Why Choice is an Illusion?
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Friday, October 7, 2022
Join Margaret Dore and Other Featured Speakers Opposing Assisted Suicide and Euthanasia. An In-Person and Online Event
Thursday, October 6, 2022
Off Topic: My Best Friend Zena
By Margaret Dore
Approximately two years ago, my friend, Dr. Annie Bukacek, purchased a dog for protection, naming her Zena. It soon became apparent that Zena was a different kind of dog. For whatever reason, she never learned her name, but she knew when we were talking about her. She was smart, silly and very social.Zena loved to make friends with the people who came to Annie’s office. Sometimes they brought her treats. She made friends [with me] at the local Starbucks, meaning more treats. She reached out to a lonely woman at the bank, making the woman’s day.
Tuesday, March 1, 2022
Maybe You Trust Your Kids, But What About Your Son's New Wife?
My name is Margaret Dore. I am a licensed attorney and president of Choice is an Illusion, a nonprofit corporation opposed to assisted suicide and euthanasia. I have personally testified in 20 U.S. legislatures, including Connecticut, and also internationally. I oppose Raised Bill No. 88.
Yesterday, I submitted a formal legal analysis detailing problems with the proposed Act, that it is not what it's sold to be.
I also encourage you to look at my website, which has an online version of my analysis, which can be viewed here.
Wednesday, May 5, 2021
California Amendments Seek to Weaken Patient Protections, Attestation Provisions Eliminated
By Margaret Dore, Esq.
On February 10, 2021, assisted suicide/euthanasia proponents introduced a bill seeking to amend California's End of Life Option Act. The bill, SB 380, eliminates the Act's 2026 sunset date, and also allows a 15 day waiting period to be shortened to 48 hours in certain circumstances.[1]
Katy Grimes, editor of the California Globe (pictured), had this to say:
When it comes to carrying out the death penalty for convicted murders, the California Legislature finds the lethal drug cocktails "cruel and unusual punishment," which they say is a violation of the Eighth Amendment. Yet lawmakers were more than willing to approve a lethal drug cocktail to allow sick people to kill themselves. I wrote [this] in 2015 as the California Legislature was considering [passage of the Act].[2]
Monday, June 15, 2020
Australia: If Assisted Dying Is a Right, Must It Be Made Available to Everyone?
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Queensland Parliament |
A Queensland Australia Parliamentary Committee has made recommendations concerning voluntary assisted dying or VAD, meaning euthanasia and assisted suicide.[1]
Of special interest is the Committee's Recommendation 17, referring to "rights" of the patients to access VAD. The recommendation states:
The committee recommends that any voluntary assisted dying scheme in Queensland provides health practitioners who may have a conscientious objection to participating in voluntary assisted dying to opt not to participate, provided that the rights of the patients to access the scheme are also protected. (Emphasis added).[2]
Friday, April 24, 2020
New Jersey Motion for Reconsideration
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Margaret Dore |
I. RELIEF REQUESTED
Margaret Dore moves for reconsideration of the Court’s order dated April 1, 2020, which upheld the constitutionality of the Medical Aid in Dying for the Terminally Ill Act.[1]
II. THE ACT MUST BE SET ASIDE
The Court did not reach the Act’s violation of the object in title rule, which is dispositive to set the Act aside. The Court should reach this issue now to overturn the Act.
The Court’s order states that Dore asked the Court to declare the Act unconstitutional “on grounds not asserted by plaintiffs.”[2] The plaintiffs, did, however, ask the Court to rule on the issue, stating:
Ms. Dore’s brief should be considered by the Court since if the law is unconstitutional under the single object rule, it should be the Court’s responsibility to raise that issue sua sponte even if not raised by Ms. Dore or the Plaintiffs.[3]The Legislature understood that it was enacting a strictly voluntary law limited to assisted suicide for dying patients.[4] The prior judge expressed a similar view. See, for example, the transcript from the hearing on August 14, 2019 (“This case is not about euthanasia”).[5]
This case, however, is about euthanasia. The Act is also not limited to dying people. Patient voluntariness is allowed, but not required. These are material facts not disclosed by the Act’s title and related findings. The Act is unconstitutional and must be set aside.
Friday, March 27, 2020
Margaret Dore: Euthanasia Act "Must Be Set Aside"
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E. David Smith |
The specific matter before the court was a motion to dismiss brought by the defendant, New Jersey Attorney General, Gurbir S. Grewal.
The plaintiff, Joseph Glassman, represented by E. David Smith, opposed the motion, as did Margaret Dore, president of Choice is an Illusion, representing herself as amicus curiae.
Dore, who had filed both an amicus brief and a reply brief, argued that the Act must be set aside pursuant to the New Jersey Constitution. Her arguments largely tracked her reply brief, a portion of which is set forth below.
Thursday, December 26, 2019
New Jersey "Aid in Dying Act" Is Unconstitutional
I. IDENTITY OF AMICUS

