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| Jeanette Hall |
By Margaret Dore, Esq.
To read Dore's analysis opposing Raised Bill No. 6425, click here and here.
1. The Bill
The proposed bill, "An Act Concerning Aid in Dying for the Terminally Ill," seeks to legalize “aid in dying,” which is a euphemism for active euthanasia and physician-assisted suicide.[1]
2. Who May Be Most at at Risk?
3. Assisting Persons Can Have an Agenda
Persons assisting a suicide or performing a euthanasia can have an agenda to benefit themselves. Consider Tammy Sawyer, trustee for Thomas Middleton in Oregon, which has a similar law. Two days after his death by legal assisted suicide, she sold his home and deposited the proceeds into bank accounts for her own benefit.[2] Consider also Graham Morant, convicted of counseling his wife to kill herself in Australia, to get the life insurance. The Court found:
[Y]ou counseled and aided your wife to kill herself because you wanted ... the 1.4 million.[3]
Medical professionals too can have an agenda. Michael Swango, MD, now incarcerated, got a thrill from killing his patients.[4] Consider also Harold Shipman, a doctor in the UK, who not only killed his patients, but stole from them and in one case made himself a beneficiary of the patient’s will.[5]
4. “Even If the Patient Struggled, Who Would Know?”
The Act has no required oversight over administration of the lethal dose, not even a witness is required to be present at the death. The drugs used are water or alcohol soluble, such that they can be injected into a sleeping or restrained person without consent.[6] Alex Schadenberg, Executive Director for the Euthanasia Prevention Coalition, puts it this way:
With assisted suicide laws in Washington and Oregon [and with the proposed Act], perpetrators can take a “legal” route, by getting an elder to sign a lethal dose request. Once the prescription is filled, there is no supervision over administration. Even if a patient struggled, “who would know?” (Emphasis added).[7]
5. Years or Decades to Live
The proposed bill applies to persons with a "terminal illness," which is expected to produce death “within six months.”[8] Such persons may in fact have years or decades to live. See, for example, this article by Jeanette Hall, thrilled to be alive 19 years after being talked out of assisted suicide in Oregon: https://www.choiceillusiondc.org/p/jeanette-hall-and-her-son-scott-in.html
6. The Death Certificate Will List a “Terminal Illness” as the Cause of Death, Which Will Create a Perfect Crime
The bill, Section 9(b), states:
The person signing the qualified patient's death certificate shall list the underlying terminal illness as the cause of death. (Emphasis added)[8]
With this language, the patient’s death certificate will report death due to a terminal illness as a matter of law. This will create a legal inability to prosecute criminal behavior, for example, in the case of an outright murder for the money. The Act will create a perfect crime.
7. Dr. Shipman and the Call for Death Certificate Reform
According to a 2005 article in the UK’s Guardian newspaper, there was a public inquiry regarding Dr. Shipman’s conduct, which determined that he had “killed at least 250 of his patients over 23 years.”[9] The inquiry also found:
that by issuing death certificates stating natural causes, the serial killer [Shipman] was able to evade investigation by coroners.[10]
According to a subsequent article in 2015, proposed reforms included having a medical examiner review death certificates, so as to improve patient safety.[11] Instead, the instant bill moves in the opposite direction to require legal coverup as a matter of law. Doctors and other perpetrators, such as family members, will be legally empowered to evade investigation.
Footnotes:
[1] The term, "aid in dying," has been a euphemism for euthanasia and physician assisted suicide, since at least 1989. See, for example, Craig A. Brandt, “Model Aid-in-Dying Act,” Iowa Law Review, 1989 Oct; 75(1): 125-215, (“Subject: Active Euthanasia ....”), at https://repository.library.
[2] KTVZ.com, “Sawyer Arraigned on State Fraud Charges,” at https://choiceisanillusion.
[3] R v Morant , 11/02/18, p. 11, ¶ 78, at https://archive.sclqld.org.au/
[4] Charlie Leduff, “Prosecutors Say Doctor Killed to Feel a Thrill,” The New York Times, 09/07/2000, https://www.nytimes.com/2000/
[5] David Batty, “Q & A: Harold Shipman,” The Guardian, 08/25/05, at https://www.theguardian.com/
[6] In Oregon, the drugs used include Secobarbital, and Pentobarbital (Nembutal) , which are water and alcohol soluble. See http://www.drugs.com/pr/
[7] The Advocate, Idaho State Bar, Letters to the Editor
[8] Raised Bill No. 6425, lines 249 to 250. The bill can be viewed here: https://www.cga.ct.gov/2021/TOB/H/PDF/2021HB-06425-R00-HB.PDF
[9] David Batty, supra,
[10] Id., “What are its findings?”
[11] Press Association, “Death certificate reform delays ‘incomprehensible,’” The Guardian, January 21, 2015, available at https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2015/jan/21/death-certificate-reform-delays-incomprehensible-senior-pathologist
