Vermont House Rejects Assisted Suicide

Policy Statement on Euthanasia

Abused, Neglected and Forgotten

Baby euthanasia is a reality

Couple commits suicide after pet dies...

VERMONT HOUSE REJECTS ASSISTED SUICIDE - "Incredible Victory" Says Anti-Euthanasia Leader. The Vermont House of Representatives voted against a proposal yesterday that would have made the state the second in the country to permit physician-assisted suicide, following Oregon.
 
House members voted 82-63 against the measure euphemistically entitled "Patient Choice and Control at End of Life," after a week of impassioned debate on the issue, the Associated Press reported. The legislation would have made it legal for a doctor to assist a patient with a terminal illness to commit suicide by prescribe lethal medication.
 
"In my view, (the bill) goes too far in enforcing one group's preferences on the traditional values of others," said Rep. Harvey Otterman. Vermont Gov. Jim Douglas had opposed the assisted-suicide bill, saying while he supported the concept of death with dignity, he did not support doctor-assisted suicide.
 
"We need to make it dignified, we need to make it pain-free," Douglas said prior to the debates. "But to empower physicians--who take an oath to alleviate pain and do no harm--to hasten death is a step in the wrong direction."
 
Deborah Lisi-Baker, director of the Vermont Center for Independent Living, agreed.
"We know Vermont has a lot to do to increase access to hospice and palliative care, but we believe there are better ways to do it than the bill that was proposed," Lisi-Baker said.
 
Alex Schadenberg, executive director of the Euthanasia Prevention Coalition, said the vote was a significant encouragement to euthanasia opponents. "This represents an incredible victory for the good of our culture. The situation in Vermont didn't look very good at first," Schadenberg told LifeSiteNews.com.
 
"Many people of goodwill got involved and went all out by contacting politicians, financing, and supporting the campaign in other ways. Thanks to Vermont, we can now be sure that through a common effort that it is possible to defeat the assisted suicide push everywhere."
Previous:
Vermont May Be the Next State to Legalize Assisted Suicide
http://www.lifesite.net/ldn/2007/feb/07022302.html
[22March07, Gudrun Schultz, LifeSiteNews.com; 23Mar07, Montpelier, VT LifeNews.com]

Policy Statement on Euthanasia
WHEREAS the National Association of Pro-life Nurses acknowledges the value of all human life from conception to natural death regardless of the circumstances or physical capabilities of that life,
AND WHEREAS we reject the prevailing notion that some lives are less worthy to be lived than others,
AND WHEREAS we, as nurses in the practice of our profession, are called on to deal with human beings at all stages of development whose quality of life is considered by some to be compromised,
WE THEREFORE DECLARE that the practice of euthanasia is objectionable by our members and the following guidelines for the respectful treatment of all individuals is to be promoted:
1. The act of mercy-killing by which doctors or others knowingly kill individuals by a lethal dose of a drug or by other means is never justified. It is not permissible to cause or assist in one’s own death or the death of another through suicide, mercy-killing or assisted suicide.
2. Supportive nursing care must be provided to all individuals.
3. Nutrition and hydration are basic human needs and provision for those needs sometimes requires medical expertise and technology. Nutrition and hydration should not be withheld or withdrawn unless and individual is in the final stage of a terminal condition, the individual’s death is imminent, and doing so would not cause the individual’s death.
4. A competent, non-suicidal individual has the right to refuse medical treatment, but not nutrition and hydration. Medical personnel and institutions have the right to withdraw from the care of any such individuals for reasons of conscience.
5. Medical treatment should not be withheld or withdrawn from a pregnant woman if that treatment could reasonably be expected to prevent the death of her unborn child.
6. The presence or anticipation of a mental or physical disability does not justify the withholding or withdrawal of medical care.
7. Society has the right and duty to intervene on behalf of minors and other incompetent individuals where life is in jeopardy and effective treatment is available.
8. Programs are needed to address the proper care of the individual who is dying, with emphasis on emotional support and control of pain in order to make that individual’s last days as normal and comfortable as possible. Adopted at general meeting October 27, 2000
Approved by general vote April, 2001
 

ABUSED, NEGLECTED AND FORGOTTEN: Abused, Neglected and Forgotten: A Call to Conscience. The plight of elderly Americans is a top concern for the Center for a Just Society because this population is at significant risk of abuse and neglect. In my law practice, I have spent decades representing elderly men and women who have endured unspeakable nursing home abuse and neglect. Avoidable pressure ulcers, falls, fractures, infections, malnutrition, dehydration—all are common problems among the institutionalized elderly.

Short staffing characterizes the operation of too many nursing homes and many corporate predators operating facilities put profits over people and revenue over residents. The care of the institutionalized elderly is becoming a national disgrace. If these conditions prevailed at Abu Ghraib or in our nation's daycare centers, members of both parties would be foaming at the mouth, calling for reform. However, because the abused and neglected victims are elderly and frequently "out of sight," the problem is all too often ignored.

As I have written in the past, three factors will soon place aging Americans at even greater risk in long term care facilities. Those factors are demographic, economic, and cultural.

