As Connecticut state director for the American Academy of Medical Ethics, I and my fellow state directors, along with many others, face a number of ethical challenges.  Certainly, one of the major issues is Physician Assisted Suicide (PAS), but a number of others are also important for us to be vigilant in challenging:  Right of conscience, abortion, cloning, stem cell research to name several.

One of the issues we all face is end of life decision making.  This is not only for those of us that are moving into the latter half of our lives, but for younger people who are considering decisions that could prove dangerous.

Below is a link from CMDA's website regarding a recent "conversation" that Dr. Stevens had with a robot.  I encourage you to take five or ten minutes and carefully read this.

https://cmda.org/resources/publication/a-bot-too-far

This is a re-posting of a message I received from the Patients Rights Action Fund.  It is a nice summary of the actions so far this year regarding Physician Assisted Suicide.  
It represents much to give God praise and also an encouragement to keep praying and working. God is on the throne and prayer changes things.  Someone once said "pray as if it all depends on God and work as if it all depends on us".   When the wall was being rebuilt in Jerusalem, they worked while carrying their swords.  "The burden-bearers carried their loads in such a way that each laboured on the work with one hand and with the other held a weapon.  And each of the builders had his sword strapped at his side while he built" (Neh 4:17-18)

Legislative sessions are officially over for the spring and, in some states, for the year.   Assisted suicide opponents were extremely successful in preventing any more states from legalizing assisted suicide.  In several of the states, the battles were very difficult but our coalitions worked extremely hard and prevailed.  

In the last week, bills stalled for the remainder of 2017 in New York and Delaware.   Last year, there was a favorable vote in the New York Assembly Health Committee for the assisted suicide bill.   This year, proponents were not able to garner enough votes in that same committee to have a vote!   This is huge as New York is the prize most desired by Compassion and Choices!

We learned on Thursday of this week that the Delaware House was going to vote on the assisted suicide bill on Friday.  Our coalition mobilized with one-day notice and spearheaded an intense campaign which stalled the bill until 2018.  

Major kudos and congratulations to our heroic coalitions in New York and Delaware for an exceptional job!  

In addition, bills were defeated in North Carolina, Oklahoma, Oregon and Rhode Island as their legislative sessions ended, bringing the total to 23 states where measures were defeated, died from inaction, stalled or were withdrawn.   Of the remaining states, Massachusetts, South Dakota and New Jersey are the ones to watch.   

Defeated Bills to Legalize Assisted Suicide in 2017

·         Oklahoma:  HJR 1009 (Ballot measure)  -- died in committee

• North Carolina:  HB 789 – died in committee

·         New York:  S.3151/A.2383 , A.3598 “End-of-Life Options” Act --  no committee votes taken, stalled in committee

• Delaware:   HB 160 – passed in committee, full House vote stalled

·         Rhode Island:  House Bill 5468, Senate Bill 224 – no action taken, died in committee

·         Oregon:  SB 893 (allowed health care agents to fulfill requests for lethal drugs) --  died in committee

·         Mississippi:  Death with Dignity Act Senate Bill 2283 – died in committee

·         Utah:  HB 76 – tabled in committee

·         Tennessee:  SB 1378, HB 1394 – withdrawn

·         Maryland:  SB 354– withdrawn; HB 370 – died in committee

·         Wyoming:  HB 0122 – bill was drafted but not introduced, dead at this time

·         New Mexico:  House Bill 171, SB 252 – defeated by Senate vote

·         Indiana:  SB 273, HB 1561  – died in committee

·         Nebraska:  Legislative Bill 450 – died, not a priority bill

·         Connecticut:  H.B. No. 6024, HB 6238 – died in committee

·         Kansas:  HB 2120 Death With Dignity Act– died in committee

·         Arizona:  HB 2336 – died in committee

·         Iowa:   Senate File 215, House File 299– died in committee

·         Missouri:  Death With Dignity Act HB 524 – attempt to add to another bill failed

·         Hawaii:  SB 1129 -- passed in the Senate and  died in a House committee.

·         Alaska:  HB 54 - Voluntary Termination of Life – held in committee without action

·         Maine:  LD 1066 -- An Act to Promote Life with Dignity;  LD 347 --An Act To Support Death with Dignity – passed in the Senate and defeated by House vote

·         Nevada:  SB 261 – passed the Senate and died in a House committee

Active Bills to Legalize/Expand Assisted Suicide in 2017: 

·         New Jersey:  S 2474 --carryover from 2016

·         Massachusetts:  H.1194, S.1225

·         Pennsylvania:  SB 238

·         Minnesota:  SF 1572 – End of Life Options Act

·         Wisconsin:  AB 216, SB 312 -- Compassionate Choices

·         Michigan:  HB 4461  -- legalizes assisted suicide 

• Michigan:  HB 4462 – amends criminal sentencing standards to eliminate the penalties for assisting a suicide

Ballot Measures

·         South Dakota:  Signatures being gathered for a November 2018 ballot measure.

