The Fight for Life- and Against Assisted Suicide- in PA
By Maria Gallagher, Legislative Director, Pennsylvania Pro-Life Federation
Jeanette believed she had received a death sentence. She had been diagnosed with cancer, and the verdict was that she had six months to live. But her doctor encouraged her to challenge that dire diagnosis and fight her disease. She won. She reports that she is happy to be alive. “It is now 12 years later. If Dr. Stevens had believed in assisted suicide, I would be dead,” Jeanette says.
Jeanette is from Oregon, one of the few states in the country to have legalized assisted suicide, which is more aptly described as doctor-prescribed suicide. It is a dangerous practice in which physicians prescribe lethal doses of drugs so that patients can kill themselves. While the American Medical Association opposes doctor-prescribed suicide, a campaign is underway to legalize it in all 50 states.
Attention from Oprah
The old Hemlock Society, now known as Compassion & Choices, is mounting the campaign. They have gained fame in media outlets ranging from the Oprah Winfrey Network to People magazine. The reason for this sudden burst of publicity is Brittany Maynard, a 29-year-old brain cancer patient who killed herself last year with the encouragement of Compassion & Choices, which saw in her a spokesperson for its campaign. Brittany left behind a series of videos in which she calls for the legalization of assisted suicide nationwide.
Pennsylvania is among those states currently being targeted by Compassion &Choices. Measures have now been introduced in the Pennsylvania legislature that would end the Commonwealth’s long-standing policy against doctor-prescribed suicide.
PA Coalition Forms
A diverse coalition of disability rights activists, medical professionals, and other groups (listed at the end of this article) has formed to stop the threat of assisted suicide in Pennsylvania. You can join the effort by visiting the Coalition website at www.noassistedsuicidepa.org . If you use social media, you can also “like” the Coalition on Facebook and follow it on Twitter (just search “Pennsylvania Coalition to Stop Doctor-Prescribed Suicide” on those social media platforms).
As Alan Holdsworth of Not Dead Yet, a disability rights organization, said, “We are building a coalition and the resistance moves onward, growing stronger every day.” Holdsworth led a demonstration outside the Philadelphia office of Rep. Jordan Harris last year to call attention to Harris’ sponsorship of a so-called “Death with Dignity” bill. The protest prompted Harris to agree to a meeting with Holdsworth and other coalition members.
Lessons from Oregon
The Pennsylvania legislation is modeled after Oregon’s dangerous assisted suicide law. As Coalition members are quick to point out, the “safeguards” in Oregon simply are not working. A number of health care professionals in Oregon agree.
Dr. Greg Hamilton, a Portland psychiatrist, has noted: “Those promoting assisted suicide promised Oregon voters that it would be used only for extreme pain and suffering. Yet there has been no documented case of assisted suicide being used for untreatable pain. Instead, patients are being given lethal overdoses because of psychological and social concerns, especially fears that they may no longer be valued as people or may be a burden to their families.”
Indeed, the number-one reason assisted suicide victims give for ending their lives is not pain, but the loss of autonomy—in other words, the concern of being dependent on other people.
Take the case of what happened to Kathryn Judson, when she took her seriously ill husband to a doctor in Oregon: “To my surprise and horror, during the exam I overheard the doctor giving my husband a sales pitch for assisted suicide. ‘Think of what it will spare your wife, we need to think of her,’ he said.”
The Judsons chose to go to a different doctor, and Kathryn’s husband lived an additional five years. Still, the encounter with the previous “Dr. Death” had a lasting impact: “I was afraid to leave my husband alone again with doctors and nurses, for fear they’d morph from care providers to enemies, with no one around to stop them,” Kathryn said.
The Pennsylvania Coalition to Stop Doctor-Prescribed Suicide is working to ensure that such a nightmare does not occur in the Keystone State.
Call to Action
Please call and email your representative in the Pennsylvania House of Representatives and your lawmaker in the Pennsylvania Senate with this urgent message: “I urge you to oppose any assisted suicide bill in Pennsylvania. Patients deserve better than doctor-prescribed suicide.” If you need the phone number or email address for your state lawmakers, please contact the Pennsylvania Pro-Life Federation at 717-541-0034 or at Gallagher@paprolife.org .
With your help, people with disabilities, those suffering from depression, the elderly, and other vulnerable citizens will be treated with care and respect—and not given a callous offer to end their lives.
CURRENT MEMBERS OF THE PENNSYLVANIA COALITION TO STOP DOCTOR-PRESCRIBED SUICIDE:
ADAPT—New Castle
Catholic Hospice and Palliative
Center for Independent Living of
Christian Medical and Dental
Counselors for Life
Disabled in Action of Pennsylvania
Jerome Lejeune Foundation, USA
Kurt Kondrich, disability rights activist
Liberty Resources
National Catholic Bioethics Center
Not Dead Yet of PA
Pennsylvania Catholic Conference
Pennsylvania Catholic Health
Pennsylvania Family Institute
Pennsylvania Pro-Life Federation
Pennsylvania Statewide Independent
Living Council
Pro-Life Healthcare Alliance
Statewide Independent Living Council
Vision for Equality, Inc.
ADAPT of PA
Services
Central PA
Associations
Association
To hear Maria Gallagher's talk from our 2015 Pro-Vita Institute, "Defending Life in Public Policy," see here:
https://stgabrielcarlisle.squarespace.com/mrs-gallagher
For additional writing from members and associates of the St. Gabriel Respect Life group, see below:
https://stgabrielcarlisle.squarespace.com/our-pro-life-views-1/