Pro-Lifers Fight Assisted Suicide Ballot Initiative

By Liz Townsend

Michigan pro-lifers have joined with medical, disability rights, and religious groups in a major campaign against an initiative to allow assisted suicide that will be on the ballot November 3.

The initiative, known as Proposal B, would allow physicians to prescribe lethal drugs to residents or close relatives of residents of Michigan who are expected to die of an illness within six months. If the initiative passes, it would repeal a law banning assisted suicide in the state that just went into effect September 1.

Pro-life Gov. John Engler, who is being challenged in the election by Jack Kevorkian's flamboyant lawyer Geoffrey Fieger, spoke out forcefully against the proposal. "Very simply, what the ballot proposal does is legalize Jack Kevorkian's suicide plan," he said in a statement September 14. "We need to value human life and care for it, not get rid of it."

The proposal was brought to the ballot by a group called Merian's Friends, named after Kevorkian victim Merian Frederick, who had Lou Gehrig's disease and died in 1993. Kevorkian was tried and acquitted of killing her in 1996.

Although the group insists the proposal is not connected to Kevorkian, John Pirich, a spokesman for the coalition opposing the initiative, told the Washington Post that it would allow Kevorkian to continue his activities unchecked. "Merian's Friends will argue theirs is a much more natural, compassionate procedure" than those used in cases in which Kevorkian has been involved, Pirich said. "But if this passes, he will say this is a public endorsement of the concept, if not the exact methods...," he said. "Once you've crossed that line, it plays into his hands."

Opponents of the initiative criticize many provisions in the 12,000 words of amendments that will be added to Michigan law if Proposal B passes. "It is a poor law, it is badly written, and it is a dangerous piece of legislation," state Sen. William Van Regenmorter, sponsor of the successful anti-assisted suicide bill, told Mediagram, the newsletter of the Michigan State Medical Society. "The biggest danger to citizens is the 'shroud of secrecy' that exists in this legislation, under which caregivers and family members may be robbed of their right to legally intervene during a patient's time of need."

Van Regenmorter was referring to the fact that there is no provision for informing family members of an impending suicide. In addition, the proposal would create a government oversight committee to review suicides committed in the state, composed of 14 physicians and 3 members of the public, none of whom can oppose the practice of assisted suicide. The committee's work would be exempt from both the Open Meetings Act and the Freedom of Information Act, meaning that the committee will not be subject to public scrutiny or accountability.

Right to Life of Michigan is one of 29 groups in a coalition called Citizens for Compassionate Care (CCC), which also includes the Michigan State Medical Society, the Michigan Catholic Conference, the Michigan Disability Rights Coalition, and prominent individuals. The coalition has begun a statewide media campaign to alert voters to the dangers of Proposal B.

Tom Farrell, a spokesman for CCC, told NRL News that television ads began running in mid-September, focusing on several of the proposal's dangerous provisions. "There have also been meetings in communities around the state to educate voters," said Farrell. " And there has been a huge effort in the Catholic Church and in other faiths to speak out against the proposal."

A prominent Michigan pollster predicted that the television ad campaign is helping to turn voters against Proposal B. "I'm beginning to say [Proposal B] is going to die of natural causes," pollster Ed Sarpolus told the Detroit News. "The peak positive support in the state was 66 to 70% around August of 1996."

The latest poll on the proposal, conducted between September 29 and October 1, still shows a lead for passage of the initiative, 48-40%, with about 9% of voters undecided, according to the Detroit News. (The poll had a margin of error of ± 4%.)

A complete analysis of Proposal B, along with the full text of the ballot wording and the legislation that would be enacted if the proposal passes, can be found at CCC's web site at http://ccc.infobase.org.