To the editor:

Why not assisted suicide? The Lila Manfield Sapinsley Compassionate Care Act, House Bill 5572, was scheduled for a hearing in the RI House Judiciary Committee on Friday, April 9. The assisted suicide movement in RI seeks to legalize doctor-prescribed lethal dose medications for “terminal” patients to self-administer. Proponents call this free-choice but it endangers choice. People with terminal conditions often live longer than their prognosis by months or even years. Assisted suicide is a threat to healthcare and according to the American Medical Association, is “incompatible with the physician’s role as healer”. Physicians have an ethical code to serve life, not take it. The AMA, American Nurses Association, and American Psychiatric Association have urged the Supreme Court to uphold laws against assisted suicide. Since the 1999 legalization of assisted suicide in Oregon, the overall suicide rate has climbed over 41 percent above the national average. Once Oregon added assisted suicide to the list of medical treatment options, the consequence has resulted in cancer patients being denied insurance coverage for life-sustaining or pain-reducing treatments and instead offered coverage for the inexpensive lethal dose alternative. Terminally ill, elderly, disabled, depressed and marginalized people feel coerced to choose suicide to keep costs down and to not be a burden on family, caregivers or society. The definition of the word compassion is, a suffering with another. This bill is not proposing compassion or care. For more information, visit www.patientsrightsaction.org. Let your Representative know that you oppose H-5572. District 66; Rep-cassar@rilegislature.gov, District 67; rep-knight@rilegislature.gov 

Thank you,

Jean Ernster

Barrington