In the December 9, 1997, NRL News, it was reported that on December 3, Faye Girsh, executive director of Hemlock USA, the leading group promoting the legalization of assisting suicide, issued a statement endorsing killing individuals - - such as people with Alzheimer's disease and children with disabilities - - who are legally incapable of making the decision themselves.
In her December 3 statement, Girsh said, "A judicial determination should be made when it is necessary to hasten the death of an individual whether it be a demented parent, a suffering, severely disabled spouse or a child. Consultants should evaluate what other ways might be used to alleviate the suffering and, if none are available or are unsuccessful, a non-violent, gentle means should be available to end the person's life." Girsh said that "there are many people suffering from chronic and terminal illnesses who ... are not competent to make this decision and are in those instances assisted to die by a loved one." In such cases, she said, "mercy killing is not a cold-blooded, malicious crime but one in which the motivation is kindness and relief of suffering."
On February 6, Girsh faxed a letter to NRL News, stating "my remarks were taken out of context" and enclosing a "clarification statement." Saying that her earlier statement "was not approved by the Hemlock Board because it involved no change in policy," Girsh maintained that it "was an attempt to suggest some model where these situations could be examined by objective, neutral parties and other solutions offered. One plan was developed by professor Eike Kluge in Victoria, British Columbia, and proposed by the Right to Die Network of Canada. It envisions a judicial determination when a person requests help in dying for themselves or for someone else. This model is in no way endorsed by the Hemlock Society USA. It was mentioned as one suggestion about the question of ending suffering. There must be a dialogue about these issues, both from the able-bodied and the disabled communities."
In fact, the December 3 statement never indicated that anything in it was a "suggestion" not endorsed by Hemlock put forth only to stimulate "dialogue." Indeed, the December 3 statement never even mentioned Kluge's name, instead attributing the sentences quoted in the second paragraph of this story (and in the NRL News story of December 9, page 16) directly to "Faye Girsh, executive director of the Hemlock Society USA, the nation's oldest and largest right-to-die society."
Said Burke Balch, J.D., director of NRLC's Department of Medical Ethics, "There was no ambiguity in the December 3 statement about endorsing the direct killing of incompetent individuals who had never asked to die. It is unclear whether in issuing it Girsh simply got too far out in front of the Hemlock Society board, or whether the Hemlock Society, on reflection, now fears that as a matter of tactics it is too soon formally to endorse nonvoluntary direct killing. Readers can view the text of both statements quoted in full on the NRLC website at www.nrlc.org and come to their own conclusions. What is clear is that it is likely to be only a matter of time before the legalization of direct killing of those who say they want to die will spill over into direct killing of those who have never asked to die, as is now common in the Netherlands."