SPRINGFIELD – At this time assisted suicide is illegal in 36 states, including Illinois. In the last legislative session, Illinois lawmakers were presented with an array of bills that called for suicide prevention specifically among teens and veterans.
However, 1000 miles to the west of Illinois, Colorado voters will soon decide whether or not to legalize assisted suicide. If it's happening in Colorado, it could come to Illinois – the most anti-life state in the Midwest.
The Washington Examiner's editorial board wrote in "Assisted Suicide is a Deadly Mistake," Monday:
A ballot measure before voters in Colorado will require two physicians to agree that a person has six months or less to live, is over the age of 18 and is mentally competent. If these requirements are met, the patient may be given secobarbital and administer a fatal dose to themselves.
No objective third party is required to watch the patient end his or her own life to make sure it is done without coercion or help. Anyone present when the patient's life is ended would be immune from prosecution for failing to save the person's life or, in theory, if they were accused of coercing the patient to end his or her life or administering the drug to someone having second thoughts.
And the board concludes:
We've all known someone who has had to face the catastrophe of a crippling accident or cancer diagnosis. It's easy to see how some people in such circumstances, who are truly suffering, may want to end their lives. But the answer is not for the state to encourage their feelings of worthlessness.
The answer is not to turn doctors into trained killers, in direct violation of the Hippocratic Oath (a pre-Christian ethos, by the way). The answer is to help people so afflicted feel valued and to see the good in the life that is left to them.
The assisted suicide laws being passed in states across the country have so few restrictions that many people who may actually have a chance at living beyond six months would likely end their lives.
More HERE.
