Please be aware as Canada expands their Murder by "Physician" bill to include the poor and mentally ill, they are using this legislation to harvest organs. This is not fiction.
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Insurer control: Insurers can deny even life-saving prescribed treatments. In a perverted twist, legalized suicide can be termed as a "medical treatment" or "benefit" that will always be "cost-effective."
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No Mandated Treatment : most MAID laws do not require treatment for serious medical conditions, even when it is available to the patient. For example, a patient whose metastatic cancer stands a reasonably good chance of remission with aggressive treatment, but who nevertheless chooses MAID, is not required by state laws to undergo the treatment. Similarly, a psychiatric evaluation is not required unless the MAID-initiating doctor specifically requests such an assessment.
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Persuasion and abuse: From family members to medical professionals, persuading the disabled or terminally ill to end their life is immoral and for doctors, would ordinarily be considered in opposition to the Hippocratic Oath. This can very inhumanely cross over into abuse. https://www.oregonlive.com/health/2015/02/physician-assisted_suicide_a_f.html http://hawaiifreepress.com/Articles-Daily-News/articleType/ArticleView/articleId/3647/February-2011-Letters-to-the-Editor Suffolk Superior Court Judge Mary K. Ames issued a 2019 ruling against a state constitutional right to die, in which she stated, "In such a situation, there is a greater risk that temporary anger, depression, a misunderstanding of one's prognosis, ignorance of alternatives, financial considerations, strain on family members or significant others, or improper persuasion may impact the decision."
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Misdiagnosis: studies show that 12% - 15% of people going to hospice with a terminal diagnosis outlive their prognosis, thus a large number of people died by suicide when they were not on the verge of dying. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4118712/
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Distress, not pain: existential distress/ quality of life are the more common complaints and very infrequently, is physical pain the issue. https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMms1700606 However, legal palliative care/sedation addresses the pain and any reference to "pain" in a bill is a red herring.
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Medical Prejudice: according to 82.4% of U.S. physicians, disabled persons have a poorer quality of life than the non-disabled. This reflects a potentially biased view among doctors manifesting in health care disparities disadvantaging the disabled. https://opmed.doximity.com/articles/his-dnr-status-was-wrong-he-died-because-of-it?_csrf_attempted=yes
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Racial disparities: (for those who say they are fighting for social justice) racial disparities in diagnosis and treatment of diabetes, cancer, heart issues tend to result from medical prejudice and neglect. Any assisted suicide legislation could result in more minorities being regarded as "better off dead." https://www.npr.org/2020/07/31/896882268/one-mans-covid-19-death-raises-the-worst-fears-of-many-people-with-disabilities?utm_campaign=storyshare&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_medium=social
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Depression: Dangerously, these assisted suicide laws amount to a denial of suicide prevention services to the seriously ill and disabled, violating the ADA's guarantee of equal program access. Instead of treating depression and feeling like a burden as impairments or worthy of intervention, they are redefined as rational.
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Disability: distress and shame are emphasized as the hallmarks of disability; yet, human connection and meaningfulness can be found in mutual aid and interdependence. Further, dying because of distress and shame does not elevate the act of dying or the state of death to dignified or noble.
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2017 NY Court of Appeals held that "suicide has long been understood as "the act or instance of taking one's own life voluntarily and intentionally'… Aid-in-dying falls squarely within the ordinary meaning of the statutory prohibition on assisting a suicide. https://law.justia.com/cases/new-york/court-of-appeals/2017/77.html
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Increased suicide rates: if we're calling Medical Assisted Death what it really is, physician-assisted suicide, preliminary reports suggest more suicides in the general population of states that have Physician-assisted Suicide. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/26437189/ https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/31397854/
Please call your Senators and Delegates today and please strongly consider attending sessions.
Links to all members of House and Senate Below.
https://apps.senate.virginia.gov/Senator/index.php
https://virginiageneralassembly.gov/house/members/members.php
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