ACTION ALERT
Public Health Committee to Hold Public Hearing on Legalizing Physician-Assisted Suicide in Connecticut
***The Public Hearing Scheduled for Monday, March 16th on Physician-Assisted Suicide has been Cancelled due to Coronavirus Precautions.
All Public Hearings have been Cancelled Until Further Notice***
Urge the Committee members to Vote "NO" on H.B. 5420 "An Act Concerning Aid in Dying for Terminally Ill Patients"
Click on the link below or at the end of this email to send them an email. You may edit the pre-written email with your own comments.
The Public Health Committee will be holding a public hearing on H.B. 5420 "An Act Concerning Aid In Dying for Terminally Ill Patients", which supports the legalization of physician-assisted suicide in Connecticut. This is the seventh year that such legislation has been proposed by the General Assembly. The legislation proposed this year is exactly the same as that proposed in 2019.
The Catholic Bishops of Connecticut, along with members of the health care and disability communities strongly oppose this legislation for various reasons.
These groups believe that the right of individual choice is far overshadowed by the potential negative impact of this legislation upon our society. The advocates of physician-assisted suicide call it "aid-in-dying" in an effort to remove the negative connotations of the word "suicide", but the passage of physician-assisted suicide would be bad public policy and would create a terrible precedent in Connecticut.
The Catholic Conference does not support keeping a patient alive by extraordinary means against that patient's will. We support true aid-in-dying, which is hospice and palliative care. What we oppose is licensing doctors to prescribe lethal drugs for the purpose of taking a human life, prescribing suicide as a treatment.
Please take note that under physician-assisted suicide laws existing in several other states, the doctor prescribes the deadly medication, but is usually not present when the patient administers it to themselves. In fact, in a large number of cases no medical professional is present. Additionally, the highest ranking reason patients have committed physician-assisted suicide is not due to pain, but to no longer be a burden to the family or a decline in their quality of life. The claim by the proponents of this legislation that most people take advantage of physician-assisted suicide to escape unbearable pain is not supported by the facts. Quality hospice and palliative care are the key to truly compassionate end-of-life care.
Please read important background information on this issue by clicking here.
We are seeking your assistance in defeating this legislation in the Public Health Committee. Listed below are several ways to have your voice
heard.
1) Click here to send an email to the members of the Public Health Committee. You can edit the prepared email with your own comments.
2) Attend the public hearing when it is rescheduled.
Click here to send an email to the members of the Public Health Committee.