February 2021:
Culture of death advocates always claim an evil policy never leads to something even worse.
There’s no better example than assisted suicide. Wherever it’s legal, supporters are constantly working to expand who’s eligible, or making it easier, faster and less expensive.
The latest example is Washington State, which is considering legislation that would eliminate most of the so-called “safeguards” included in the 2008 bill that legalized the anti-Personhood practice.
Not satisfied that only 1,200 people have killed themselves since the law went into effect in 2009, they now want to streamline the process so misguided individuals will get less information and less time to make an evaluation before ending their life.
Here are the most onerous changes to the existing law:
Reduced Waiting Period
The waiting period would be reduced from15 days to three, with the additional authority for providers to waive even that if death is considered imminent. Plus, oral and written requests could be simultaneous, turning the process into an almost drive thru event.
Sponsors of the proposed changes ignore the fact that predictions of the time of a person’s death are often wrong which has led to people’s premature death. The state’s own reports in 2015 and 2018 show that in some cases people that were expected to die within six months actually lived for more than two years.
Tragically, when a provider’s prognosis of imminent death leads a person to ingest the lethal drugs, the provider will never be proved wrong.
Two Doctors’ Approval Not Needed
To prescribe lethal drugs, the current law requires agreement between an attending physician and a consulting physician on such issues as the person’s terminal prognosis and mental capacity.
Under the proposed law, one of the providers can be a physician’s assistant, osteopathic physician’s assistant, or nurse practitioner, none of whom have the proper qualifications. This person can claim they have the expertise to diagnose a terminal condition, predict when the person is likely to die, discern whether the person requires a psychological evaluation, and sign the death certificate.
No Genuine Psychological Evaluation
The current law requires that if either physician suspects clinical depression or another condition is impairing the person’s judgement, they must be evaluated by a psychologist or psychiatrist.
But the proposed bill makes a mockery of the claim that depression and other impediments to sound judgement will be professionally evaluated before the person is given lethal drugs.
If the proposed law is approved, the evaluation could be done by a social worker or “mental health counselor.”
While Washington State law requires some kinds of counselors (such as “certified counselors”) to meet certain qualifications, “mental health counselor” is simply included under the legal definition of a counselor. This can be anyone who counsels members of the public for money.
Deadly Drugs By Mail
Currently, lethal drugs and instructions for their use must be dispensed by the physician or a pharmacist and given directly to the person or their designated agent.
The proposed law eliminates that requirement entirely. The drugs could be sent to people by mail, or another delivery service, as long as someone signed for them. Anyone who answers the door could sign for the deadly drugs.
Assisted suicide is also legal in California, Colorado, the District of Columbia, Hawaii, Maine, New Jersey, Oregon, and Vermont.
“Once a society broadly accepts the agenda of killing as an acceptable end to human suffering, we eliminate suffering by eliminating the suffering,” according to Wesley J. Smith, senior fellow at the Discovery Institute’s Center on Human Exceptionalism.
Pro-life advocates need to reach out to GRTL (stateoffice@grtl.org) for resources that will equip them to support, guide and love any friend or relative who is considering ending their life. There are numerous methods available to ease pain and suffering.
Sources: foxnews
By Wayne DuBois
Georgia Right to Life
Media Relations Advisor