Euthanasia Prevention Coalition Newsletter – January 2008Euthanasia Prevention Coalition Newsletter – January 2008PB 1

Euthanasia P revention Coalition

Number 82 January 2008

NEWSLETTER

“Right to Die” groups are attempting to legalize assisted

suicide in the USA on all frontsBy Alex SchadenbergExecutive Director, Euthanasia Prevention Coalition

Right to Die groups are attempting to legalize assisted suicide by differing ways in three jurisdictions in the United States.

In Washington State a group has recently begun to gather signatures for the purpose of having a binding referendum on the November ballot in Washington State.

Compassion and Choices of Washington, led by the former governor of Washington State, Booth Gardner, are attempting to collect 225,000 signa-tures to enable them to have a binding referendum question on the ballot.

The referendum question is framed in the same way as the Oregon Death with Dignity Act.

In response to the referendum, a Coalition Against Assisted Suicide has formed to attempt to convince voters not to sign onto the campaign with the hope that the initiative never receives 225,000 signatures.

They are also working to convince voters to not support assisted suicide with the hope that Washington State will reject assisted suicide if/when it becomes a ballot question.

For more information go to: www.noassistedsuicide.comIn the State of Montana, Compassion & Choices has sponsored an ini-

tiative to legalize assisted suicide by way of the courts.Compassion & Choices Legal Director Kathryn Tucker and a Montana

lawyer are representing 2 terminally ill men and 4 doctors who treat termi-nally ill patients who are suing the State of Montana for the right to have assistance in dying under Montana’s guarantees of dignity and privacy.

Compassion & Choices is therefore at-tempting to create legal precedent for legal-izing assisted suicide.

In Wisconsin, Senator Fred Risser has introduced Bill SB151 to legalize assisted suicide in Wisconsin.

The attempt to legalize assisted suicide by legislative means is not new but it represents

Symposium DVDs availableThe presentations from the Current Issues

– Future Directions International Symposium on Euthanasia and Assisted Suicide are avail-able as a 4 DVD set.

All the presentations are included in the DVD set in an unedited format and include the power point presentations.

The Cost for the DVD set is: $50.00 for 1 set, $70.00 for 2 sets, $100.00 for 4 sets.

Turning the Tide DVD package still in demandGroups and individuals from across North

America continue to purchase the Turning the Tide DVD package for small group pre-sentations.

The cost for the package (Turning the Tide DVD and discussion guide) is: $50.00 for 1 set, $70.00 for 2 sets, $100.00 for 4 sets.

Special offerPurchase both D VD sets at a special

price. Two Turning the Tide packages and two Symposium DVD sets can be ordered for $100.

2008 National Symposium to be held in Winnipeg

The 2008 National Symposium will be held in Winnipeg on October 24/25, 2008 at the Victoria Inn near the Winnipeg airport. Please mark the dates on your calendar and attempt to attend.

The proposed title for the Symposium is: “Death-Making”.

An organizing committee is composed of members of the Euthanasia Prevention Coalition and the Council of Canadians with Disabilities.

More information will be available in the next few months.• Continued on back page

Winnipeg family fights for the life of

their father

See back page

Euthanasia Prevention Coalition • P.O. Box 25033 London ON N6C 6A8Tel 1-877-439-3348 / 519-439-3348 • Fax 519-439-7053 • info@epcc.ca • www.epcc.ca

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By Julie Grimstad, Director - Life is Worth Living - E-mail: lifeisworthliving@sbcglobal.net

November 30-December 1, 2007, over 320 people from various nations met in To-ronto, Ontario for a history-making event,

The First International Symposium on Euthanasia and Assisted Suicide: Current Issues, Future Directions. Hosted by the Euthanasia Prevention Coalition of Canada (EPC), the symposium was co-sponsored by diverse groups from Canada, the United States and the United Kingdom as well as the Archdiocese of Toronto. With one thing in common—opposition to legalization of euthanasia and assisted suicide—disability rights advocates, medical and legal professionals, pro-life activists, people of various religious faiths and atheists came together to learn from the experts, find com-mon ground and strategize.

Presenters exposed the new directions and strategies of the movement to legal-ize euthanasia and assisted suicide. According to Wesley Smith, who is a senior fellow at the Discovery Institute, at-torney, international lecturer and author of several books on bioethics (just to name a few of his credentials), “The euthanasia movement has become much more sophisti-cated in the last few years.” The “crackpot element” is no longer driving the movement.

It is now “a professional model” and “an elitist establishment movement” whose pitch is “just a little extra choice for people who are dying.”

The thread running through all the presentations was the urgent need to establish a common response to this world-wide threat. Many of the speakers were key participants in coalitions that defeated pro-euthanasia and assisted suicide legislation in the US and UK. They outlined the lessons they’ve learned.

