DC Bill: Patients Have No Right to be Told of Options for Cure or to Extend Life; Patient Choice is Not Assured

"Ejusdem generis, Latin for
"of the same kind.”

By Margaret Dore, Esq., MBA

"Ejusdem generis" is Latin for "of the same kind."[1] The phrase is also a rule of statutory construction, which is used to interpret loosely written statutes[2]. The rule states:

"Where a law lists specific classes of persons or things and then refers to them in general, the general statements only apply to the same kind of persons or things specifically listed. Example:  if a law refers to automobiles, trucks, tractors, motorcycles and other motor-powered vehicles, 'vehicles' would not include airplanes, since the list was of land-based transportation." (Emphasis added). [3]

'Death with Dignity' Imperils the Poor

Reprint from 2004

http://realchangenews.org/index.php/site/archives/9122

Last week’s article by an assisted suicide/euthanasia advocate struck me as a bizarre article  

for Real Change, which advocates for the dignity and self-determination of the poor. (“Terminally ill patients face shortage of right-to-die drug amid controversy over capital punishment,” Real Change, June 18, 2014)

Oregon: Jury awards$3 million to fired nurse who complained of 'rushing patients through' to save money

http://www.oregonlive.com/portland/index.ssf/2015/09/jury_awards_3_million_to_legac.html

By Aimee Green

A Portland jury on Friday awared a nurse more than $3 million -- agreeing that she was wrongfully terminated by
Legacy Good Samaritan Medical Center after she complained to management that cost cutting measures were jeopardizing patient care. Registered nurse Linda Boly said Saturday that she felt vindicated by the verdict. She hopes it sends a "big message" to Legacy Health System that "rushing patients through" the process endangers them. . . .

To read the rest of the article, click here.

The ADA: A Gift From the Disability Community to the Non-Disabled, Improving Access for All

http://www.npr.org/2015/07/24/423230927/-a-gift-to-the-non-disabled-at-25-the-ada-improves-access-for-all

"This elevator is a gift from the disability
 community and the ADA to the nondisabled
 people of New York," said civil rights
lawyer,  Sid Wolinsky. 

From NPR's Joseph Shapiro, published last year.

When the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) became law 25 years ago, "everybody was thinking about the iconic person in a wheelchair," says civil rights lawyer Sid Wolinsky. Or that the ADA — which bans discrimination based on disability — was for someone who is deaf, or blind.

But take a tour of New York City with Wolinsky — and the places he sued there — and you will see how the ADA has helped not just people with those significant disabilities, but also people with minor disabilities, and people with no disability at all.

Press Release: Bill Will Allow "the Perfect Crime," Encourage People "to Throw Away Their Lives"

For print version, click here.

Salt Lake City, UT -- Attorney Margaret Dore, president of Choice is an Illusion, which has fought assisted suicide legalization efforts in many states, and now Utah, made the following statement in connection with a bill pending before the Utah Legislature.  (HB 264).

"The bill has an application process to obtain the lethal dose," said Dore. "The process includes a written lethal dose request form with two required witnesses.  One of the witnesses is allowed to be the patient's heir who will financially benefit from the patient's death."

Utah: Testimony of Kenneth Stevens MD Opposing Assisted Suicide

To view testimony as a pdf, click here.

1.  I strongly urge you to Vote No on HB 264, which seeks to legalize physician assisted suicide in Utah

Photo of me and my patient Jeanette Hall, 15 years after
I talked her out of assisted suicide in Oregon
Photo credit - Daily Signal

I am a cancer doctor in Oregon, where physician-assisted suicide is legal. I was also raised in Logan, graduated from USU, and received my MD from the University of Utah Medical School 50 years ago. I am Professor Emeritus and former chair of the Department of Radiation Oncology at Oregon Health and Science University. I regularly visit Utah. I continue to practice in my cancer medical specialty.

New Mexico Overturns District Court Decision Allowing Assisted Suicide

Today, the New Mexico Supreme Court upheld a criminal statute prohibiting "assisting suicide" as constitutional when applied to "physician aid in dying," meaning physician-assisted suicide. The 5-0 decision states in part:

[W]e agree with the legitimate concern that recognizing a right to physician aid in dying will lead to voluntary or involuntary euthanasia because if it is a right, it must be made available to everyone, even when a duly appointed surrogate makes the decision, and even when the patient is unable to self-administer the life-ending medication. . . .

[The] statute is neither unconstitutional or its face nor as it is applied to Petitioners. . . . [W]e reverse the district court's contrary conclusion and remand to the district court for proceedings consistent with this opinion.  (Emphasis added). [pp. 31 & 57]

New Mexico Supreme Court Upholds Statute Prohibiting Assisted Suicide

New Mexico Supreme Court

Today, the New Mexico Supreme Court upheld a criminal statute prohibiting "assisting suicide" as constitutional when applied to "physician aid in dying," meaning physician-assisted suicide. The 5-0 decision states in part:

[W]e agree with the legitimate concern that recognizing a right to physician aid in dying will lead to voluntary or involuntary euthanasia because if it is a right, it must be made available to everyone, even when a duly appointed surrogate makes the decision, and even when the patient is unable to self-administer the life-ending medication. . . .

[The] statute is neither unconstitutional or its face nor as it is applied to Petitioners. . . . [W]e reverse the district court's contrary conclusion and remand to the district court for proceedings consistent with this opinion. [pp. 31 & 57]

Massachusetts Assisted Suicide Bill Dies in Committee!

From Second Thoughts, Massachusetts, People with Disabilities Opposing the Legalization of Assisted Suicide:

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

Ethan Gutmann: An Update to "Bloody Harvest" & "The Slaughter"

http://www.choiceillusioncanada.org/2016/06/ethan-gutmann-update-to-bloody-harvest_25.html

Ethan Gutmann, author of "The Slaughter," has introduced a new report and video supporting that 1.5 million people have been killed by the Chinese regime through harvesting organs, i.e., from prisoners of conscience. To view the video, click here.  To view the report, click here.

Czeck Cabinet rejects deputies' bill allowing euthanasia

http://www.praguemonitor.com/2016/06/23/cabinet-rejects-deputies-bill-allowing-euthanasia

Prague, June 22 (CTK) - The Czech centre-left cabinet rejected yesterday a deputies' bill enabling to

perform euthanasia in strictly defined cases, two ministers have written on Twitter. . . 

The final decision on it is up to parliament.

Deputy PM Pavel Belobradek (KDU-CSL) and Industry and Trade Minister Jan Mladek (CSSD) have reported on the government's negative stand on Twitter.

"The bill, if passed, could result in the killing of people," Mladek wrote.