February 2019 – Article 3:
Pro-life supporters with seriously or terminally ill family or friends need to be aware of efforts to give the government stamp of approval to killing such patients and be prepared to take action.
There is ample evidence that the horrific practice has been used for years, but has not had official government support. Now there’s an effort by Compassion and Choices, formerly the Hemlock Society, to have Congress redefine palliative care as including assisted suicide and euthanasia; and an effort to have government finance that teaching, as well.
It’s part of an effort by Congress to make palliative and end of life care more accessible to patients and families by supporting outreach and enhanced education for healthcare professionals.
Assisted Suicide Lobbyists Seek to Distort Palliative Care
Lobbyists for assisted suicide advocates are desperately working to ensure language that authorizes euthanasia as part of hospice care training.
The “Palliative Care and Hospice Education Act” was passed by a simple voice vote in the U.S. House last year with broad bipartisan support, but stalled in the Senate. However, the proposal is expected to be brought back this session.
Hospice and palliative care are supposed to ease the suffering and provide comfort for the terminally ill in their final days.
The World Health Organization (WHO) states palliative care’s goal is to improve the quality of patients’ lives (and that of their families) facing the problems associated with life-threatening illnesses.
Those goals include:
- Provide relief from pain and other distressing symptoms.
- Affirm life and regard dying as a normal process.
- Neither hasten nor postpone death.
- Help patients live as actively as possible until death.
Palliative Care’s Deadly Shift to Hospice Care
While not directly referring to the WHO, the Euthanasia Prevention Coalition USA points out that the reality of palliative care falls far short of those goals.
The group says palliative care can start alongside normal medical care providing pain and symptom relief, but eventually shifts to hospice care without an explicit discussion with the patient or their family.
A recent report from the Department of Health and Human Services found that people did not receive good hospice care and were inadequately informed that care had switched to hospice.
Hospice Care Patients Sedated & Euthanized
Instances of patients being overdosed until they die, as well as denied food and hydration—called “slow euthanasia”—have increased according to Duke University professor Farr Curlin.
A 2014 Washington Post series about hospice — “The Business of Dying”—provided several examples confirming Dr. Curlin’s description of patients who received powerful drugs and died shortly after enrolling in hospice.
In 2017, nearly two-thirds of hospice and palliative care physicians prescribed deliberate sedation to unconsciousness until death.
Also, more than half of such physicians think it’s acceptable to euthanize people with nonphysical illnesses, such as anxiety or feelings of uselessness.
In addition, another study showed the predominant view of U.S. physicians was that drugging patients to death – palliative sedation – and assisted suicide—are nearly indistinguishable.
American Medical Association Standing Firm?
At the same time, the American Medical Association (AMA) appears on the verge of weakening its long standing opposition to assisted suicide (PAS).
Last November the organization failed to adopt a resolution that would have clarified its opposition to the practice, but also would have given physicians the freedom to make up their own minds on PAS in states where it’s allowed.
The proposal was sent back to the group’s Council on Ethical and Judicial Affairs for further study.
Clearly this is additional evidence our society is becoming less respectful of the sanctity of human life. It’s a “let’s get the elderly and infirm out of the way as quickly as possible” scheme.
Georgia Right to Life will watch to see if the proposed legislation is reintroduced and alert you to contact your representatives.
Sources: medpagetoday.com; choiceillusiondc.org; who.int; euthanasiausa.org.
By Wayne DuBois
Georgia Right to Life
Media Relations Advisor