Showing posts with label Assisted Suicide. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Assisted Suicide. Show all posts

Tuesday, July 2, 2024

Colorado Loosens Safeguards on Assisted Suicide & Euthanasia

By Meg Wingerter, additional information provided by Margaret Dore.

Colorado loosened regulations on medical aid in dying, also known as assisted suicide, physician-assisted suicide and euthanasia.  

Colorado Gov. Jared Polis [pictured here] signed Senate Bill 68, which shortened the bill's waiting period for  who wish to end their lives with a  to seven days. Under the previous law, people with less than six months to live had to request the medication twice, at least 15 days apart, before they could receive it.

The law also will open access to medical aid in dying in Colorado to non-residents, and allow advanced practice registered nurses to prescribe the medication cocktail. APRNs can prescribe most other drugs.

Tuesday, June 11, 2024

Colorado Governor Signs Bill Reducing Patient Protections

Governor Polis (pictured here) signed SB068, an amendment to Colorado’s End of Life Options Act (assisted suicide and euthanasia) into law on June 5, 2024. 

The bill reduces the waiting period for patients seeking an aid-in-dying prescription (assisted suicide and euthanasia), from 15 to 7 days, increases the number of practitioners who can participate in the law, and allows providers to waive the waiting period if the patient is not likely to survive more than 48 hours and meets all other qualifications. 

Thursday, December 28, 2023

My Mum Didn't Die

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.

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.

Thursday, October 27, 2016

John Norton, A Cautionary Tale

John Norton
By Margaret Dore, Esq., MBA

In March 2012, I watched John Norton testify before the Joint Judiciary Committee of the 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. Below find his story, at age 74, as set forth in this affidavit: 

Monday, October 24, 2016

Physician-Assisted Suicide Traumatic for Family Members

By Margaret Dore, Esq.

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,
experienced full or sub-threshold PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder) related to the loss of a close person through assisted suicide.[2]

Friday, October 21, 2016

It Wasn't the Father Saying That he Wanted to Die

http://mtstandard.com/news/opinion/mailbag/don-t-make-washington-s-assisted-suicide-mistake/article_10022e80-8b75-11e2-b398-001a4bcf887a.html

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.

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.

"If my doctor had believed in assisted suicide, I would be dead"

Jeanette Hall and her son Scott in  November 2000
By Jeanette Hall

I live in Oregon where assisted suicide is legal. Our law passed in 1997 by a ballot measure that I voted for.

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.

Brittany Maynard's Story Sends the Wrong Message to Young People

Will Johnston, MD
Dear Editor:

I agree with the Gazette editorial board 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.