ABOUT FAITH & FREEDOM

Monday, April 29, 2019

Progressives Seek to Expand Assisted Suicide

Print Friendly Version of this pagePrint Get a PDF version of this webpagePDF

Oregon was the first state to approve physician-assisted suicide in 1997, promising citizens the new law would restrict the practice---make it safe.

Washington State and others soon followed---making the same argument---that physician-assisted suicide would ensure that the law would control and regulate the practice of assisted suicide.

That was a calculated lie.

Be informed.

Now, true to form in the world of secular progressivism, Oregon lawmakers have, this session, introduced a bill, HB 2217, that if passed would greatly expand eligibility and broaden the definition of terminal illness to the point that the term is stripped of any logical or cogent meaning.

The "bill" says this:
"Terminal Disease means a disease that will, within reasonable medical judgment, produce or substantially contribute to a patient's death."

This is classic open-ended evolving progressive double talk.

The condition could be a non-terminal illness or disability that would eventually contribute---not necessarily cause---a patient's death years in the future.

The bill also does away with the current requirement that the prescribed poison be taken orally, a provision intended to prevent third parties from killing the patient and disguising it as an assisted suicide. The new requirement is "self-administration" which is also a broad definition.

"Self-administration" in the bill means a qualified patient's physical act of ingesting or delivering by another method of medication to end his or her life in a humane and dignified manner.

The current Oregon law restricts lethal prescribing to licensed physicians. But many doctors in the state want no part of assisting people in committing suicide.

So the bill was designed to expand eligibility to prescribe lethally to non-doctors.

National Review reports,
"There is an even more radical assisted-suicide legalization bill pending in New Mexico. Delaware assisted-suicide enthusiasts will follow up a radical bill from last session with another" more "progressive" one this session.

You can bet Washington State, Colorado, and other states will follow this path of destruction.

Matt Staver, with Liberty Counsel, told One News Now,
"It actually results in the cheapening of human life, and ultimately what you'll see is medical professionals deciding on their own to end the life of an elderly or a disabled or a sick individual even though they provide no consent."

Oregon's House Bill 2217 goes further than any assisted suicide law in the country and for all practical purposes legalizes euthanasia, which is done by one person causing the death of another.

Currently, a doctor can hook the patient to an IV line containing a lethal dose of fentanyl and then allow the patient to flip the switch. Under this provision, poison could be delivered by a feeding tube, which could be done easily---if illegally---by someone other than the patient without anyone being the wiser.

The point---the reason I wrote about this today is that we need to understand that the glib promises of tight restrictions made by activists when physician-assisted suicide was sold to Washington state, and Oregon and other states, was designed to convince the reluctant to accept legalization.

Incrementalism is the favorite tool of the left.

Should this measure become law, a doctor could decide a person's life isn't worth living, or a relative who stands to benefit from an individual's death could administer the lethal dose and take a family member's life.

This is following the path that a number of European countries have taken.

Frankly, should this, or a similar bill become law, it would create an exception for homicide under the assisted suicide act.

Why are secular progressives so obsessed with deciding who lives and who dies?

Legalized abortion allows for that decision to be made by another at the beginning of life, now secular progressives are determined to also decide when someone should die.

The basic reason for people to assume this arrogant,  god-like role is rebellion toward Almighty God, our Creator.

You know its origins--- "Go ahead eat the fruit...you can become as God."

Secularism has created a godless culture where individuals aspire to replace God.

Be Informed. Be Vigilant. Be Discerning. Be Faithful. Be Prayerful.