An Open Letter to the Parliament of Victoria: Say "No" to Assisted Suicide & Euthanasia

I am a lawyer in Washington State USA where assisted suicide is legal. Last year, I presented as an expert on assisted suicide to a Victoria Parliamentary Committee in Oregon USA. I am writing to urge you to vote "No" on the proposed euthanasia bill, which allows non-voluntary deaths for non-dying people.  

Specific problems:

1. Patient protections are unenforceable due to the bill's "accordance" language;
2. Assisting persons can have an agenda, for example, to obtain an inheritance, or in the case of a doctor, to obtain cover for medical error.
3. The bill allows the death to occur in private without witnesses. If the patient objected, or even struggled, who would know?

Treatment Can Lead to Recovery

Jeanette Hall with her son Scott in 2000.

By Jeanette Hall, updated 06/13/20.

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.

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!

This upcoming July, it will be 20 years since my diagnosis. If Dr. Stevens had believed in assisted suicide, I would be dead. Assisted suicide should not be legal.

Worldwide Theater Protest: Backlash Bigger Than Anyone Expected

John Kelly, Not Dead Yet
"It's exhilerating"

Excerpts from Buzzfeed:

In the face of the filmmaker's contention that the film is "just

about one character,” protesters maintain that they’ve been bombarded with movies about assisted suicide for disabled people for a century.

Worldwide Theater Protest Melbourne

http://thevine.com.au/entertainment/disability-activists-boycotting-hashtag-mebeforeeuthanasia/

While rom-com ‘Me Before You’ was only released in Australia today [06/15/16], it’s already receiving a growing amount of backlash. . . .

Activists . . .  argue the film promotes the notion that disabled lives are considered less valuable and that the film romanticises death. . . .

Worldwide Theater Protest: Wheelchair Athlete Ella Frech on "Me Before You"

Ella Frech

ELEVEN YEAR OLD ELLA FRECH HAD A FEW THINGS TO SAY ABOUT "ME BEFORE YOU"

Me Before You comes out tomorrow. I’ve never read the book, but my mom told me about it and I read the reviews online. It’s the story of a guy who gets in an accident, and has a spinal cord injury, and has to spend the rest of his life in a wheelchair. A guy you think should want to die because he has to live a life that looks like mine.

Dore Meets With Victoria Parliamentary Delegation

Margaret Dore speaking

On April 7, 2016, Margaret Dore, attorney and president of Choice is an Illusion, met with a five
member delegation from the Legal and Social Issues Committee, Parliament of Victoria, Australia.

The topic was assisted suicide and euthanasia. The place was the Picnic House Restaurant in Portland Oregon where Dore spoke over lunch in opposition to legalization.

The function of the Committee generally is to inquire into and report on any proposal, matter or thing concerned with community services, education, gaming, health, and law and justice. Committee inquires result in policy recommendations to the Victorian Government and can lead to legislative change.

The Committee delegation members were: its Chair, the Honorable Edward O’Donohue MLC; its Deputy Chair, Ms Nina Springle, MLC; Mr Cesar Melhem MLC; Ms Fiona Patten MLC; and Ms Jaclyn Symes MLC. They were joined by Lilian Topic, Committee Secretary.

Terminal Uncertainty: "Washington's new 'Death With Dignity' law allows doctors to help people commit suicide once they've determined that the patient has only six months to live. But what if they're wrong?"

We almost lost her because she was having
too much fun, not from cancer" 

Click here for pdf

She noticed the back pain first. Driving to the grocery store, Maryanne Clayton would have to pull over to the side of the road in tears. Then 62, a retired computer technician, she went to see a doctor in the Tri-Cities, where she lived. The diagnosis was grim. She already had Stage IV lung cancer, the most advanced form there is. Her tumor had metastasized up her spine. The doctor gave Clayton two to four months to live.

That was almost four years ago.