Category Archives: physician-assisted suicide

Assisted Suicide is not Peaceful, but it is Permanent

doctor-prescribed suicide

Learn why doctor-prescribed suicide is wrong for Pennsylvania

Source: New Jersey 101.5

By Bill Spadea

Over the past few years during the battle over whether New Jersey was going to legalize “physician-assisted suicide,” I’ve gotten to know a person who knows this issue all too well.

Kristen Hanson lost her husband J.J. in December 2017 after he fought courageously to live despite a diagnosis of brain cancer. After being told he had only a few months to live, JJ fought. And he fought hard. This brave Marine grabbed another few incredible years on this earth. Time he spent with his wife and children. Time he spent educating people on the real dangers of preying on people with terrible diseases and pushing an option of having them kill themselves to end the pain.

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Assisted Suicide is not the Answer

elderly by the seaSource: telegram.com

By: Pauline Morris

Now, in Massachusetts, our legislature is considering making assisted suicide a medical treatment, and I cannot help but to think about my experience with suicide.

Forty-six years ago, my husband chose suicide by shooting himself in the back of his head in our bed. We both were 31, our daughter was 8 and our three sons were 7, 4 and 2.

On that Sunday afternoon, our lives were shattered. Everything was different; I was now the widow of suicide. Our children were the children of suicide. In an instant, they lost their innocence and their childhood. My children became over-protective of me, fearing something would happen to me and they would be alone. The two oldest children endured cruel taunts by older children in school because of their father’s suicide.

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The Dangers of Allowing Assisted Suicide

JJ Hanson & family

 

By Kristen Hanson

Source: HudsonValleyOne.com

Assemblyman Kevin Cahill did well when he voted against previous bills to legalize assisted suicide in New York. Assisted suicide bills are inherently discriminatory and they make for dangerous public policy that puts a great number of vulnerable people at risk of deadly harm through mistakes, abuse and coercion.

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Physician Assisted Suicide is Dangerous for Everyone

Pills

 

Source: PennLive.com

By Karl Benzio, M.D.

Being a psychiatrist for 30 years, I’ve successfully cared for thousands of patients, many critically or terminally ill throughout the United States and experiencing severe trauma in Uganda and Iraq. I see desperate people with unimaginable pain and realize contemplating suicide is complex and never occurs lightly.

But, allowing anyone, especially doctors, to help kill a person, is dangerous to patients, doctors, the healthcare system, and society, especially when much better and safer options exist. The real solution needs to combine proper expertise with true compassion.

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5 Myths About Legalizing Assisted Suicide

Elderly hands

Source: Syracuse.com

By Stephanie Woodward

In 2019, the New York Legislature will once again consider a bill to permit healthcare providers to give lethal prescriptions to adults who are deemed terminally ill and ask to die. Despite lack of success in the past, proponents will use myths in arguing that legalizing assisted suicide enhances patient choice without compromising patient safety.

Myth #1 is that the bill concerns “aid in dying” and “end of life options” rather than enabling suicide. These are marketing terms. As Dr. Ira Byock, a palliative care specialist has written, “’aid in dying’ makes it sound like giving someone a lethal drug is an extension of hospice and palliative care. It is not.” New York’s highest court has drawn a sharp distinction between a patient deciding when not to have life-prolonging treatment and a doctor actively prescribing lethal drugs for the purpose of directly causing the patient’s death. If the latter was a medical practice, as proponents have stated, there would be no reason for laws to immunize medical professionals from what would otherwise be unlawful behavior, i.e. assisting and abetting suicides.

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