CT Legislature Again Won’t Consider Medical Aid in Dying Bill (aka Assisted Suicide & Euthanasia)

[State Representative Josh] Elliott had introduced the bill this year alongside two colleagues, but it was not raised by the General Assembly’s Public Health Committee before a deadline to advance it further.* 

CT Insider reported in 2024 that Elliott and advocates planned to skip that year’s session in the hopes of taking it up again this year.

The legislation would have brought Connecticut in line with 10 states and the District of Columbia in allowing doctors to prescribe medication for patients to end their own lives. Those states and D.C. require patients to have been diagnosed as having a short time to live from a terminal illness. The laws also require patients to be determined to be of sound mind and capable of informed consent.

Advocates on both sides of the debate over the practice responded Thursday.

“Second Thoughts Connecticut was glad to hear that our state legislature continues to move cautiously when it comes to medical assisted suicide,” said Cathy Ludlum  [pictured above] of Second Thoughts Connecticut, a group of disability rights advocates opposed to the legalization of assisted suicide.  “Legislators have wisely stopped it from coming here this year, and we are thankful,” Ludlum said. “People in distress need support, not a fast-track to death.”

Tim Appleton, senior campaign director at the pro-medical aid in dying advocacy group Compassion & Choices, said the news of the bill’s failure to advance was “tragically unfortunate.”  

Elaine Kolb Performs “Not Dead Yet”

By Jules Good, 02/08/23

Last week, NDY ally Elaine Kolb performed an original song at the press conference hosted in part by Second Thoughts CT to highlight the dangers of the proposed CT assisted suicide legalization bill. Check out the video to see her speech and performance: https://youtu.be/AnaQhlmVt68

Video Transcript:

My name is Elaine Kolb. I'm 64 as in, "Will you still need me? Will you still feed me when I'm 64?" Well I am. When I first heard that song I thought it was gonna be a long time before I was 64, but here I am. 

On September 30th, 1977, I was 28 years old and a stranger came up to me and grabbed me, attempted robbery, stabbed me in the back. Up till then I, if anything, I was abnormally healthy. I'd never even had a broken bone. The only time I was in the hospital was when I was born and to get my tonsils out.

There I was, almost died, had a spinal cord injury. They didn't think I'd ever walk again. Well, medicine is wonderful but there's a reason why they say it's still practicing. They are still practicing. They don't know. They're just trying to figure it out best they can and do the best they can under the circumstances. But they don't know. You can't say whether somebody's gonna live or die for sure. Some people seem to be just fine. My sister had surgery yesterday and last night they said she was just fine and then she had a blood clot and they took her back in for another surgery. And as far as I know, she's fine and in intensive care, but you don't know these things.

That's why this is so important because real people are in real agony at times and we don't know what to do. And we look to medical experts and they do the best they can, but they don't know either. This is very emotional for me because it was 15 years ago last Monday, March 10th, when my partner Patty Deke, we had been together for 11 and a half years, when she died at hospice in Branford. And it's one of the many blessings of my life that I got to be there holding her hand when she died. But she lived her whole life under a death sentence. 

Jeanette Hall, Compassion & Choices Creamed, and Why We Must Go Forward to Avoid the Way of the Dinosaur

By Margaret Dore, Esq.

This document is a shorter and more formal version of my presentation at the Caring About Everyone Conference in Hartford Connecticut, on October 15, 2022. The conference was generously sponsored by the Euthanasia Prevention Coalition and the Family Institute of Connecticut.

About Me

I am an attorney licensed to practice law in Washington State. I have been working against assisted suicide and euthanasia since 2008. I am also president of Choice is an Illusion and the Foundation for Choice is an Illusion.

Other than temporary absences, I have lived in Seattle all of my life, except for the last two years due to civil unrest, lockdowns, forced masking, etc.

Join Margaret Dore and Other Featured Speakers Opposing Assisted Suicide and Euthanasia. An In-Person and Online Event

Margaret Dore:  "It's been a long time since a lot of us have seen each other. Thank you to the Euthanasia Prevention Coalition and the Family Institute of Connecticut for sponsoring this event!"

The Event:  Caring About Everyone, EPC-USA Anti-Assisted Suicide Conference.

Keynote Speaker:  Wesley J. Smith, contributor to The Corner at National Review and a senior fellow at the Discovery Institute's Center on Human Exceptionalism.   

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 

Protect Yourselves and the People You Care About; Don't Let Them Become Sitting Ducks to Predators

Click here to read the pdf version.

I. INTRODUCTION

I am an attorney and president of Choice is an Illusion, a nonprofit corporation opposed to assisted suicide and euthanasia. I have personally appeared and testified against these practices in 20 US states and also internationally.[1]  

The proposed Act, Raised Bill No. 88, seeks to legalize physician-assisted suicide and euthanasia as those terms are traditionally defined.[2] This will be on both a voluntary and involuntary basis.

The Act is based on similar acts in Oregon and Washington State. I urge you to protect yourselves and the people you care about. Vote “No” to reject Raised Bill No. 88.