For immediate release:
Tuesday, November 10, 2009

For more information:
Derrick Jones, (202) 626-8825
 

NEW HAMPSHIRE COMMITTEE VOTES to reject assisted suicide

WASHINGTON -- This morning, the New Hampshire House of Representatives Judiciary Committee voted 14-3 to reject a bill that would legalize assisted suicide in the Granite State.  The committee's recommendation now goes to the full House for a vote in January.  If the full chamber accepts the committee's recommendation, New Hampshire's legislative rules make it nearly impossible for the issue to be brought up earlier than 2011.

"This recommendation by the New Hampshire Judiciary Committee is encouraging to all of us who know that legalizing the direct killing of the sick and those with disabilities will mean death, rather than treatment, for the most vulnerable among us," said Jennifer Popik, J.D. legislative counsel for National Right to Life's Robert Powell Center for Medical Ethics.  "The Committee rightly saw that any supposed “safeguards” that promoters of assisted suicide attempt to sell are nothing more than an illusion." 

Rep. Nancy Elliott, a committee member in opposition of the measure observed that,  "It's not the function of government to encourage suicide in the young or the old. It's a prescription for elder abuse."

"Not only in New Hampshire, but also in states across the nation, those who care about life, must educate ourselves, and then our neighbors and legislators, about the dangers of euthanasia," Popik added.

The National Right to Life Committee, the nation’s largest pro-life group is a federation of affiliates in all 50 states and 3,000 local chapters nationwide.  National Right to Life works through legislation and education to protect those threatened by abortion, infanticide, euthanasia and assisted suicide.

To go to the Abortion in Health Care index, click here.
To go to the NRLC Home page, click here.
To go to the NRLC Legislative Action Center, click here.