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The updated version of this page is at AssistedSuicide.php.

Assisted Suicide
Unbeknownst to the vast majority of Americans, America has been on the path to euthanasia since the 1980's. Even in the 1970's legislators in several states were introducing legislation to make death an end of life "choice". Like the abortion "choice", coersion plays a major factor in the decision.

Rather than start with a history of pro-euthanasia legislation or court decisions, it is better to start on the personal level. How will the current crop of euthanasia laws euphemistically called "assisted suicide" legislation, likely affect individuals.

One state, Oregon will give us the likely scenario other states will probably follow. "Assisted suicide" was legalized in Oregon ten years ago. Here is some of the fallout:

In May 2008, 64-year-old retired school bus driver Barbara Wagner received bad news from her doctor. She found out that her cancer, which had been in remission for two years, had returned. Then, she got some good news. Her doctor gave her a prescription that would likely slow the cancer's growth and extend her life. She was relieved by the news and also by the fact that she had health care coverage through the Oregon Health Plan.

It didn't take long for her hopes to be dashed. Barbara Wagner was notified by letter that the Oregon Health Plan wouldn't cover her prescription. But the letter didn't leave it at that. It also notified her that, although it wouldn't cover her prescription, it would cover assisted suicide.

An article in The Eugene Oregon Register-Guard discovered the Oregon Health Plan routinely sends similar letters promoting lethal drugs for assisted suicide for patients deemed to have little chance to survive for more than five years. (as though five years of anyone's life were insignificant)

To read more about this incident visit: America's Suicidal Approach to Health Care by Rita L. Marker from The American Thinker More to follow.

Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger Signs “Assisted Suicide” Bill California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger has officially approved an “assisted suicide” measure which would allow nurses to sedate, dehydrate and starve depressed or confused individuals they consider to be “terminally ill” The bill, sponsored by Assemblywoman Patty Berg, a Democrat, passed the California Assembly Aug. 28, and the state Senate Aug. 20. It was signed by the governor October 2 The legislation, called the "Terminal Patients' Right to Know End of Life Options Act," or AB 2747, passed by a 42 to 34 vote. An Aug. 20 Senate vote of 21 to 17 ushered the measure to the governor's desk for signing. Of course in truth, there is no way to assist suicide. The nurses would be killing patients who requested death and will probably eventually kill those who do not request “assisted suicide.” This is the way things have progressed in Holland where euthanasia has been legal for many years. Randy Thomasson, president of the Campaign for Children and Families, a leading west coast family issues organization that strongly opposed the measure issued a press release on Oct. 1: “Despite saying that the issue of assisted suicide should be up to the voters, not the Legislature, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger has quietly signed into law physician- and nurse-assisted suicide via total sedation. "AB 2747 allows a physician assistant or a nurse to opine that a patient is 'terminal,' and then recommend an unnatural death via 'palliative sedation,'" said Thomasson.. "Depressed patients who succumb to this pressure will be drugged unconscious and die from dehydration, usually within five to 10 days. Nothing in AB 2747 prohibits this horror." “State by state our doctors and nurses are being turned into killers which is the natural progression of a society that has for 35 years allowed the killing of helpless unborn children and most have done little or nothing to stop it.”

Assisted Suicide Expands By Charlene Bashore, Esq., Legislative/Political Action Committee Director Pennsylvania Pro-Life Federation (bashore@paprolife.org) In addition to electing public officials on November 4, the state of Washington joined Oregon in becoming the second state to legalize physician-assisted suicide, or as its proponents prefer to describe it, “hastened death." The measure passed by a margin of 58% to 42%, with its proponents outspending the initiative’s opponents approximately $5.5 million to $1.5 million. Over 60% of that $5.5 million war chest was from out-of-state donors. Rita Marker, an attorney and executive director of the International Task Force on Euthanasia and Assisted Suicide, describes the measure as “a Trojan Horse—a policy that enters a state’s legal system as a gift of compassion but is full of deadly consequences. In Washington, as in Oregon, the crime of assisted suicide has been transformed into a medical treatment.” Further troubling about the new Washington law is that it requires the physician to list the underlying terminal disease as the cause of death, not lethal drug overdose. “This adds a layer of unprecedented deception by forcing doctors to lie about the cause of death on the assisted-suicide patient’s death certificate…” (See http://www.newswithviews.com/NWV-News/news109.htm)