I assure you, we aren’t:
For nearly 30 years — since Oregon became the first state to legalize physician-assisted death — Congress has prevented federal funding such as Medicare from being used by patients to pay for the practice. A bill proposed by Democratic lawmakers seeks to change that.
In 1997, Congress passed the Assisted Suicide Funding Restriction Act, which prohibits using federal funds to provide for any health care services that assisted in someone’s death, including “assisting in the suicide, euthanasia, or mercy killing of any individual.”
“Medical aid-in-dying, an authorized medical practice, is not euthanasia, mercy killing, or assisted suicide,” a draft discussion of the new “Patient Access to End of Life Care Act’’ obtained by the Sun reads.
In states where physician-assisted death is legal, the 1997 restrictions “shall not apply to any information, referrals, guidance, or medical care provided consistent with such programs,” the bill, sponsored by Democratic Representatives Brittany Pettersen and Scott Peters, notes.
Medical-aid-in-dying, the bill notes, is when a “mentally capable, terminally ill adult with less than six months to live requests a prescription from their qualified clinician for medication to bring about a peaceful death to ingest at any point if their suffering becomes unbearable.”
Physician-assisted death for terminally ill patients is legal in 10 states and Washington, D.C. — and more than 10 states are actively considering legislation to allow it, including New York, Pennsylvania, Missouri, and North Carolina, according to Death With Dignity’s legislative tracker.
The New York Sun is quite young; it’s not “major media.” A Google search reveals no major-media references to this bill. I wonder how much longer it will be before the big, prestigious news outlets treat with this, assuming they ever will.
The Death Cultists are on the march, Gentle Reader. Their setback in the Dobbs decision appears to have energized them for a major push. Add this to the fresh round of scare talk about new, more dangerous COVID-19 variants and bird flu contamination in cattle. When will the next ultra-modern vaccine for such things be announced? Care to start a pool?
I’m not clear on their uber-message. Is it that living is just too hard? Perhaps our medicalization hasn’t gone far enough for them. If they can’t contrive more actual diseases to treat with ever more dubious drugs, maybe the answer is to treat us for the only known disease with 100% mortality: being alive.
I’ll be following this. Stay tuned.
3 comments
MAI
DMThe most slippery slope ever. Just look north to Canukistan where little Castro is busy offering “end of life care” to his citizens. Some whether they want it or not. NAAAAHHHHHH it’s okay, they only look like nazis.
The banality of evil.