Monday, April 6, 2015

California: Vote NO on SB 128

To read a legal/policy analysis against SB 128, please click here.  To view supporting documentation,  please click here.

Key points include:

People "eligible" for assisted suicide/euthanasia may have years, even decades, to live, i.e., if they don't die of assisted suicide/euthanasia under SB 128.  The bill encourages people with years to live to throw away their lives.

The thrust of SB 128 is to protect doctors and other participants in a patient's death, including family members.  This is done in three ways:

1.  Illusory patient protections; 
2.  Requiring the death certificate, which is the official cause of death, to reflect a natural death; and
3.  A near complete lack of transparency - in Oregon, similar confidentiality provisions preclude disclosure to law enforcement
The bottom line, patient choice and control is not assured.  SB 128 is, instead, a recipe for patient abuse. Other problems include steerage to suicide by healthcare providers and the risk of suicide contagion.

Margaret Dore
Law Offices of Margaret K. Dore, P.S.
Choice is an Illusion, a nonprofit corporation
www.margaretdore.com
www.choiceillusion.org
1001 4th Avenue, Suite 4400
Seattle, WA  98154