By Kathy Ostrowski, KFL Legislative Director
Assisted suicide has been illegal in Kansas since 1998, and physician involvement in suicide is opposed by the Kansas Medical Society.
Forces now activated in Lawrence are promoting assisted suicide as a ‘right’ and re-labeling it ‘physician-assisted death’, and ‘Death with Dignity.’
Two identical so-called Death with Dignity bills have been filed this session, HB 2086 and HB 2108,with an ‘educational’ presentation scheduled Monday in the Vision 2020 committee.
‘Death with Dignity’ promoters always claim that abuses and coercion can be precluded by certain “safeguards,” generally:
- the patient must be competent
- the patient must be terminally ill
- the patient request must be voluntary
- the patient must self-administer
- the state can punish violations
However, looking at both legal analysis of doctor prescribed suicide laws– and the experience in Oregon and Washington–there is evidence that any so-called safeguards that may come attached to the proposals do not work.
Read National Right to Life’s explanation why these 5 ‘safeguards’ fail at www.nrlc.org/MedEthics/WhySafeguardsDontWork.pdf#page=1&zoom=auto,0,666