Demographics: In the next thirty years, the number of Americans over the age of 65 is expected to double. More specifically, there will be an 83% increase in the number of men and women between the ages of 65-74. There will be an 119% increase in those aged 75-84, and there will be a whopping 143% increase in people older than eighty-five! A majority of these men and women will require long term care. Because most Americans are having fewer children, there will be far fewer young people around to take care of the older generation. Therefore, the demand for institutional care will rise sharply. Today there are 16.5 million people living in nursing homes; by the year 2035 that number is expected to double.

Economics: America is on the threshold of a national crisis when it comes to its old age social assistance programs. In its first year, Medicare had a budget of $1 billion. According to the most recent budget, the cost is now $394 billion. Likewise, the budget for Medicaid has gone from $1 billion in its first year to its current $276 billion annually. With the graying of America, these budgets will only grow larger in the coming years. All of this leads to the year 2018, when Medicare will likely run out of money. This will be far more than an economic crisis; it will be a human crisis. When government funds dry up, what will happen to millions of dependent elderly Americans?

Cultural: In addition to the "age wave" and the economic shortfall, there are also cultural changes in America that will put the elderly at increased risk. As we have discussed in many other contexts, our culture is shifting from a "sanctity of life" to a "quality of life" ethic. Increasingly, we are calculating the net worth of human beings based on cost-benefit ratios and quality of life calculus. The elderly—who cost more to maintain than they produce, and whose functional capacities have deteriorated because of old age or illness—do not score well under these standards. In the next 20 or 30 years, when the elderly are taking up valuable resources and are no longer deemed "useful," one shudders to imagine what "solutions" might be devised to deal with the growing problem of eldercare.

For a multifaceted crisis, we will need a multifaceted solution. First and foremost, however...eldercare [should be seen] as one of the great moral problems of our generation. Sometimes it is easy to think of Medicare reform as an economic problem and abortion and marriage as moral problems. However, more often than not, economic problems have real social impact. [We] should start working to convince the culture that the elderly--no matter how disabled or helpless--are fully human and entitled to be treated with dignity and respect. Our elders should have the same rights as everyone else. They ought not be victims of a sliding scale of dignity that erodes their protection as their faculties diminish. We need to be prepared to uphold the rights of the elderly as vigorously as we uphold the rights of the unborn.

...While our first priority may be to our immediate family, we should treat all older men and women as fathers and mothers.

...We should be in the vanguard of making and enforcing laws that protect the dignity of older men and women, especially those who are languishing in long term care facilities. The pro-life movement has done an incredible job establishing pregnancy care centers across the country to help women with crisis pregnancies. In a similar way, [we] should start thinking about how they might create an infrastructure to help protect the elderly in the coming years. It is our duty...as citizens—who were nurtured and cared for by those who now need our help.

[http://www.christianpost.com/article/20070316/26370_Abused,_Neglected_and_Forgotten:_A_Call_to_Conscience.htm. Ken Connor is Chairman of the Center for a Just Society in Washington, DC and a nationally recognized trial lawyer who represented Governor Jeb Bush in the Terri Schiavo case. Connor was formally President of the Family Research Council, Chairman of the Board of CareNet, and Vice Chairman of Americans United for Life. For more articles and resources from Mr. Connor and the Center for a Just Society, go to www.ajustsociety.org. Your feedback is welcome; please email .

BABY EUTHANASIA IS A REALITY. About half of the 300 deaths of infants under the age of one are the result of active life termination. This emerged from a study by Professor Veerle Provoost of the University of Ghent. Provoost examined the medical files of about 300 babies. She also interviewed the acting physicians about the exact cause of death.

In about 150 cases the baby's life had been actively terminated. This involves stopping treatment or administering a fatal dose of opiates. In 9 percent of cases products were explicitly administered to end the child's life. These cases were babies with no chance of survival, or, in 30 percent of these cases, little hope of having an acceptable quality of life. In most cases (84 percent) the decision was made in consultation with the parents.

[Comment re: "These cases were babies with no chance of survival, or, in 30 percent of these cases, little hope of having an acceptable quality of life. In most cases (84 percent) the decision was made in consultation with the parents."   Are they saying according to their expertise that 70% had no chance of survival? And by their standards another 30% had unacceptable quality of life.  Then another astounding 16% were killed without consulting the parents, and I am assuming many of those parents were pressured into ending their child's life. I guess active termination sounds better to them, than killing - They have to sanitize medical murder - I'll just bet many of those infants had Down, or Spina Bifida but they aren't saying.  This is really tragic news and I am very disturbed by this news.  Cheryl, CHN]
[12Apr07, http://www.expatica.com/actual/article.asp?subchannel_id=24&story_id=38607, Brussels, Compassionate Healthcare Network (CHN) www.chninternational.com]

COUPLE COMMITS SUICIDE AFTER PET DIES. Unable to come to terms with the death of their pet dog, an elderly couple here committed suicide by hanging themselves. The bodies of 67-year-old retired soldier C N Madanraj and his wife, Tarabai, 63, were found in their home.

According to the police, the childless couple had held a burial ceremony for their dog of 13 years called "Puppy". They also hosted a feast for friends before hanging themselves in their bedroom. "The couple described the grief over their pet dog in the suicide note they left on March 29," police inspector V Anantaiah, said. [ 2Apr2007 1237hrs ISTREUTERS, Hyderabad, http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/1845520.cms ]