January 2024, Vol. 3 Issue 1

Michigan Senate takes up Assisted Suicide Bills

Michigan has protected the medically frail, vulnerable, and elderly by prohibiting doctors from prescribing assisted suicide drugs since 1998. Unfortunately, 10 other States and D.C. have legalized doctor prescribed death beginning with Oregon in 1997. We must make our voices heard and let our elected officials know that we do not want Michigan to join the ranks of states where our healers are turned into killers.

Points to Ponder….

• Physician Assisted Suicide places the sick, vulnerable, elderly, and those living with disabilities at risk for coercion, abuse, and denial of care.
• Prescribing lethal drugs to end someone’s life is suicide/euthanasia. It is NOT “Death with Dignity” or “Medical Aid in Dying,” regardless how supporters frame it.
• These bills do nothing to improve or advance end of life care, and in fact instead of seeking to eliminate suffering, Physician Assisted Suicide seeks to eliminate those who suffer.
• Hospice and palliative care should be offered to the terminally ill as a way to walk with the dying instead of abandoning them to self inflicted death.
• Assisted suicide is discriminatory — it singles out one segment of the population from the suicide prevention, resources, and services professionally required for everyone else.