Use the Right Language

One lesson learned is that “all social engineering is preceded by verbal engineering,” stated Rita Marker,

attorney and executive director of the International Task Force on Euthanasia and Assisted Suicide. “The words used in a

debate often determine the outcome of the de-bate.” Assisted suicide activists blame their failures on the use of the word “suicide” and insist on using what they call “value-neutral” terms. Marker advised symposium participants to always use the term “assisted suicide,” never terms such as “assisted dy-

ing” or “aid-in-dying.” The “s” word is powerfulDr. Peter Saunders, of Care Not Killing Alliance in the UK,

helped defeat the “Joffe” bill, an assisted suicide measure. As an example of effective use of language, he cited a disabled person’s sound bite: “We don’t want assisted dying. We want assisted living!”

Dr. Paul Byrne, a neonatologist and Clinical Professor of Pediatrics at Medical University of Ohio, insisted that the term “euthanasia,” which literally means “good death,” should not be used. The term “imposed death,” he said, is more accurate.

Dr. Margaret Somerville emphasized the need for a new ethical framework that would enable secular and religious people to share common ethical concerns. Dr. Somerville brought us new insights into the nature of the human person and encouraged us to work within a framework that recog-nized different perspectives.

Emphasize Bad Consequences

Dr. Saunders, as well as the disability rights advocates who spoke, pointed out that changing the law will put

pressure on vulnerable people to choose death rather than be “a burden” on others. Also, euthanasia and physician-assisted suicide (PAS) will be used to contain healthcare costs. Oregon pays for PAS as “comfort care” while refusing to pay for cer-tain types of medical care for cancer patients.

In 2007, Dr. Robert Orr helped defeat a bill that would have legalized PAS in Vermont for persons with a life-expectancy of less than six months. “Inaccuracy of diagnosis,” he said, should be emphasized. He cited Art Buchwald, who was suf-fering from kidney failure and refused dialysis. He entered hospice in February 2006 expecting to die, but checked him-self out several months later. Buchwald lived for nearly a year and wrote a book entitled “Too Soon to Say Goodbye.”

Dr. Orr outlined how, once legalized, euthanasia in the

Symposium focuses on winning strategy to fight euthanasia and assisted suicide

Margaret Somerville

Bobby Schindler

www.epcc.ca

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Netherlands slowly expanded from being permitted for pa-tients who are competent and suffering to “patients with no free will” and even infants with disabilities. The slippery slope is real.

Dr. Bill Toffler, national director of Physicians for Compas-sionate Care, lamented that his beautiful state of Oregon has “sadly become known for something that is deeply disor-dered.”

Cheryl Eckstein, founder of Compassionate Healthcare Network (Canada) gave a rundown of Canadian “mercy-kill-ing” cases. She said that the notion of “‘compassionate homi-cide’ is about as nonsensical as ‘loving rape.’”

Personal Stories

Soft-spoken Alison Davis, representing No Less Human, a disability rights group in England, told her story. Because

of her disability, she has constant pain and is dependent on morphine for relief. She told of times when she had wanted to die due to suffering and depression. If the UK had allowed assisted suicide, she doubted she would be here today. Davis empha-sized the danger of legalizing euthanasia and assisted suicide: “Pain control is avail-able, but it takes time and effort. Why bother if killing the patient is equally acceptable?”

The familiar story of Terri Schindler-Schiavo’s dehydration death in a Florida hospice was related by her brother Bobby Schindler. There was not a dry eye in the room as he described Terri’s last days

Symposium focuses on winning strategy to fight euthanasia and assisted suicide

Alison Davis

and the suffering her family endured and continues to endure because of her cruel death.

Henk Reitsema, an articulate young man from the Neth-erlands, told the compelling story of his grandfather’s death by involuntary euthanasia in a Dutch nursing home. He said, “The way my grandfather died might be described as ‘pallia-tion with the side effect of death,’” which is a common way of imposed death in his country. We “seem to have made the suf-fering of pain the only crime worth punishing with the death penalty,” declared Reitsema.

As one participant said, “The shortest distance between a person and the truth is a story.”

Get Involved

Euthanasia and physician-assisted suicide are now “medical treatment” in the Netherlands and Belgium. Switzerland

does not penalize assisted suicide so long as it is not done for selfish motives, but physicians cannot be involved. In the U.S., PAS is legal only in Oregon. Opposition coali-tions have defeated 89 efforts to legal-ize it in other states.

Compassion & Choices (C&C), the U.S. organization leading efforts to legalize PAS, has adopted the slogan “Oregon Plus One.” PAS promoters are

determined to legalize assisted suicide in at least one more state in 2008. They are targeting Washington State in particu-lar. Booth Gardner, popular former governor of Washington who now has Parkinson’s disease, is putting his popularity and considerable fortune behind the campaign to gather the 225,000 signatures needed by July to place a PAS initiative on next November’s ballot.

