HOPE: Bill in New South Wales Provides For Assisted Suicide and Direct Killing

Dear Friend

The Legislative Council debate on the Voluntary Assisted Dying Bill 2017 will begin today. (11/16/17)

The long title of the Bill states that Bill is about assistance to persons to “end their own lives”.

However, Clause 5 also provides for a medical practitioner or a nurse to directly kill a person by administering a lethal substance to the person.

The Australian: "Patient’s Recovery Convinces Doctor to Fight Euthanasia Laws"

For a pdf version, click here, to  see article as published, click here.

Dr. Stevens, Jeanette Hall ("I am so happy to be alive!")

When American doctor Kenneth Stevens heard about Victoria’s plan to introduce assisted dying for the terminally ill he couldn’t help but recall the story of his ­patient Jeanette Hall.

Hall, then 55, came to Stevens in 2000 after being diagnosed with inoperable colon cancer in Portland, Oregon, a state that in 1997 introduced laws enabling doctors to prescribe fatal pills to the terminally ill.

Assisted Suicide Is a Prescription for Abuse

Nancy Elliott

I am a former three-term State Representative in the state of New Hampshire USA. I was alarmed to see that Victoria may be close to passing a bill to legalize assisted suicide.

Four years ago, the New Hampshire House of Representatives voted down a similar bill in a bipartisan vote. The vote was an overwhelming 3 to 1 defeat, 219 to 66.*

Many representatives who initially thought that they were for the law, became uncomfortable when they studied it further. Contrary to promoting “choice” for older people, assisted suicide laws are a prescription for abuse. They empower heirs and others to pressure and abuse older people to cut short their lives. This is especially an issue when the older person has money. There is NO assisted-suicide bill that you can write to correct this huge problem.

Margaret Dore Analysis Opposing Victoria Euthanasia Bill

Council Chamber

To view this analysis as a pdf, click the following links containing, an index; a memo; and an appendix

I.  INTRODUCTION

I am an attorney in Washington State USA where assisted suicide is legal.[1] I am also president of Choice is an Illusion, a nonprofit corporation opposed to assisted suicide and euthanasia. Last year, I met with a parliamentary delegation from the Legal and Social Issues Committee, Parliament of Victoria, to discuss Oregon’s law and related issues.

Washington’s law is based on Oregon’s law. Both laws are similar to the proposed bill, titled the “Voluntary Assisted Dying Bill.” The bill, however, is not limited to voluntary deaths or to people near death. I urge you to reject this measure.

Oregon's Statistics Provide Little, If Any, Support for Passage Due to Physical Pain

By Margaret Dore, Esq., MBA

According to Oregon’s official government statistics, there were 47 people who died under its assisted suicide law in 2016, who expressed the following concerns:

Inadequate pain control or concern about it. (Emphasis added).[1]

With use of the word, “or,” the total number of persons with inadequate pain control could have been zero. In the alternative, the total number could have been as high as 47.