Bill to legalize Assisted Suicide in DE is on the House Floor April 18th!
Key Testimony of Dr. Neil Kaye,MD, DLFAPA
“Some people took 30 hours to die.”
House Bill 140 allows doctors to prescribe death pills to patients, thus legalizing assisted suicide in Delaware.
HB 140 was released from committee in 2023, and is being heard on the House Floor April 18th at 2pm.
Send your message in <5 min below.
Talking Points:
HB140 invites FRAUD and puts the most vulnerable at risk for abuse when they need protection the most.
- No independent witness is required when the patient takes the suicide pills. There is no way to prove that the person took the pills on their own.
Who would know if a relative or caregiver administered the lethal drugs?
Suicide is not healthcare! It is not the prescription for pain relief.
- Delaware’s health care system should focus on using and improving techniques to relieve pain and suffering, rather than taking the shortcut of simply ending patients’ lives.
- Pain is not the main reason that patients choose assisted suicide. Oregon data from 2020 cited “loss of autonomy and dignity” and “fear of burdening loved ones” as the main reasons for assisted suicide.
Legalizing assisted suicide says that some lives are not valuable.
HB 140 will allow lethal doses to be offered to those with “terminal” illnesses – which includes common and easily treatable diseases, like diabetes.
- Even in the case of more drastic conditions, terminal diagnoses are often wrong; individuals can live much longer than their original prognosis predicts.
- According to Dr. Kaye’s testimony at the House committee hearing for HB 140, physicians have been wrong about terminal diagnoses over 66% of the time.
HB 140 allows for the circulation of lethal drugs.
- HB 140 allows the lethal drugs to be distributed by mail. What happens if the lethal pills are lost in the mail, fall into the wrong hands, or improperly disposed? The only person who could be charged with improper disposal of the unused drugs would be dead!
There is no way to track the disposal of unused lethal drugs.
Assisted suicide creates a culture where there is more incentive to kill than to care.
- The American Medical Association says, “Physician-assisted suicide is fundamentally incompatible with the physician’s role as healer, would be difficult or impossible to control, and would pose serious societal risks. Instead of participating in assisted suicide, physicians must aggressively respond to the needs of patients at the end of life.”
This will destroy the integrity of the medical system that is designed to save life rather than end it.
HB 140 says that a psychiatric evaluation is optional before prescribing the death pills.
- How would we know that a person making the permanent decision to end their life is not operating under coercion or from mental health struggles such as depression?
Say no to HB 140 and protect those in need of mental healthcare.
Learn More
Delaware citizens gave powerful testimony at the hearing for HB 140 in 2023. Dr. Neil Kaye shared powerful testimony and statistics. For example, 33% of people who took doctor-prescribed suicide drugs in the US didn’t die as they expected – it took over 30 hours, and for many of them it included vomiting and complications – nothing about it was peaceful or easy as supporters try to convey.
Assisted suicide says that life is not inherently valuable. It says killing is compassionate and gives doctors the final say on which lives are worth living – which is why no disability groups support HB 140.
Right now, HB 140 says you have the “choice” to take your life when it is no longer worth living.
The sanitized view of suicide that HB 140 presents will change the ethos – the culture – of medical care in Delaware. It easily leads to people feeling pressured to end their life.
Once a governing body has the authority to decide if and when your life is not worth living, Pandora’s box of death is opened. It just keeps pushing the boundaries – exactly what we see happening in other countries.
Click the links below to see what’s happening in Canada.
Human life has inherent dignity and value because we are created in God’s Image. Period. This doesn’t change because a doctor or legislator says it does.
HB 140 assumes that doctors can make an accurate terminal diagnosis. In reality, doctors have been wrong in over 66% of cases!
Suicide is not compassion.
The hearing exposed a misunderstanding regarding palliative care and assisted suicide. Palliative care is intended to alleviate pain and make the patient comfortable. The intent is not to kill, but to fulfill the medical duty to protect life.
Assisted suicide is not simply alleviating pain, it is causing certain death. This is not compassion, it’s assisting in suicide.