"No" on Bill C-14 and Carter; No Assisted Suicide; No Euthanasia

Robert-Falcon Ouellette

Dear MP Robert-Falcon Ouellette:

I was happy to see the CBC article concerning your reluctance to endorse Bill C-14. You are right to be concerned.

I am a lawyer in Washington State USA where assisted suicide and euthanasia are legal. Bill C-14 and legalization generally will encourage people with years to live to throw away their lives. Carter was wrong. Legalization does not promote the right to life.

Please consider the following reasons:

1.  The bill's title, "medical assistance in dying," implies that eligible people are dying. There is no requirement that people be dying. They are instead required to have a "grievous and irremediable medical condition." See Bill C-14, § 241.2(2).

Canada, Liberal MP Not Sure About Proposed Assisted Suicide/Euthanasia bill

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/manitoba/robert-falcon-ouellette-doctor-assisted-dying-indigenous-communities-canada-1.3537217

Robert-Falcon
Ouellette, MP

For Winnipeg Centre Liberal member of Parliament Robert-Falcon Ouellette, the ramifications of the Trudeau government's doctor-assisted dying bill are too final.

"Once we make a decision on this, there will be no going back," Ouellette said on Friday.

On Thursday, new legislation on doctor-assisted death [assisted suicide and euthanasia] was formally presented in Parliament.  . . .

The bill is expected to go before the House of Commons for a free vote, which means MPs can base their vote on their conscience, not their party.. . .

"I'm concerned that we haven't thought out the complete ramifications that a decision like this might have on indigenous communities that seem to be suffering greatly," he said. . . .

Ouellette said he has not reached a decision about how he will vote on [the bill] in the House of Commons.

Margaret Dore Speaking to Australian Delegation

Margaret Dore, Esq., MBA, speaking
 to the Delegation

On April 7, 2016, Margaret Dore, attorney and president of Choice is an Illusion, accompanied by her assistant, Brenda Ray, met with a five member delegation from the Legal and Social Issues Committee, Parliament of Victoria, Australia.

The topic was assisted suicide and euthanasia. The place was the Picnic House Restaurant in Portland Oregon where Dore spoke over lunch in opposition to legalization. Despite the serious nature of the topic, a good time was had by all.

Dore's written materials can be viewed by clicking here and here.

Crime Blog: Hospice owner urged nurses to overdose patients so they would die quicker, FBI says

http://crimeblog.dallasnews.com/2016/03/frisco-hospice-owner-urged-nurses-to-overdose-patients-to-speed-their-deaths-fbi-says.html/

Jamie Knodel Email jknodel@dallasnews.com
Published: March 29, 2016 10:29 pm

BY SCOTT GORDON, KXAS-TV (NBC5)

The owner of a Frisco medical company regularly directed nurses to overdose hospice patients with drugs such as morphine to speed up their deaths and maximize profits and sent text messages like, “You need to make this patient go bye-bye,” an FBI agent wrote in an affidavit for a search warrant obtained by NBC 5.

The executive, Brad Harris, founded the company, Novus Health Care Services Inc., in July 2012, according to state records.

Novus’ office is on Dallas Parkway in Frisco.

No charges have been filed against Novus or Harris. Harris, 34, did not return messages left with a receptionist and at his Frisco home.

Harris, an accountant, told a nurse to overdose three patients and directed another employee to increase a patient’s medication to four times the maximum allowed, the FBI said.

In the first case, the employee refused to follow the alleged instructions, the agent wrote in the affidavit. The document does not say whether the other three patients were actually harmed.

Harris also told other health care executives over a lunch meeting that he wanted to “find patients who would die within 24 hours,” and made comments like, “if this f— would just die,” an FBI agent wrote in the warrant.

An FBI spokeswoman declined to comment on the investigation.

Novus’ website says the company offers hospice and home health care services.

“We have a saying at Novus, be fast and treat people the way we would want to be treated,” the website says. “This encourages us to go the extra mile to make patients feel comfortable and secure about their special needs and requests.”

New Hampshire: No on Assisted Suicide/Euthanasia Commission (SB 426)

Members of the House:

I am a lawyer in Washington State where assisted suicide is legal.  I urge you to oppose SB 426, which establishes a commission to study "end-of-life choices," a euphemism for assisted suicide and euthanasia for people who are not necessarily dying anytime soon.  Bills legalizing these practices, in the fine print, do not assure choice; they are uniformly stacked against the patient.  "Eligible" patients may have years, even decades, to live. (not end of life).

Specific Objections to SB 426:

1.  The New Hampshire House has already extensively studied assisted suicide/euthanasia, and rejected it. 

2.  Given the bill's deceptive language, the proposed commission will promote assisted suicide and euthanasia without being clear as to what's being discussed, and for whom it's being discussed (non-dying people).  The deceptiveness alone is bad public policy.

Rhode Island, Providence Journal Article

http://www.providencejournal.com/news/20160323/both-sides-bring-painful-stories-to-end-of-life-debate

"This bill encourages people to throw away their lives"

By Jennifer Bogdan, Journal State House Bureau

PROVIDENCE, R.I. — Susanna Brown couldn't make it to the State House Wednesday night to testify against a bill that could allow her to end her own life. 

The 75-year-old North Scituate resident has breast cancer that has spread to her bones, and she's struggling with her latest chemotherapy treatment. So she sent her daughter, Julie Lamin, to tell lawmakers this:

"She insisted that I come and speak on her behalf because this bill insults the dignity of her life," Lamin said. "She wanted to tell you that her life is valuable until that last breath and that this bill really scares her ... because someone could say, 'Well you're going to be suffering, and we don't want you to suffer. You can end it early.'"