Showing posts with label William Toffler. Show all posts
Showing posts with label William Toffler. Show all posts

Saturday, May 28, 2011

New Hampshire Defeats Assisted Suicide, Again

By Margaret Dore

On March 16, 2011, the New Hampshire House of Representatives defeated an Oregon-style physician-assisted suicide bill.  The bill, HB 513, was defeated on the House floor 234 to 99.  The bill had previously been defeated in the House Judiciary Committee 15 to 1The majority committee report gives these reasons for the defeat: 
[T]his bill would legalize state-sanctioned suicide for people with terminal illnesses and that this is an area where government does not belong.  People with terminal illnesses who may consider suicide do not need encouragement from the government.  The committee further believes that this bill is a recipe for elder abuse.  The committee also recognizes that doctors’ diagnoses and predictions may be incorrect; numerous cases exist where people have lived far beyond their doctor’s predictions, some of them having been cured from their terminal disease.  For these reasons, the committee strongly believes that this bill represents bad policy and practice and recommend inexpedient to legislate.
House Journal, Vol. 33, No. 28 (scroll down to HB 513) .