On Thursday, Nov. 3, the Resource Center for Independent Living will be hosting a conference, bringing together both sides of a very controversial issue currently pending in the NYS Legislature, The Medical Aid in Dying Act.This legislation intends to amend the public health law in relation to a terminally ill patient’s request for and use of medication for medical aid in dying.
State of New York A10059 of 5-10-2016
The good news is that there is common ground about assisted suicide. 95% stand against legalizing it when they learn how the laws are composed and can be administered.
I take exception to the polling on legalizing assisted suicide.
I have found (serving 60 fair booth days) that about half of the public thinks they are in favor of such a law; that is until they learn about the flaws in the laws that create new paths of elder abuse with immunity. Once they learn that a predatory heir may steer the signup process and then forcibly administer the lethal dose without oversight, they all said, “I am not for that!”.
Anyway all of these Oregon Model bills, including New York’s A10059, have the same flaws that work together to eviscerate flaunted safe guards.
For example how many times have you nodded your head when the proponents declared that the lethal dose must be self-administered?
Well, read the language of the bill, A10059, and you will find that there is no means provided to insure that marketing point. For example “self-administrate” was mentioned 13 times in the 9 page New York A10059 and yet there was no means provided to confirm that the lethal dose was forced or not, or were not willing or unaware. Who would know if they struggled?
It is a “don’t ask don’t tell” dangerous policy that is sold via a “bait and switch” scam.
In fact what is provided is that a stranger that claims to know how the person communicates may speak for them (page 2, lines 8-10) which eviscerates all of the safeguards.
Along with allowing a predatory heir and staff to witness (page 6, lines 24-28) even as other family members are not required to be contact, (page 5, line 51). There are more loopholes.
This is a very dangerous public policy that by their own records in OR and WA is establishing poisoning as the “medical standard of care” for people that have “feelings” of fear of the loss of autonomy.
The entire population of New York is at risk of abuse by this poorly composed bill, A10059.
Respectfully submitted,
Bradley Williams
President
MTaas dot org
Sometimes doctors promote assisting suicide. The following classic letter from an Oregonian is an example.
“Dear Editor,
Hello from Oregon.
When my husband was seriously ill several years ago, I collapsed in a half-exhausted heap in a chair once I got him into the doctor’s office, relieved that we were going to get badly needed help (or so I thought).
To my surprise and horror, during the exam I overheard the doctor giving my husband a sales pitch for assisted suicide. ‘Think of what it will spare your wife, we need to think of her’ he said, as a clincher.
Now, if the doctor had wanted to say ‘I don’t see any way I can help you, knowing what I know, and having the skills I have’ that would have been one thing. If he’d wanted to opine that certain treatments weren’t worth it as far as he could see, that would be one thing. But he was tempting my husband to commit suicide. And that is something different.
I was indignant that the doctor was not only trying to decide what was best for David, but also what was supposedly best for me (without even consulting me, no less).
We got a different doctor, and David lived another five years or so. But after that nightmare in the first doctor’s office, and encounters with a ‘death with dignity’ inclined nurse, I was afraid to leave my husband alone again with doctors and nurses, for fear they’d morph from care providers to enemies, with no one around to stop them.
It’s not a good thing, wondering who you can trust in a hospital or clinic. I hope you are spared this in Hawaii.
Sincerely,
Kathryn Judson, Oregon”