</b><br />
<br />
Patients may also have years to live due to misdiagnosis and the fact that predicting life expectancy is not an exact science.[8] Consider John Norton, diagnosed with ALS (Lou Gehrig’s disease) at age 18 or 19.[9] He was told that he would get progressively worse (be paralyzed) and die in three to five years.[10] Instead, the disease progression stopped on its own. In a 2012 affidavit, at age 74, he states:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
If assisted suicide or euthanasia had been available to me in the 1950's, I would have missed the bulk of my life and my life yet to come.[11]</blockquote>
<b>3. Treatment can lead to recovery</b><br />
<br />
Consider also Oregon resident, Jeanette Hall, who was diagnosed with cancer in 2000 and wanted to use Oregon’s law.[12] Her doctor convinced her to be treated instead.[13] In a June 2016 declaration, she states:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
This July, it will be 16 years since my diagnosis. If [my doctor] had believed in assisted suicide, I would be dead.<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>[14]</blockquote>
<b>Footnotes:</b><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: white;">[1] </span><a href="https://choiceisanillusion.files.wordpress.com/2016/10/prop-106.pdf" style="background-color: white; color: #3d85c6; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">Prop. 106,</a><span style="background-color: white;"> § 25-48-101, (13), (12) & (16) state:</span></span><br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq" style="background-color: white;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">“<i>Qualified individual” means a terminally ill adult with a prognosis of six months or less</i> . . . . </span></blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq" style="background-color: white;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><i>“Prognosis of six months or less” means</i> a prognosis resulting from a terminal illness that the illness will, within reasonable medical judgment, result in death <i>within six months</i> and which has been medically confirmed. . . .</span></blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq" style="background-color: white;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>“Terminal illness” means an incurable and irreversible illness that will, within reasonable medical judgment, result in death. (Emphasis added).</span></blockquote>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: white;">[2] </span><a href="http://public.health.oregon.gov/ProviderPartnerResources/EvaluationResearch/DeathwithDignityAct/Pages/ors.aspx" style="background-color: white; color: #3d85c6; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">Or. Rev. Stat. § 127.800</a><span style="background-color: white;"> s.1.01.(12). ( A-27).</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">[3] <a href="https://choiceisanillusion.files.wordpress.com/2016/10/md-toffler-decl.pdf" style="color: #3d85c6; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">Declaration of William Toffler,</a> MD (A-27 & A-28, ¶¶ 2, 3 & 6).</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">[4] Id., "Exhibit B" (A-35 & A-36)</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">[5] Id., </span><span style="background-color: white;">¶</span><span style="background-color: white;"> 4</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">[6] Id.</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">[7] Id.</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">[8] See e.g., Jessica Firger, “<a href="https://choiceisanillusion.files.wordpress.com/2016/10/md-12-million_001.pdf" style="color: #3d85c6; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">12 million Americans misdiagnosed each year</a>,"CBS NEWS, 4/17/14 (A-37); and Nina Shapiro, Terminal Uncertainty, (A-19 to A-21), available at </span><a href="https://choiceisanillusion.files.wordpress.com/2016/10/md-term-uncert-excerpts_0011.pdf" style="background-color: white; color: #3d85c6; text-decoration: none;">https://choiceisanillusion.files.wordpress.com/2016/10/md-term-uncert-excerpts_0011.pdf</a><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">[9] </span><span style="background-color: white;"><a href="https://choiceisanillusion.files.wordpress.com/2016/10/md-john-norton.pdf" style="color: #3d85c6; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">Affidavit of John Norton</a>, 08/15/12, </span><span style="background-color: white;">¶</span><span style="background-color: white;"> 3.</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">[10] Id., </span><span style="background-color: white;">¶</span><span style="background-color: white;"> 1</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">[11] Id., </span><span style="background-color: white;">¶</span><span style="background-color: white;"> 5.</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">[12] </span><a href="https://choiceisanillusion.files.wordpress.com/2016/10/md-stevens-2016.pdf" style="background-color: white; color: #3d85c6; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">Declaration of Kenneth Stevens, MD</a><span style="background-color: white;">, 1/06/16 (A-50, ¶¶ 3-7); and Declaration of Jeanette Hall, 6/30/16 (A-51).</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">[13] Id.</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">[14] </span><a href="https://choiceisanillusion.files.wordpress.com/2016/10/md-jeanette-2016.pdf" style="background-color: white; color: #3d85c6; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">Declaration of Jeanette Hall</a><span style="background-color: white;">, supra at A-51, ¶4.