From Barbara Lyons, dated 7/2/2017

From the Patients Rights Action Fund:

We are writing to share a remarkable video featuring Dr. Brian Callister of Nevada detailing the failure of assisted suicide in California and Oregon.  Today, it is being released to national publications and promoted through a digital social media campaign.  What makes Dr. Callister’s story so compelling?  It includes a doctor’s personal story of how two of his patients were denied life-saving treatment by their health insurance.  This is yet another example of the dangerous failures of assisted suicide from the patient’s and medical community’s perspective.  His testimony is a current and direct validation of our concerns that we have been claiming for over a decade. 

          As both a terminal patient and the President of the Patients Rights Action Fund, I ask you for your support and assistance in spreading this important story.  Through your organizations, coalitions and alliances, we ask that you share or boost this video via social media.  Your support will help improve our ability to spread this story nationally.  We are at a pivotal moment in this battle against assisted suicide and your support will help every state defeat this dangerous law.

https://twitter.com/PRAFund/status/869886940165935105

Praise the Lord for continuing victories in the battle against Physician Assisted Suicide (PAS)!!

1. American Academy of Medical Ethics (AAME) achieved a hard fought victory in Vermont when Compassion & Choices, a pro-suicide group, elected to drop its appeal of a federal court's decision to affirm that a Vermont law cannot be interpreted to force pro-life health care professionals to counsel or refer patients about PAS.  Because C&C chose to stand down, the US Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit dismissed the appeal which ends the case!! 

        http://tinyurl.com/VTADF

• Many thanks to the attorneys of the Alliance Defense Fund for all their hard work on behalf of CMDA and the Vermont Alliance for Ethical Healthcare. 

      2.  A second reason to rejoice and thank God comes from Maine's legislative body which today effectively killed their PAS bill. 

Prayer is still needed for Nevada where PAS legislation has passed the Senate and is moving to their Assembly for a public hearing and committee vote.  Pray that these victories will continue in the Silver State.  

Despite the times we live in, and the trend to moral relativism, these continuing successes on a variety of ethical fronts demonstrate that God is on the throne and we are to be bold, moving forward with complete faith in Him and without fear of man.  

Physician Assisted Suicide is now law in our nation's capital!!!  All because a Congress, that should have had the votes to reject it, allowed the deadline to pass before voting no.

Actions like this just underscore the reason so many Americans voted to make a substantial change in the system.  Things don't change until drastic measures are taken and even though some of these measures have been taken, the entrenched power brokers don't give up without a fight - even those we think are on our side.  

One cannot ignore the message that gets sent when the nation's capital enacts such dangerous legislation.  

Stand fast, don't back down.  The same armor we need for battling the enemy in Ephesians 6 is necessary for the hand-to-hand fighting that is necessary to win the battles.  The war has been won by Jesus Christ, but the battles are still necessary to win.
1 Samuel 17 reminds us that the battle belongs to the Lord but He still used David to accomplish the victory, just as he uses us to achieve success.  

We pray as if it all depends on God, and work/fight as if it all depends on us.

http://tinyurl.com/z77en6c

Physician assisted suicide(PAS) bills are currently being considered in 15 states.  Proponents of this dangerous societal move have stepped up their activity on multiple fronts but a couple states deserve special mention.

Opponents of PAS have always had concerns about methods for vetting potential suicides, along with the profound lack of proper reporting procedures, but two states have taken it to a new level.

• New Mexico’s PAS bill would allow physicians, physician assistants and nurse practitioners to diagnose terminal illness and prescribe life-ending medication the same day with no second opinion!   It also would require the death to be listed as something other than suicide.

• Hawaii has five physician assisted suicide bills submitted with one not requiring a second opinion to confirm a terminal illness before prescribing a lethal dose of medication. 

A couple of interesting and important events have taken place in the last few days that serve to impact the physician assisted suicide(PAS) debate in the US.

• On December 8th, the Ohio Senate approved House Bill 470, which would make assisting a suicide a felony in the state of Ohio.  This is an excellent preemptive move in a state that currently has no law allowing PAS.

• This last weekend the American Psychiatric Association gave a final approval to a policy statement about their ethical involvement in PAS or euthanasia.  Below is the statement:

The American Psychiatric Association, in concert with the American Medical Association’s position on Medical Euthanasia, holds that a psychiatrist should not prescribe or administer any intervention to a non-terminally ill person for the purpose of causing death.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/post-partisan/wp/2016/12/15/at-last-american-psychiatrists-speak-out-on-euthanasia/?utm_term=.5347028f1532

While it may seem that this statement doesn't impact the PAS issue - at this time - the truth is that history has shown in other countries the slippery slope that starts with terminal disease and then progresses to non-terminal illnesses and mental health disease.  Voluntary euthanasia extends to involuntary euthanasia.  
Those who don't learn from the past are doomed to repeat it.