Connecticut to Hold Hearing on Bill Legalizing Assisted Suicide

State   |   Steven Ertelt   |   Mar 19, 2013   |   5:34PM   |   Hartford, CT

Lawmakers in the Connecticut legislature have introduced a bill to legalize assisted suicide, in what would make it the third to do so. Defeating this anti-life bill will be the highest legislative priority of the Family Institute of Connecticut Action in 2013.

The pro-life group is already hard at work on defeating the measure but needs help from Connecticut residents as lawmakers gather for a hearing on the legislation tomorrow.

The Family Institute of Connecticut Action will join with other pro-life advocates for a press conference tomorrow to oppose the assisted suicide bill, H.B. 6645. The press conference is sponsored by Second Thoughts Connecticut, a local grassroots organization for people with disabilities.

Peter Wolfgang, President of Family Institute of Connecticut Action, and Second Thoughts spokesperson Cathy Ludlum will be joined by Rep. Peggy Sayers (D-Windsor), Deputy House Republican Leader Rep. Vincent Candelora (R-North Branford) and other legislators from both parties.

The press conference will also include national disability law expert Steven Mikochick, Emeritus Professor of Law at Temple University, and local experts like Teresa Wells, Administrator of Mary Wade Home, as well as allies from a wide ideological range. Following the press conference, these speakers will offer public hearing testimony laying out the case for why “Aid In Dying” legislation is bad public policy that puts vulnerable people at risk.

Family Institute of Connecticut Action President Peter Wolfgang stated, “Nobody supports keeping a patient alive by extraordinary means against that patient’s will. HB 6645 is not about that but about actively taking a human life. It isn’t compassion, when someone reaches out for help, to offer deadly pills instead of hope.”

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He added: “We should show true compassion and use the power of the state to offer increased access to hospice care; adequate staffing at state licensed nursing homes; or require medical training in symptom and pain management for medical students. Assisted suicide legislation has been rejected over 100 times across America and most recently by referendum in Massachusetts. Compassion and Choices is an outside organization, planted here by a national group, formerly the Hemlock Society, to change Connecticut’s long-standing legal protections of the vulnerable. With the elderly population in America about to significantly expand, Connecticut would benefit more from subsidizing research into cutting-edge pain management techniques instead of spending precious resources on state implementation, administration and reporting requirements for this drastic, culture-changing bill.”

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