EUTHANASIA LEGALIZATION BILLS FAIL IN NEW HAMPSHIRE AND CALIFORNIA

By Dep't. of Medical Ethics

By the overwhelming vote of 19 to 5, the New Hampshire Senate defeated an effort to legalize assisting suicide, a major setback for pro-euthanasia forces, and a dramatic turnaround from just a few months ago.

Last fall a key Senate committee recommended the bill's passage by a vote of 5 to 2. But rather than give into pessimism, anti- euthanasia forces went into high gear.

The New Hampshire proposal was nothing if not extreme. It even went beyond Oregon's law authorizing assisted suicide, since it was explicitly not limited to those expected to die within six months.

Instead, the proposal applied to those with a supposedly " incurable or irreversible condition" that could ultimately result in premature death. But under the bill, anyone with a permanent disability that decreases life expectancy could have "qualified" to be killed if he or she was said to be experiencing "severe and unrelenting suffering."

Experience shows that such proposals can prevail when popular opinion is uninformed. To counter the bill's initial legislative success, New Hampshire's Citizens for Life and the National Right to Life Committee sponsored a December training seminar for state leaders to show them how to educate their states about the immense danger of legalizing euthanasia. Among those attending was New Hampshire state Sen. Mary Brown, a tireless worker who played an instrumental role in reversing what seemed to be an inevitable drive to pass the bill. She did this primarily by conducting conversations with other senators, the kind of one-on- one discussions that gradually helped to assemble a majority against the legislation.

During the Senate floor debate, state Sen. Patricia Krueger explained that she had been expected to die from leukemia. She knew first-hand how bleak life can look from a death bed.

"I was petrified. I lived and breathed moment to moment with the fear," she said. But she has good reason to oppose assisted suicide, she said. Unexpectedly, she survived. Krueger told the Senate she was glad she didn't have the option of assisted suicide when told she was "terminal."
State Sen. James Squires, a physician, also warned that the bill threatened the standards that have guided doctors throughout the history of Western medicine. "We all need boundaries," he said.

When the final vote was taken February 4, remarkably, pro- euthanasia forces had not gained a single vote. The 19-5 tally crossed party lines and was a great tribute to Citizens for Life - - NRLC's New Hampshire state affiliate - - NRLC, and state Sen. Brown, all of whom worked tirelessly.

Meanwhile, in California, there was considerable concern that a bill to legalize assisting suicide had momentum. Instead, the deadline came and went for consideration by the state Assembly without it being called up for a vote by its sponsor, Ruth Aroner. The commonsense conclusion is she could not count on enough votes to achieve passage.
In 1999, the bill had been favorably recommended by two Assembly committees.While the immediate news is extremely gratifying, proponents of legalization are working hard in three other states.

The Alaska Supreme Court will soon hear a case that maintains that there is a right under the state constitution to have assistance in killing oneself.

In Montana, in an opinion rendered on another matter issued last year, the State Supreme Court strongly suggested that it would find such a right in the state constitution as soon as a proper case is brought.

Finally, a referendum will be held in Maine on Election Day 2000 on a bill similar to Oregon's that would legalize assisting suicide in that state.

"The grave danger to the lives of vulnerable people with disabilities and older people associated with the continued threats of spreading legalized patient-killing to states other than Oregon underline the importance of the federal Pain Relief Promotion Act," said Burke Balch, J.D., director of NRLC's Department of Medical Ethics.

He pointed out that all publicly reported assisted suicide deaths in Oregon have been by narcotics whose prescription and use is federally controlled. At the same time it facilitates better methods of pain control as a positive alternative to euthanasia, the Pain Relief Promotion Act would prevent use of these federally controlled drugs with the purpose of assisting suicide or euthanasia. [See Action Alert that begins on the back cover and ends below.]

"It is, so to speak, much harder to put toothpaste back into a tube than it is to put the cap on to keep it there," Balch said. He then offered this thought experiment.

"What would pro-lifers not give had we had the realistic possibility of preventing the medical institutionalization of abortion throughout our country at a time when legalization was confined to a few states?" he said. "Because we could not, the lives of nearly 40 million unborn children have been irrevocably lost.

"Yet now the fate of tens of millions of our parents, children, and grandchildren -- likely to die if euthanasia is legalized -- in large measure hangs on whether or not hundreds of thousands of pro-life Americans promptly contact their U.S. senators to ask their support for the Pain Relief Promotion Act," Balch said.

"Your letters will make the difference - - if only pro-lifers take the time!"