</span></span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8681246155867748751.post-60484507563032799092016-10-27T01:44:00.002-07:002016-10-27T01:44:57.257-07:00John Norton, A Cautionary Tale<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-bottom: 0.5em; margin-left: 1em; padding: 6px; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjK6E2ElJPbfgQNbfgM1gn7KpVCsglHQ6opTuCygnS_nS26Ela3NyJ8mMDht7oD4DyVz5xl85fUPcuA1hkRr8BMxLEaTldavxBN7ayf-W427Sayv56DMMQQSBOnDOeQFVbfFoSM7AoUAwFO/s1600/John+Norton+Testifying+cropped.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjK6E2ElJPbfgQNbfgM1gn7KpVCsglHQ6opTuCygnS_nS26Ela3NyJ8mMDht7oD4DyVz5xl85fUPcuA1hkRr8BMxLEaTldavxBN7ayf-W427Sayv56DMMQQSBOnDOeQFVbfFoSM7AoUAwFO/s1600/John+Norton+Testifying+cropped.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 12.8px; padding-top: 4px; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: x-small;">John Norton</span></td></tr>
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<span lang="EN-CA" style="background-color: white; font-family: Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">By Margaret Dore, Esq., MBA</span></span><br />
<span lang="EN-CA" style="background-color: white; font-family: Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"></span></span><br /><span lang="EN-CA" style="background-color: white; font-family: Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"></span></span>
<span lang="EN-CA" style="background-color: white; font-family: Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">In March 2012, I watched John Norton testify before the Joint Judiciary Committee of the </span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Massachusetts Legislature. A person with ALS (Lou Gerhig's disease), he had been told at age 18 or 19 that he would die in three to five years from paralysis. </span></span><span lang="EN-CA" style="background-color: white; font-family: Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;"><span style="font-family: Verdana;">Below find his story, at age 74, as set forth </span></span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px; text-align: center;"><a href="https://choiceisanillusion.files.wordpress.com/2014/08/signed-john-norton-affidavit_001.pdf" style="color: #3d85c6; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">in this affidavit:</a><b> </b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b>AFFIDAVIT OF JOHN NORTON IN OPPOSITION</b></span><br /><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><strong>ASSISTED SUICIDE AND EUTHANASIA</strong></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 13.2px;"></span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">THE UNDERSIGNED, being first duly sworn on oath, STATES:</span><br style="background-color: white; font-family: Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" /><br style="background-color: white; font-family: Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">1. I live in Florence Massachusetts USA. When I was eighteen years old and in my first year of college, I was diagnosed with Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) by the University of Iowa Medical School. ALS is commonly referred to as Lou Gehrig’s disease. I was told that I would get progressively worse (be paralyzed) and die in three to five years.</span><br style="background-color: white; font-family: Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" /><br style="background-color: white; font-family: Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">2. I was a very physical person. The diagnosis was devastating to me. I had played football in high school and was extremely active riding bicycles. I also performed heavy labor including road construction and farm work. I prided myself for my physical strength, especially in my hands. </span><br style="background-color: white; font-family: Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" /><br style="background-color: white; font-family: Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">3. The ALS diagnosis was confirmed by the Mayo Clinic in Rochester Minnesota. I was eighteen or nineteen years old at the time. By then, I had twitching in both hands, which were also getting weaker. At some point, I lost the ability to grip in my hands. I became depressed and was treated for my depression. If instead, I had been told that my depression was rational and that I should take an easy way out with a doctor’s prescription and support, I would have taken that opportunity. </span><br style="background-color: white; font-family: Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" /><br style="background-color: white; font-family: Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">4. Six years after my initial diagnosis, the disease progression stopped. Today, my condition is about the same. I still can’t grip with my hands. Sometimes I need special help. But, I have a wonderful life. I am married to Susan. We have three children and one grandchild. I have a degree in Psychology and one year of graduate school. I am a retired bus driver (no gripping required). Prior to driving bus, I worked as a parole and probation officer. When I was much younger, I drove a school bus. We have wonderful friends. I enjoy singing tenor in amateur choruses. I help other people by working as a volunteer driver. </span><br style="background-color: white; font-family: Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" /><br style="background-color: white; font-family: Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">5. I will be 75 years old this coming September. If assisted suicide or euthanasia had been available to me in the 1950's, I would have missed the bulk of my life and my life yet to come. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13.2px;"></span></span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;"></span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8681246155867748751.post-44711043295572675732016-10-27T00:23:00.001-07:002016-10-27T00:24:33.779-07:00Beware of Vultures: Senator Jennifer Fielder on Compassion & Choices<div class="post-body entry-content" id="post-body-4396793140130430096" style="background-color: white; font-family: Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px; line-height: 1.4; position: relative; width: 470px;">
