[Editor’s Note: Thanks to the Patients Rights Action Fund for the brilliant “1-800-KILL_ME” label. It says it all.]
A lead sponsor of the California assisted suicide law has proposed to take the state sponsored program to a whole new level, urging legislators to fund a dedicated phone line to promote – eh, respond to questions about – the assisted suicide process.
Marilyn Golden, Senior Policy Analyst at the Disability Rights Education & Defense Fund, wrote the following pointed introduction to the problems in the proposed bill:
The Disability Rights Education & Defense Fund (DREDF), a national law and policy center on disability civil rights, opposes SB 1002, The End of Life Option Act Dedicated Telephone Number.
This bill is an expansion of the assisted suicide law even before it goes into effect. It’s a way to promote usage of the assisted suicide law. Last year the authors and proponents said this was a private matter solely between doctor and patient. Now the state would play a role in the law’s promotion.
There is no way to limit callers to people who are terminally ill, which is the distinction made in the End of Life Options Act. Anyone could call, including people who are depressed, and people eager to end the life of a family member. Will the state go beyond providing information about the End of Life Options Act? Will it make any referrals? If it refers callers to Compassion & Choices, why not Final Exit Network, which actively assists people to kill themselves without the involvement of a doctor? If the state refers people anywhere, it should be to crisis hotlines, because, again, anyone could be calling, not only people eligible under the Act.
How will state staff respond when a caller says:
- “My doctor won’t prescribe lethal drugs to me because she says I don’t qualify. Can you tell me who will?”
- “I am depressed and want to kill myself; what should I do?” Will the state refer the person to a crisis hotline? It should.
- “I believe my father is being coerced to utilize the End of Life Options Act.” What will the state do? Note that there is no investigative mechanism available to refer callers to. Will it refer callers to law enforcement?
- “How can I get medicine for pain?” How will the state respond?
To read the whole letter, go here.
NDY picked up the charge, further connecting the dots concerning the dangers of such a hotline and the impossibility of reconciling it with the state’s existing duties to protect its residents:
The push to create this phone line only serves to emphasize how impossible it is to reconcile the new law with the state’s longstanding duties to prevent suicide and enforce laws prohibiting homicide.
There is no way to limit callers to people who are terminally ill, the target population of the End of Life Options Act. Anyone could call, including people who would formerly have been referred to a suicide prevention hotline, or people who want to learn exactly how to get away with ending the life of a family member. The law’s assisted suicide request form, whatever it may be called, provides the perfect alibi, with no further oversight once the lethal drugs are in the home. Any description of the actual provisions of the law that is given by state workers will clarify to the greedy heir of a senior with assets just how easy it would be to use the law’s recipe for abuse and get away with homicide. After all, the victim of any coercion in getting the form signed “to give them peace of mind” will not be around to testify after the drugs are mixed into their food.
To read the whole NDY letter, go here.