Press Room

Contact: Peggy Hamill, State Director
Matt Sande, Director of Legislative Affairs
(262) 796-1111, (414) 416-0489 or info@prolifewisconsin.org

Pro-Life Wisconsin Urges Rejection
of So-Called “Death with Dignity” Bill

Pro-Life Wisconsin in a legislative memo today strongly urges Wisconsin state legislators NOT to sign on as co-sponsors to the physician-assisted suicide (PAS) companion legislation (Senate LRB-2178 and Assembly LRB-0796) currently being circulated by Senator Fred Risser (D-Madison) and Representative Boyle (D-Superior).

According to the memo issued by Matt Sande, Pro-Life Wisconsin Director of Legislative Affairs, assisted suicide, no matter how compassionate it may seem on the surface, is nothing more than a cruel lie. To the terminally ill, it tells them that there is no meaning in suffering and that when they become a “burden” to others suicide is the best (easiest) answer for everyone. It also robs them of something integral to the human spirit – hope. Real compassion takes time and commitment. It means suffering with someone else and bearing another’s burdens. It means respecting the inherent dignity of a person at the end of life.

“Right to die” forces routinely speak of patients dying in intractable pain. They call killing oneself a “basic human right” that should be constitutionally protected. Yet they conveniently ignore the medical studies showing that virtually all pain can be alleviated at the end of life. A study by the World Health Organization found that 95 to 100 percent of the pain experienced by people at the end of life can be adequately controlled. Few of these “right to die” activists seem enthusiastic about educating healthcare professionals about the amazing advances in palliative care. Instead of killing the pain, their focus is on killing the patient.

In an age of soaring healthcare costs and cutbacks, how much longer until the “right to die” becomes the “duty to die?” How much longer until those considered a “burden” on society are systematically denied healthcare and life-saving measures in order to cut costs? In Oregon, where assisted suicide is legal, Kaiser Permanente Northwest HMO is not merely permitting doctors to assist in patient suicides – it is actively soliciting its doctors to participate in this deadly practice. In August of 2002, a Kaiser executive e-mailed a memo to more than 800 Kaiser doctors recruiting PAS-doctor volunteers. According to Portland psychiatrist Gregory Hamilton, MD, this e-mail represents the first step down the slippery slope of killing patients to save money.

Sande concluded the memo by pointing out that the great state of Wisconsin can do better than assisted suicide, and thanked legislators for their consideration of this critical issue.