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<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">"</span><span style="line-height: 18.2px;">I found myself wondering, '</span><span style="line-height: 18.2px;">Where does all the lobby money come from?' If it really is about a few terminally ill people who might seek help ending their suffering, why was more money spent on promoting assisted suicide than any other issue in Montana?</span><span style="font-family: inherit; line-height: 1.4;">"</span></blockquote>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">By Senator Jennifer Fielder</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"></span><span style="font-family: inherit;">As we wrangled through the budget this spring, the beautiful state capitol began to feel like a big, ripe carcass with a dark cloud of vultures circling about. </span><br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; border: 1px solid rgb(157, 184, 78); box-shadow: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.0980392) 1px 1px 5px; color: #9db84e; float: right; margin-left: 1em; padding: 5px; position: relative; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjySielhrAJPAUilGpia8Zu4S0MP4gVSs_XFcUFcAO7hHYpOnFJqcg7OuJo9S6tQvT_bEALT3nNqZoeQlscRMD4FBnVFWafeOwI9Tr6FS6qeAXUScpIvsz8pk1tQg4mJbozpGCen5nzaOw/s1600/Senator+Fielder.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; color: #3d85c6; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-decoration: none;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjySielhrAJPAUilGpia8Zu4S0MP4gVSs_XFcUFcAO7hHYpOnFJqcg7OuJo9S6tQvT_bEALT3nNqZoeQlscRMD4FBnVFWafeOwI9Tr6FS6qeAXUScpIvsz8pk1tQg4mJbozpGCen5nzaOw/s200/Senator+Fielder.JPG" style="background: transparent; border: none; box-shadow: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.0980392) 0px 0px 0px; padding: 0px; position: relative;" width="173" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 11px; text-align: center;">Senator Jennifer Fielder</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">The magnitude of money in government attracts far more folks who want to be on the receiving end than it does those who just want fair and functional government. Until that ratio improves, it may be impossible to rein in unnecessary regulation and spending.</span></span> </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Special interest groups spent over $6 million dollars on lobbyists to pressure Montana legislators during the 2013 session. Seems like a lot of money, until you compare it to the billions of taxpayer dollars at stake. Does the average taxpayer stand a chance against organized forces like that?</span><br />
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<br /><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=6843705300864147847" name="more" style="color: #3d85c6; text-decoration: none;"></a>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"></span><span style="font-family: inherit;">As your Senator one of my main duties is to sort out who wants your money, or a change in a law, and why. Getting to the bottom of it takes work. It would certainly help if well-intentioned citizens would do a little more research before clamoring onto any particular bandwagons as well.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"></span><span style="font-family: inherit;">We have to be careful not to be fooled by catchy slogans, shallow campaign propaganda, biased media reports, or plays on our emotions which, too often, conceal a multitude of hidden agendas. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"></span><span style="font-family: inherit;">For example, it seems odd that the top lobby spender in Montana this year was Compassion and Choices, a “nonprofit” group that spent $160,356 advocating for legalization of assisted suicide. The second biggest spender was MEA-MFT, the teachers and public employees union who spent $120,319 pushing for state budget increases.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"></span><span style="font-family: inherit;">I earned a reputation for asking a lot of questions. I certainly didn’t take this job to rubber stamp anything. It's my duty to determine whether a proposal relates to an essential, necessary service of fair and functional government, or if it is motivated by piles of money to be gained from ill-advised government decisions.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"></span><span style="font-family: inherit;">You see, there is so much money in government that almost everything in government is about the money. The usual tactic is to disguise a ploy as “the humane thing to do”. . . . </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"></span><span style="font-family: inherit;">Some groups work very hard to provide factual information about their issue. Others stoop to the lowest of lows to invoke heart wrenching emotions, twisted half-truths, or outright lies. You really have to look carefully for all the angles.