STOP Euthanasia!!
Stop SB 930
Contact your legislator with on us Monday, January 16, Lobby Day, Pocahontas Building, 900 E. Main Street, Richmond. Download the substack app on your phone and have all of this essential information at your fingertips. Call and email the senators and delegates listed below.
Stop SB 930 Ghazala Hashmi, (D) E516 804-698-7510 district10@senate.virginia.gov
Please call, write and visit her office to have her withdraw this bill. Voluntary informed consent when ill, isolated, and in pain, isn’t possible, especially when the system stands to save money. Rather than hasten death, focus on informed consent, pain control, family support.
Talking Points
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."
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.
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.”
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/
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.
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
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
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.
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.
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
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/
Senate Health Committee: Meets on Thursday’s at 8 am Senate Room A: room subject to change
George Barker,(D) E619 804-698-7539 district39@senate.virginia.gov
John Cosgrove, (R) E607 804-698-7514 district14@senate.viriginia.gov
Siobhan S Dunnavant,(R) E613 804-698-7512 district12@senate.virginia.gov
John Edwards, (D) E506 804-698-7521 district21@senate.virginia.gov
Ghazala Hashmi, (D) E516 804-698-7510 district10@senate.virginia.gov
Janet Howell, (D) E509 804-698-7532 district32@senate.virginia.gov
Lynwood Lewis,(D) E609 804-698-7506 district06@senate.virginia.gov
Mamie Locke,(D) E510 804-698-7502 district02@senate.virginia.gov
Louise Lucas (D) (Chair), E604 804-698-7518 district18@senate.virginia.gov
StephenNewman,(R) E508 804-698-7523 district23@senate.virginia.gov
Mark Peake,(R) E615 804-698-7522 district22@senate.virginia.gov
Chap Peterson, (D) E517 804-698-7534 district34@senate.virginia.gov
Todd Pillion (R) E616 804-698-7540 district40@senate.virginia.gov
Richard Saslaw, (D) E602 804-698-7536 district35@senate.virginia.gov
David Suetterlein, (R) E519 804-698-7519 district19@senate.virginia.gov
Delegates on Health Committee: Tuesday and Thursday at 8:30 am Pocahontas Building House Committee Room (room subject to change)
Robert D. Orrock, Sr. (Chair) (R) 54th District E309 804-698-1054 DelBOrrock@house.virginia.gov
Dawn M. Adams (D) 68th District E314 804-698-1068 DelDAdams@house.virginia.gov
Robert B. Bell (R) 58th District E606 804-698-1058 DelRBell@house.virginia.gov
Mike A. Cherry (R) 66th District W431 804-698-1066 DelMCherry@house.virginia.gov
Karrie K. Delaney (D) 67th District E407 804-698-1067 DelKDelaney@house.virginia.gov
James E. Edmunds II (R) 60th District E401 804-698-1060 DelJEdmunds@house.virginia.gov
Matthew C. Fariss (R) 59th District E214 804-698-1059 DelMFariss@house.virginia.gov
Elizabeth R. Guzman (D) 31st District E208 804-698-1031 DelEGuzman@house.virginia.gov
C. E. Hayes, Jr. (Cliff) (D) 77th District E417 804-698-1077 DelCHayes@house.virginia.gov
Christopher T. Head (R) 17th District E210 804-698-1017 DelCHead@house.virginia.gov
Keith M. Hodges (R) 98th District E410 804-698-1098 DelKHodges@house.virginia.gov
Patrick A. Hope (D) 47th District E222 804-698-1047 DelPHope@house.virginia.gov
Sally L. Hudson (D) 57th District W429 804-698-1057 DelSHudson@house.virginia.gov
Marie E. March (R) 7th District W438 804-698-1007 DelMMarch@house.virginia.gov
Marcia S. Price (Cia) (D) 95th District W227 804-698-1095 DelMPrice@house.virginia.gov
Roxann L Robinson (R) 27th District W435 804-0698-1027 DelRRobinson@house.virginia.gov
Phillip A. Scott (R) 88th District. E422 DelPScott@house.virginia.gov
Mark D. Sickles (D) 43rd District E311 804-698-1043 DelMSickles@house.virginia.gov
Kathy KL Tran (D) 42nd District E216 804-698-1042 DelKTran@house.virginia.gov
Howard Otto Wachsmann, Jr. (R) 75th District E221 804-698-1075 DelOWachsmann@house.virginia.gov
Wendell S. Walker (R) 23rd District E304 804-698-1023 DelWWalker@house.virginia.gov
Rodney T. Willett (D) 73rd E420 804-698-1073 DelRWillett@house.virginia.gov
Thank you for assisting us we fight medical tyranny in Virginia.
Sheila M. Furey, MD