Dore is a former Law Clerk to the Washington State Supreme Court and the Washington State Court of Appeals. She worked for a year with the United States Department of Justice and has been in private practice since 1990. She is also president of two nonprofit corporations opposed to assisted suicide and euthanasia: Choice is an Illusion, a 501(c)4 nonprofit corporation; and the Foundation for Choice is an Illusion, a 501(c)3 public charity.
Dore has personally appeared and testified against assisted suicide and/or euthanasia in at least 20 US legislatures, and also internationally. Her CV is attached in the appendix, at pages A-1 through A-4. For more information see www.margaretdore.org and www.choiceillusion.org.
II. STATEMENT OF RELIEF SOUGHT
Invalidation of the Medical Aid in Dying for the Terminally Ill Act (“the Act”).[1]
Saturday, November 23, 2019
Help Us Help You
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Margaret Dore and Elaine Kolb, after testifying in Connecticut |
Dore is a fourth generation lawyer in Washington State USA, where her work has included guardianship and family law. She has seen the terrible things that people do to each other for money. This includes court-appointed guardians who steal from the very people they are charged to protect.
Saturday, November 2, 2019
Speaking in Washington State USA
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Margaret Dore |
Her main topics included problems with assisted suicide in Washington and how to win in the future against legalization. She also discussed suicide contagion in Oregon.
To learn more about assisted suicide in Washington State, click here, here and here.
Special thanks to Debby Ummel who organized the event.
Saturday, April 6, 2019
American Nursing Association's Draft Position Statement Regarding Euthanasia and Assisted Suicide Is "Misleading and Dangerous"

The ANA Center for Ethics and Human Rights Advisory Board is seeking public comment on a proposed position statement, "The Nurse's Role When a Patient Requests Aid in Dying."
"Aid in Dying" is a traditional euphemism for assisted suicide and euthanasia. The first paragraph of the proposed statement is set forth below, followed by my responding submission.
Wednesday, December 19, 2018
US Euthanasia Bill All But Dead - For Now
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Margaret Dore & Dawn Eskew |
The Act was viewed as noncontroversial. Indeed, H.R. 1676 passed the House on a voice vote without opposition.
There is, however, a catch.
This is because US euthanasia advocates are currently promoting "medical aid in dying" (euthanasia) as "palliative care."[1] There is a similar situation in Canada, where "lobbies are trying to influence the government to include so-called Medical Aid in Dying ... in palliative care."[2]
The significance is this: If the Act is passed into law and the above advocacy efforts are successful, medical aid in dying (euthanasia) will become part of palliative care and therefore part of the Act. More to the point, the Act will legalize and also finance euthanasia in government funded centers throughout the US. The Act is a closet or "springing" euthanasia bill.
Thursday, May 3, 2018
Friday, February 9, 2018
"Prescribe or Refer" Is Anti-Patient: Doctors Are Not Allowed to Use Their Best Judgment for Individual Patients (No More Jeanette Halls)
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Margaret Dore, Esq., MBA |
A Wisconsin bill seeking to legalize assisted suicide, requires the patient's attending physician to "prescribe or refer" i.e., to write a lethal prescription for the purpose of killing the patient, or to make an effective referral to another physician, who will do it.
The bill, AB 216, also says that the attending physician's failure to comply is "unprofessional conduct" such that the physician would be subject to discipline. The bill states:
[F]ailure of an attending physician to fulfill a request for medication [the lethal dose] constitutes unprofessional conduct if the attending physician refuses or fails to make a good faith attempt to transfer the requester's care and treatment to another physician who will act as attending physician under this chapter and fulfill the request for medication. (Emphasis added).*A significance of prescribe or refer is that it's anti-patient, by not allowing doctors to use their best judgment for individual patients.
Wednesday, November 1, 2017
Victoria: Elder Abuse Demands No Vote
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Margaret Dore |
Her analysis of the purported "Voluntary Assisted Dying Bill 2017," which would legalise euthanasia as well as assisted suicide, can be read in full here.
Dore points out that in “Oregon and Washington State, most people who die under their [assisted suicide] laws are elders, aged 65 or older. This demographic is already an especially at risk group for abuse and financial exploitation. This is true in both the US and Australia.
Thursday, October 13, 2016
Montana: Say "No" to the Oregon Experience

and long-lasting.
Friday, August 12, 2016
'Death with Dignity' Imperils the Poor
Reprint from 2004
http://realchangenews.org/index.php/site/archives/9122
Thursday, June 30, 2016
Massachusetts Assisted Suicide Bill Dies in Committee!

Today, the Joint Committee on Public Health, of the Massachusetts Legislature, "declined to advance H.1999 the latest assisted suicide bill, H 1991, euphemistically titled 'An act affirming a terminally ill patient's right to compassionate aid in dying.' Disability rights advocates, along with representatives from medicine and members of the public, testified and lobbied against the bill."
The written testimony of Margaret Dore, president of Choice is an Illusion, is summarized below:
H.1991 is similar to Ballot Question 2, which was defeated by a vote of the people in 2012. This memo and its attachments discuss why H.1991 is a recipe for elder abuse. Passage will also cause family trauma, and encourage people with years to live to throw away their lives.... Even if you are for the concept of assisted suicide, H.1991 is the wrong bill.Thank you to everyone who helped make this defeat possible!
Please consider a generous donation to Second Thoughts, Choice is an Illusion or your local group fighting against the legalization of assisted suicide and euthanasia.
We are need your support!
Choice is an Illusion
Sunday, May 22, 2016
South Africa: Dore Expert Witness Affidavit