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"></span><span style="font-family: inherit;">Assisted suicide is another issue that can be highly emotional. There are deep and valid concerns on both sides of this life and death debate. But I found myself wondering, “Where does all the lobby money come from?” If it really is about a few terminally ill people who might seek help ending their suffering, why was more money spent on promoting assisted suicide than any other issue in Montana?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"></span><span style="font-family: inherit;">Could it be that convincing an ill person to end his or her life early will help health insurance companies save a bundle on what would have been ongoing medical treatment? How much would the government gain if it stopped paying social security, Medicare, or Medicaid on thousands of people a few months early? How much financial relief would pension systems see? Why was the proposed law to legalize assisted suicide [<a href="http://www.montanansagainstassistedsuicide.org/p/sb-220-tabled.html" style="color: #3d85c6; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">SB 220</a>] written so loosely? Would vulnerable old people be encouraged to end their lives unnecessarily early by those seeking financial gain? </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"></span><span style="font-family: inherit;">When considering the financial aspects of assisted suicide, it is clear that millions, maybe billions of dollars, are intertwined with the issue being marketed as “Compassion and Choices”. Beware.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"></span><span style="font-family: inherit;">Public issues are not easy, and they are not always about money. But often times they are. If we want fair and functional government, we need to look deeper than most people are willing to look.. . .</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">* * *</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Published as Communication from Your State Senator, "Beware of Vultures," by Montana State Senator Jennifer Fielder, Sanders County Ledger, <a href="http://www.scledger.net/" style="color: #3d85c6; text-decoration: none;">http://www.scledger.net</a>, page 2,</span><span style="font-family: inherit;"> 6-4-13.</span><span style="font-family: inherit;"> Senator Fielder </span>lives in Thompson Falls MT, representing <span style="font-family: inherit;">Montana State Senate District 7.</span></div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8681246155867748751.post-49752694780152570532016-10-27T00:01:00.001-07:002016-10-27T00:03:19.472-07:00Compassion & Choices' Mission is to Promote Suicide<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiFJ1oGWdGEnOB0AVEprFgT6UceHNDQCxvERqzIpNsJw1tx2Gvb_OTDCnCfZXFtOmxYsQ1-QNMpuJtxFnXFXjUiLwixgMPw4QQEXywefr5u0-dZYKO5n-ksq9EjaMz2lsm5FUUPAnp_7BWt/s1600/hemlock-300x225.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiFJ1oGWdGEnOB0AVEprFgT6UceHNDQCxvERqzIpNsJw1tx2Gvb_OTDCnCfZXFtOmxYsQ1-QNMpuJtxFnXFXjUiLwixgMPw4QQEXywefr5u0-dZYKO5n-ksq9EjaMz2lsm5FUUPAnp_7BWt/s200/hemlock-300x225.jpg" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Hemlock </td></tr>
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The push to enact Prop. 106 is being spearheaded by the suicide advocacy group, Compassion & Choices.<br />
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Compassion & Choices was formed in 2004 as the result of a merger/takeover of two other organizations.[1] One of these organizations was the former Hemlock Society, originally formed by Derek Humphry.[2]<br />
<a name='more'></a>In 2011, Humphry was the keynote speaker at Compassion & Choices’ annual meeting here in Washington State.[3] He was also in the news as a promoter of mail-order suicide kits.[4] This was after a depressed 29 year old man used one of the kits to kill himself.[5] Compassion & Choices’ newsletter, promoting Humphry’s presentation, references him as “the father of the modern movement for choice.”[6] Compassion & Choices’ mission is to promote suicide.<br />
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<b>Footnotes:</b><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: white;">[1] Ian Dowbiggin, A Concise History of Euthanasia 146 (2007)(“In 2003, [the] Hemlock [Society] changed its name to End-of-Life Choices, which merged with Compassion in Dying in 2004, to form Compassion & Choices.”). Accord. Compassion & Choices Newsletter at </span><a href="https://choiceisanillusion.files.wordpress.com/2016/10/humphry-keynote.pdf" style="background-color: white; color: #3d85c6; text-decoration: none;">https://choiceisanillusion.files.wordpress.com/2016/10/humphry-keynote.pdf</a><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">[2] Id.</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">[3] Compassion & Choices Newsletter, regarding Humphry’s October 22, 2011 speaking date, at </span><a href="https://choiceisanillusion.files.wordpress.com/2016/10/humphry-keynote.pdf" style="background-color: white; color: #3d85c6; text-decoration: none;">https://choiceisanillusion.files.wordpress.com/2016/10/humphry-keynote.pdf</a><span style="background-color: white;"> </span><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">[4] See Jack Moran, "Police kick in door in confusion over suicide kit,” <i>The Register-Guard</i>, September 21, 2011 (“"A spotlight was cast on the mail-order suicide kit business after a 29-year-old Eugene man committed suicide in December using a helium hood kit. The <i>Register-Guard</i> traced the $60 kit to [the company, which] has no website and does no advertising; <i>clients find [the] address through the writings of Humphry</i>.")