A step closer to suicide
Not me, but the "terminally ill" in Delaware.
Before the Delaware General Assembly took its February recess to begin working on the state’s budget, a bill vetoed last year by then-Governor John Carney began working its way back through the system.
House Bill 140 has a new sponsor in Rep. Eric Morrison, a Democrat from Glasgow, but it’s the same old bill that’s supposed to provide dignity in dying. And while they talk about all the “safeguards” attached to the bill to prevent its misuse, those have a funny way of disappearing over time. Consider the testimony of Dr. Neil S. Kaye, who pleaded against the bill in its recent hearing:
Dr. Neil S. Kaye, an expert in general psychiatry, geriatric psychiatry, and psychopharmacology, testified at the request of State Rep. Valerie Jones Giltner (R-Georgetown).
Dr. Kaye said physician-assisted suicide (PAS) will inevitably lead to voluntary euthanasia, as it has in other jurisdictions, both in the U.S. and abroad. "In Canada, it took less than six years to go from PAS to 13,000 people dying [annually] of euthanasia, the fourth largest cause of death there," he said.
Dr. Kay added that lawmakers in California, which has a physician-assisted suicide law similar to what is being proposed in Delaware, are currently considering changes that would move the Golden State towards voluntary euthanasia. He said among the proposed changes is replacing terminal illnesses with "any previous medical condition," removing the six-month life expectancy eligibility with "any condition that would lead to a foreseeable natural death," and omitting the requirement for evaluation by a mental health expert.
Last year most of the General Assembly Republicans properly voted against the bill for that very reason.
While I understand and sympathize with the impetus behind the bill, the biggest concern I have is that of where the concept will lead. Will there come a day when the kids decide Grandma is too much of a burden or they covet the assets she’s built up over a lifetime to support their avaricious lifestyles for a time? Let’s face it: when you’re eighty years old you come to the realization that you’re not much longer for this world and that can be depressing if you’re told you haven’t amounted to much over the years.
As for the Canadian experiment, it’s worth noting that about 330,000 people a year die in the Great White North, so euthanasia is about 4% of deaths already. And as the population there gets older and sicker thanks to a low birthrate, that percentage is sure to increase. Extrapolate that number to the American figure of a little over 3.3 million deaths per year (about 10 times that of Canada) and it becomes 130,000 - a number comparable to those deaths from stroke, Alzheimer’s, or diabetes.
Unfortunately, while Governor Carney vetoed the bill, new Governor Matt Meyer has come out in support of it. Thus, the key will be to prevent it from getting out of the General Assembly in the first place and that’s an uphill struggle.
We know where those who voted on it last session stand, but there are three holdovers who were absent when the vote was taken: Reps. Stephanie Bolden, Nnamdi Chukwuocka, and Debra Heffernan. They also lost “yes” votes in former Reps. Paul Baumbach (the previous sponsor), Valerie Longhurst, and Pete Schwarzkopf, who were replaced respectively by Reps. Mara Gorman, Kamela Smith, and Claire Snyder-Hall. Also, Rep. Sherry Dorsey Walker, who was also absent when HB140 was voted on, was replaced by Rep. Josue Ortega.
However, two “no” votes in the House were replaced as well as Reps. Sean Matthews and Mike Ramone are now past tense - those seats are now held by Reps. Melanie Ross Levin and Frank Burns. Those two need to be encouraged to hold the “no” line their predecessors had.
On the other hand, the Senate lost two vital “yes” votes when Senators Kyle Evans Gay and Tim Sarah McBride moved on to new positions, with their successors yet to be determined in a Special Election that’s underway as we speak. That makes a big difference because the 11-10 it passed by becomes 10-9 the other way at the moment. If either of the two who are elected is a “no” vote and the remainder are convinced to hold the line, we’re safe for another term.
We’ve cheapened the value of life enough on the birth side thanks to making abortions easier to come by. Let’s not cheapen the back side as well.
In the meantime, though, you can Buy Me a Coffee, since I have a page there now.
Oh the repulsive irony. The death penalty for those that committed heinous acts is "cruel and unusual punishment", yet snuffing out the life of unborn innocent human beings or those that are not in their right minds and should be treated, not helped to kill themselves is okay.
All you have to do is spend time observing the medical staff in rest homes to understand that it’s only a place for the elderly to die. If you want your older loved one to spend quality time in one of these places you have to be there watching them most of the day.