Author Archives: Maria

Assisted Suicide is not the Answer

Wednesday, 17 July 2019 12:20

Written by Maria

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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.

The Dangers of Allowing Assisted Suicide

Tuesday, 23 April 2019 12:31

Written by Maria

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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.

Physician Assisted Suicide is Dangerous for Everyone

Tuesday, 02 April 2019 12:39

Written by Maria

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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.

5 Myths About Legalizing Assisted Suicide

Wednesday, 13 March 2019 12:11

Written by Maria

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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.

Hopkins Doctor: Assisted Suicide is Unethical and Dangerous

Thursday, 21 February 2019 15:26

Written by Maria

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By: Joseph Marine

Source: Baltimore Sun

For the past five years, advocates of physician-assisted suicide (PAS) have tried and failed to pass legislation that legalizes the practice in Maryland. Proponents of PAS are back again with the same dangerous, unethical, discriminatory, unnecessary and hopelessly flawed bill. As a physician who has been in practice for almost 20 years and has treated thousands of patients in all conditions of life, I urge the legislature and the citizens of Maryland to continue to reject it for many reasons.

PAS, also euphemistically termed “aid-in-dying,” refers to the prescribing of a non-FDA approved lethal overdose of a drug or combination of drugs to a person believed to have a terminal illness. PAS is unethical. It is specifically prohibited by the Hippocratic Oath and opposed by the American Medical Association, the American College of Physicians, the American Nurses Association, the National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization and the World Medical Association.

PAS is not medical care. It has no basis in medical science or medical tradition. It is not taught in medical schools or residency training programs. The drug concoctions used to end patients’ lives with PAS come from the euthanasia movement and not from the medical profession or medical research.

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