(Emphasis added) </span><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">[5] Id.</span><br style="background-color: white;" /><span style="background-color: white;">[6] Compassion & Choices Newsletter, at A-91, </span><a href="https://choiceisanillusion.files.wordpress.com/2016/10/humphry-keynote.pdf" style="background-color: white; color: #3d85c6; text-decoration: none;">https://choiceisanillusion.files.wordpress.com/2016/10/humphry-keynote.pdf</a><span style="background-color: white;"> </span></span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8681246155867748751.post-31600929833750934372016-10-26T23:16:00.000-07:002016-10-26T23:17:35.756-07:00Even Law Enforcement is Denied Access to InformationIn Oregon, even law enforcement is denied access to information about cases under Oregon’s law. Alicia Parkman, Mortality Specialist for the Oregon Health Authority, states:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
We have been contacted by law enforcement and legal representatives in the past, but have not provided identifying information of any type. (Emphasis added).[1]</blockquote>
Oregon attorney Isaac Jackson provides a similar account:<br />
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The [police] officer’s report . . . describe[d] that he was unable to get . . . information from the Oregon Health Authority . . . . [2]<br />
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<b>Footnotes:</b><br />
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[1] E-mail from Alicia Parkman, Mortality Research Analyst, Oregon Health Authority, to Margaret Dore, January 4, 2012, available at <a href="https://choiceisanillusion.files.wordpress.com/2016/10/parkman-email.pdf">https://choiceisanillusion.files.wordpress.com/2016/10/parkman-email.pdf</a> </div>
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[2] See Jackson Declaration at <a href="https://choiceisanillusion.files.wordpress.com/2016/10/isaac-jackson-decl.pdf">https://choiceisanillusion.files.wordpress.com/2016/10/isaac-jackson-decl.pdf</a> (quote at page A-84)</div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8681246155867748751.post-49250091927060076022016-10-26T22:58:00.004-07:002016-10-26T23:05:53.670-07:00Oregon’s Data Cannot be VerifiedThe State of Oregon (the Oregon Health Authority) publishes annual statistical reports about the people who died under Oregon’s law. Much of this data cannot be verified due to a lack of record keeping and the destruction of source documentation. According to the Oregon Health Authority:<br />
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The identity of participating physicians is coded, but <i>the identity of individual patients is not recorded in any manner</i>. Approximately one year from the publication of the Annual Report, <i>all source documentation is destroyed</i>. (Emphasis added).[1]<br />
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[1] Oregon Health Authority, “Frequently Asked Questions,” page 2, available at <a href="https://choiceisanillusion.files.wordpress.com/2016/10/0ha-faqs_001.pdf">https://choiceisanillusion.files.wordpress.com/2016/10/0ha-faqs_001.pdf</a><br />
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8681246155867748751.post-52046979698498209852016-10-26T22:41:00.000-07:002016-10-26T22:41:17.324-07:00Any Studies Claiming That Oregon's Law is Safe, are Invalid<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhixiagBoCQEAcVetXkj5EMzIbhPx6F7b1tBoR0udD7o2CradlExnaBzNE10BE3JQmfONZVKTnKSIW_53rsbZ5vBOZjg1_5bfdFD7CUASYe3aGcKKInfaW-78l-Dm-3FMt-mL8jDvpSxlob/s1600/Jeff+Essmann.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhixiagBoCQEAcVetXkj5EMzIbhPx6F7b1tBoR0udD7o2CradlExnaBzNE10BE3JQmfONZVKTnKSIW_53rsbZ5vBOZjg1_5bfdFD7CUASYe3aGcKKInfaW-78l-Dm-3FMt-mL8jDvpSxlob/s200/Jeff+Essmann.jpg" width="142" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Jeff Essmann</td></tr>
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During a Montana legislative hearing in 2011, State Senator Jeff Essmann made the following observation about Oregon’s law, that any study claiming that it’s safe is invalid. He observed:<br />
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[All] the protections end after the prescription is written. [The proponents] admitted that the provisions in the Oregon law would permit one person to be alone in that room with the patient. And in that situation, there is no guarantee that that medication is [taken on a voluntary basis].<a name='more'></a></blockquote>
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So frankly, any of the studies that come out of the state of Oregon’s experience are invalid because no one who administers that drug . . . to that patient is going to be turning themselves in for the commission of a homicide. (Emphasis added).</blockquote>
<a href="http://www.margaretdore.com/pdf/senator_essmann_sb_167_001.pdf" target="_blank">Hearing Transcript for the Montana Senate Judiciary Committee on SB 167</a>, February 10, 2011 <br />
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8681246155867748751.post-25065174575960582042016-10-26T22:23:00.001-07:002016-10-26T22:23:05.232-07:00Cat shrunk the initativeProp. 106 (formally I-145) is an eleven page document issued by the State of Colorado. See here for an offical copy. The proponents, however feature a much smaller harder to read font version on their website, which is two pages shorter (9 pages long). The proponents don't want the voters to see what it really says.Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8681246155867748751.post-56855147838331445722016-10-24T23:09:00.000-07:002016-10-24T23:09:25.040-07:00 Physician-Assisted Suicide Traumatic for Family Members<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiXoXMAIwWdAdUAOY8mZLnwpcFqChGJVKCTtaMr4ISWDPzTl8CFyQrccNZ-lWdjefp8v_kGUjJGrKGggx0IjkzlxXlvqKlm2SKxptaf2uw-hQnf7zD30OteKqW3KM79IVYG_2KQS_Jb732F/s1600/Photo+Swiss+Flag+Mountain.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiXoXMAIwWdAdUAOY8mZLnwpcFqChGJVKCTtaMr4ISWDPzTl8CFyQrccNZ-lWdjefp8v_kGUjJGrKGggx0IjkzlxXlvqKlm2SKxptaf2uw-hQnf7zD30OteKqW3KM79IVYG_2KQS_Jb732F/s1600/Photo+Swiss+Flag+Mountain.jpg" /></a>By Margaret Dore, Esq.<br />
