NH: After Hearing on Assisted Suicide Bill, Sponsor Says Bill is “DOA”

Yesterday, February 28th, the NH House Judiciary Committee held a hearing on a “Death With Dignity” Bill.  The outcome was not to the sponsors’ liking.

From the Union Leader:

CONCORD – It should’ve been called the “Live Free or Die Free” bill, Rep. Charles Weed said of his bill to allow the terminally ill to end their suffering.

“Death with Dignity” was his initial title. The Keene Democrat said he was asked to change it to tamp down on any political combustibility. And a twist of the state motto was just too much. After Monday, you might want to call it: Dead on arrival.

That’s Weed’s prognosis, anyway.

The other sponsor was a libertarian-leaning (or falling) Republican:

Co-sponsor Steve Vaillancourt, R-Manchester, promised he would not go so quietly, at one point shouting at a member of the House Judiciary Committee holding a public hearing on the bill. He urged his colleagues to stick up for the state’s Libertarian tradition of limited government and personal liberty.

“If it were up to me, I would say anybody should be able to end their life,” he said snapping his fingers, “just like that.”

Vaillancourt is engaging in misinformation and misdirection here.  People can and do kill themselves – every day – “just like that.”  That’s not the same thing as saying that everyone who wants to kill themselves should be able to get medical assistance to do that – and that seems to be what Vaillancourt is implying here.  (BTW, this should be a cautionary note to folks who think that all those cost-cutting, libertarian Tea Party people who were elected to Congress are going to be allies in opposing legalized assisted suicide and/or euthanasia.)

Those testifying in person against the bill came from religious groups, prolife groups and hospice entities.  No NH disability activist was able to attend the hearing – between real-life scheduling conflicts and the barriers to affordable accessible transportation in that state, getting folks to an event can be a great challenge.

Nevertheless, NDY president and founder Diane Coleman submitted written testimony on behalf of NDY.  Here is an excerpt:

Disability concerns are focused on the systemic implications of adding assisted suicide to the list of “medical treatment options” offered to seriously ill and disabled people.  The disability rights movement has a long history of healthy skepticism toward medical professionals who are assisted suicide’s statutory gatekeepers.  Our skepticism has grown to outright distrust since the values of managed care have dominated the health care scene.  Anyone who asserts that money will not influence the treatment options offered to people, or that the impact of out-of-pocket costs on an individual’s family will not influence the individual’s feelings of being a burden, is at best unrealistic and at worst dishonest. 

Pro-assisted suicide advocates call it “choice” but, with or without the purported safeguards, the so-called “autonomy” of assisted suicide is not being offered to healthy, non-disabled people.  According to the U.S. Surgeon General, 16 of every 17 suicide attempts fail, and most don’t try again.  (U.S. Public Health Service, “The Surgeon General’s Call to Action to Prevent Suicide,” Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1999.)  Assisted suicide is not about parity in the opportunity for suicide.  It’s about a government and a health care system guaranteeing that certain suicides don’t fail.  That’s discrimination. 

Hopefully, for now, the NH legislature figures there are more important priorities to focus on right now.  In the meantime, please make sure that co-sponsor Steve Vaillancourt isn’t let anywhere near a suicide hotline.  He doesn’t sound like someone you want to get close to someone deciding whether or not they want to kill themselves.  –Stephen Drake