Rita Marker warned, “Any place that assisted suicide passes will affect the whole world.” Everyone who opposes assisted suicide, she said, “is a Washingtonian for the next year. You are important. Get involved.”

As one expert put it, our basic strategy is “We win. They lose.”

The sponsors and organizers, in particular Alex Schaden-berg, executive director of the EPC, and Dr. Barrie deVe-

ber deserve hearty congratulations for the shining success of this first International Symposium.

Rita Marker

Euthanasia Prevention Coalition Newsletter – January 2008Euthanasia Prevention Coalition Newsletter – January 20084 PB

Euthanasia Prevention Coalition • P.O. Box 25033 London ON N6C 6A8Tel 1-877-439-3348 / 519-439-3348 • Fax 519-439-7053 • info@epcc.ca • www.epcc.ca

the third State in the USA to be facing an attempt to legalize assisted suicide in a short period of time.

Even though attempts to legalize assisted suicide in Wis-consin have failed in the past, this time the bill has made it to the Senate Committee on Public Health, Seniors Issues, Long Term Care and Privacy.

The reality is that this bill is unlikely to win support in Wis-consin. Nonetheless, it is an attempt to strengthen the support for assisted suicide.

Compassion & Choices has become a formidable organiza-tion throughout the United States in a very short period of time. They are intent on legalizing assisted suicide in every state and in any possible manner.

In September 2007, Compassion & Choices promoted a study published by Margaret Battin in the Journal of Medical Ethics that claimed to prove that the fear of a “slippery slope” when euthanasia or assisted suicide is legal, is unfounded.

Margaret Battin is a well-known advocate of legalizing euthanasia and assisted suicide.

The Euthanasia Prevention Coalition published a response to the Battin study in our October 2007 Newsletter where we

concluded that the Battin study was propaganda at best. None-theless, the media, and many medical professionals bought the propaganda “hook, line and sinker.”

We should be concerned.The response to the growing attempts by Compassion &

Choices and the other “Right to Die” groups should be that we become organized throughout the USA.

Every state, and every nation needs to establish a Coalition against Assisted Suicide. These groups need to be formed along a secular philosophy. There is a lot of work needed to accomplish these tasks, but if you wait until you face a state, or a national initiative, you may find out that you are too late to be effective.

The Euthanasia Prevention Coalition can help you with ideas and resources to begin your effort to organize groups. We can also refer you to other resources or organizations.

If we fail to organize ourselves in 2008, we may be unpre-pared to face a massive Compassion & Choices campaign in 2009/2010.

Winnipeg family fights for the life of their father

The family of Samuel Golubchuk, an 84 year old orthodox Jewish man in Winnipeg, is fighting to save his life. On

November 30, 2007, doctors at Grace Hospital in Winnipeg informed the family that they were going to remove the respirator, fluids and food from Samuel. The family sought an injunction against the hospital to ensure that Samuel will continue to live.

On December 11, 2007, Justice Perry Schulman of the Manitoba Court of Queen’s Bench issued a temporary injunction against Grace hospital denying them the right to stop Samuel’s respirator, fluids and food.

Since that time, Samuel has shown significant neurologi-cal improvements. The family has indicated that he has awakened and is not in a coma. Medical staff have written on his chart that he has awakened and have acknowledged that he has improved. Even though Samuel’s condition has changed, Grace Hospital continues to insist that they have the right to remove “life-support” from Samuel Golubchuk.

Samuel Golubchuk’s family are arguing that if the doctors stop his respirator, fluids and food that they would be violat-ing his Orthodox Jewish beliefs and they would intention-ally cause his death.

The Euthanasia Prevention Coalition recognizes that there is a difference between turning off a ventilator and withholding fluids and food.

If they turn off the ventilator, Samuel may to continue live, especially since the hospital has already been attempt-ing to wean him from the ventilator. If he died after the ventilator is turned off his death would be caused by his condition, and thus be a natural death.

If Samuel is not otherwise dying, and fluids and food are withheld from him, he would only have one outcome, death by dehydration, which is euthanasia.

This is clearly a case of “Futile Care” theory gone mad. It appears that the hospital is continuing to fight the case based on the possible legal precedents that could be set if the fam-ily were to win the case. It is very distressing that a hospital would battle a family and threaten the life of a person for the reason of maintaining legal precedent.

Most families would have been unwilling or unable to pay the legal expenses. If you are willing or able to help with the legal expenses please contact the Euthanasia Prevention Coalition at: 1-877-439-3348 or email: info@epcc.ca

“Right to Die” groups attempting to legalize assisted suicide