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In 2012, a European research study addressed trauma suffered by persons who witnessed legal assisted suicide in Switzerland.[1] The study found that one out of five family members or friends present at an assisted suicide was traumatized. These people,<br />
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experienced full or sub-threshold PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder) related to the loss of a close person through assisted suicide.[2]<br />
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[1] “Death by request in Switzerland: Posttraumatic stress disorder and complicated grief after witnessing assisted suicide,” B. Wagner, J. Muller, A. Maercker; European Psychiatry 27 (2012) 542-546, available at <a href="http://choiceisanillusion.files.wordpress.com/2012/10/family-members-traumatized-eur-psych-2012.pdf">http://choiceisanillusion.files.wordpress.com/2012/10/family-members-traumatized-eur-psych-2012.pdf</a><br />
[2] Id.Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8681246155867748751.post-46561819329829969912016-10-21T12:59:00.001-07:002016-10-27T19:25:25.734-07:00It Wasn't the Father Saying That he Wanted to Die<div style="text-align: right;">
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<a href="http://mtstandard.com/news/opinion/mailbag/don-t-make-washington-s-assisted-suicide-mistake/article_10022e80-8b75-11e2-b398-001a4bcf887a.html">http://mtstandard.com/news/opinion/mailbag/don-t-make-washington-s-assisted-suicide-mistake/article_10022e80-8b75-11e2-b398-001a4bcf887a.html</a><br />
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My husband and I operate two adult family homes (elder care facilities) in Washington State where assisted suicide is legal. I am writing to urge you to not make Washington’s mistake.<br />
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Our assisted suicide law was enacted by a ballot measure in November 2008. During the election, the law was promoted as a right of individual people to make their own choices. That has not been our experience. We have also noticed a shift in the attitudes of doctors and nurses towards our typically elderly clients to eliminate their choices.<br />
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Four days after the election, an adult child of one of our clients asked about getting the pills (to kill his father). It wasn’t the client saying that he wanted to die. At that time, our assisted suicide law had not yet gone into effect. The father died before the law went into effect.<br />
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Since then, we have noticed that some members of the medical profession are quick to bring out the morphine to begin comfort care without considering treatment. Sometimes they do this on their own without telling the client and/or the family member in charge of the clients care.<br />
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Since our law was passed, I have also observed that some medical professionals are quick to write off older people as having no quality of life whereas in years past, most of the professionals we dealt with found joy in caring for them. Our clients reciprocated that joy and respect.<br />
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Someday, we too will be old. I, personally, want to be cared for and have my choices respected. I, for one, am quite uncomfortable with these developments. Don’t make our mistake.<br />
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Elizabeth BenedettoUnknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8681246155867748751.post-6977906813724043062016-10-21T12:43:00.000-07:002016-10-28T00:48:04.247-07:00"If my doctor had believed in assisted suicide, I would be dead"<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhMwy5jLktEHPCozPQxV043X74ZN99qYkcdvOR3Es3gfGagJJiWe6mJnzSnC4tcafjmArIj0macOkH8bHNykb5SxUF5Tla9y6iODNdu24BNAeuf1wOhzW9PkjaY5eIih9y01Rvd15yUUEPr/s1600/Photo+Jeanette+and+Scott.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="289" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhMwy5jLktEHPCozPQxV043X74ZN99qYkcdvOR3Es3gfGagJJiWe6mJnzSnC4tcafjmArIj0macOkH8bHNykb5SxUF5Tla9y6iODNdu24BNAeuf1wOhzW9PkjaY5eIih9y01Rvd15yUUEPr/s320/Photo+Jeanette+and+Scott.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Jeanette Hall and her son Scott in November 2000</td></tr>
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By Jeanette Hall<br />
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I live in Oregon where assisted suicide is legal. Our law passed in 1997 by a ballot measure that I voted for.<br />
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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.<br />
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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 so happy to be alive!<br />
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This last July, it was 16 years since my diagnosis. If Dr. Stevens had believed in assisted suicide, I would be dead. Assisted suicide should not be legal.<br />
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8681246155867748751.post-50346973029281903352016-10-21T11:06:00.000-07:002020-02-14T10:17:56.503-08:00Brittany Maynard's Story Sends the Wrong Message to Young People<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjWhXdqGoLjkzKlvcOyqAwsFDbsLuD4IztVSRiWblwBjFfj1ehb-DOcadK3cwgUk0E8IlUXDY-yV1CEWZMSHSfb4k5aXkW4WNgRBoyDzFFB4zetTIoCmgM6HTvqovd2UwxVo3MMcHB-1Dk/s1600/Photo+willjohnston.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjWhXdqGoLjkzKlvcOyqAwsFDbsLuD4IztVSRiWblwBjFfj1ehb-DOcadK3cwgUk0E8IlUXDY-yV1CEWZMSHSfb4k5aXkW4WNgRBoyDzFFB4zetTIoCmgM6HTvqovd2UwxVo3MMcHB-1Dk/s320/Photo+willjohnston.jpg" width="239" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 12.8px; text-align: center;">Will Johnston, MD</td></tr>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: "verdana" , "geneva" , sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">Dear Editor:</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: "verdana" , "geneva" , sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">I agree with the </span><a href="http://www.choiceillusioncolorado.org/2016/09/editorial-vote-no-on-more-suicide.html" style="background-color: white; color: #9db84e; font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" target="_blank">Gazette editorial board</a><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "verdana" , "geneva" , sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;"> that legal assisted suicide sends the wrong message to young people. ("Vote 'no' on more suicide," 09/26/16). I also write to describe the damaging impact of the highly publicized case of Brittany Maynard, on my young adult patient who became actively suicidal after watching her video. I understand that her story is now being used to promote assisted suicide legalization in Colorado.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: "verdana" , "geneva" , sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;"><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: "verdana" , "geneva" , sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">Ms. Maynard died in November 2014. </span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "verdana" , "geneva" , sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">A month later, I was presented with my young adult patient during an emergency appointment. He was physically healthy. His mother told me that he had been acting oddly and talking about death.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: "verdana" , "geneva" , sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">I asked the young man if he had a plan. He said "yes," that he had watched a video about Ms. Maynard. He said that he was very impressed with her and that he identified with her and that he thought it was a good idea for him to die like her. He also told me that after watching the video he had been surfing the Internet looking for ways to obtain suicide drugs.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: "verdana" , "geneva" , sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">He was actively suicidal and agreed to go to the hospital, where he stayed for five weeks until it was determined that he was sufficiently safe from self-harm to go home.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: "verdana" , "geneva" , sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">It is well known that </span><a href="http://www.choiceillusioncolorado.org/2016/09/editorial-vote-no-on-more-suicide.html" style="background-color: white; color: #3d85c6; font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">suicide is contagious</a><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "verdana" , "geneva" , sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: "verdana" , "geneva" , sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">Thank you for your editorial.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: "verdana" , "geneva" , sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">Will Johnston MD</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: "verdana" , "geneva" , sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">Vancouver BC, Canada</span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8681246155867748751.post-77320383285217975432016-09-26T16:10:00.001-07:002023-12-28T15:01:32.665-08:00Colorado Springs Gazette Editorial Board: "Vote 'No' on More Suicide"<div class="separator"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhiW_BgqzeVwaCxyOJVSmKygD6W6bkAAYjYhwTwRv-XFHSys4vrvxTY-1QS_eeahzJZDGyFd79QQbEtsNtH9BiTiypYfZmn2yKAN0MUqtCAPfiyVpkn8Mep9FmiLvT8_knMKLywglkCrR0W/s1600/Photo+Blue+gazette+logo.png" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="130" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhiW_BgqzeVwaCxyOJVSmKygD6W6bkAAYjYhwTwRv-XFHSys4vrvxTY-1QS_eeahzJZDGyFd79QQbEtsNtH9BiTiypYfZmn2yKAN0MUqtCAPfiyVpkn8Mep9FmiLvT8_knMKLywglkCrR0W/w156-h130/Photo+Blue+gazette+logo.png" style="cursor: move;" width="156" /></a></div><a href="http://gazette.com/editorial-vote-no-on-more-suicide/article/1586396">http://gazette.com/editorial-vote-no-on-more-suicide/article/1586396</a><br />
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Proposition 106 would establish the assisted suicide trade for doctors willing to participate. An out-of-state special interest, funded mostly by billionaire George Soros, has marketed this measure as a form of compassion.<br />
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Suicide rates are a crisis in Colorado, and a poorly written plan to legitimize these tragedies raises big concerns.<br />
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<a name='more'></a>Monday began with another teen suicide in Colorado Springs, where last year 15 teens killed themselves and doubled 2014's suicide rate. Throughout Colorado, we lost 1,000 kids to suicide in 2015.<br />
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Suicide is climbing among all demographics throughout the state, as reported in May by <i>The Denver Post</i>. "Colorado's suicide rate, one of the highest in the country, is climbing, with 19.4 suicides for 100,000 residents," the Post reported.<br />
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<i>USA Today</i> reports "veteran suicide rates remain high seven years after the rate of suicides by soldiers more than doubled and the Army's effort to reduce the tragic pace."<br />
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In a state saddened and confounded by rising teen and adult suicide rates, it seems reckless to pass a law that legalizes self-inflicted death. Imagine another Colorado teenager facing what seem like insurmountable problems. The teen contemplates suicide and calculates the fact grandma ended her life with pills prescribed by a doctor. The law, a doctor and a beloved mentor have inadvertently told this child how suicide is a good way out.<br />
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Our concerns extend far beyond the likelihood this will increase suicides among those who are not terminally ill.<br />
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Proposition 106 says to qualify for assisted suicide, one must be of sound mind. Yet, nothing in the law requires even a cursory psychological evaluation. The will to die by prescription could be related to a minor bout with depression, easily treated if properly diagnosed. A study in Oregon found 66 percent of people who chose to end their lives did so because of the loss of a will to live, not excessive pain as this bill's sponsors would have you believe.<br />
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The law would require a diagnosis by two doctors, who can be partners, that says the prospective suicide patient has only six months to live. Most people know of someone who has outlived a monthslong death prognosis by years or even a decade or more. A Johns Hopkins University study found doctor mistakes are common. They are the third-leading cause of death in the United States. More than 250,000 Americans die each year from medical errors.<br />
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"It is nearly impossible to predict the course of an illness six months out, and many patients given such prognoses live full, rewarding lives long past six months," wrote Dr. William Toffler, professor of family medicine at Oregon Health & Science University.<br />
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Oregon legalized doctor-assisted suicide in 1997, and about 1,000 people have used the law to die.<br />
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"I have seen firsthand how the law has changed the relationship between doctors and patients, some of whom now fear that they are being steered toward assisted suicide," Toffler wrote.<br />
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A greater concern are those with serious financial incentives to steer old, ill relatives or business partners toward death. Elders who control estates and bank accounts, which will be handed down upon death, may receive encouragement to "die with dignity" - meaning a massive dose of barbiturates to be self-administered quickly, no doctor present, and typically chased with alcohol.<br />
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The law contains no oversight provisions to protect individuals from coerced or even forced consumption of suicide pills. Incredibly, it grants full immunity to anyone present for the suicide. That means a confused, weak person could unwillingly receive a dose of pills from someone protecting an estate from the potential costs of long-term hospice or medical bills.<br />
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Institutional pressure to die is almost guaranteed. Insurance companies and the state's money-challenged Medicaid plan have every reason to avoid years of treatment and prescription costs associated with terminally ill and elderly patients.<br />
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Look no further than Oregon. Routine notices tell Oregon doctors a variety of important treatments and drugs are not covered by the state's Medicaid program. Yet, they are happy to pay for "assisted" suicide.<br />
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"Supporters claim physician-assisted suicide gives patients a choice, but what sort of a choice is it when life is expensive but death is free?" Toffler asks.<br />
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"Death with Dignity" sounds like compassion. Evil is often disguised as good. Few among us want dying patients to suffer needlessly against their will. This ill-conceived proposal is not the answer. It stands to do far more harm than good.<br />
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Vote no on Proposition 106, a dangerous idea that can only endanger vulnerable patients and exacerbate Colorado's suicide crisis.<br />
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the gazette editorial board</div><span><!--more--></span><span><!--more--></span><span><!--more--></span>
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</header>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8681246155867748751.post-83584665718497855612016-06-22T11:01:00.001-07:002016-06-22T11:01:17.741-07:00WelcomeContent coming soon.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com