The slippery slope is real
Published on March 5th, 2015
by Kathleen M. Gallagher
Oregon was the first state in the nation to legalize doctor-assisted suicide. Proponents of the law, which was established by a ballot measure in 1994, convinced a majority of voters that the law had certain “restrictions” and “safeguards,” including that doses of lethal drugs would be strictly limited to patients diagnosed with a terminal illness who were expected to die within 6 months.
Well here we are, more than 20 years later, and Oregon proponents are now pushing for changes to the law. They have introduced a bill, HB 3337, which expands the pool of eligible patients to those expected to die within 12 months.
I recall clearly the words of Jack “Dr. Death” Kevorkian, who admitted to assisting in the suicides of more than 130 people: “What difference does it make if someone is ‘terminal’? We are all terminal.”
And so we see the true aim of the proponents of euthanasia: death on demand. If assisted suicide continues to be permitted as a “personal choice,” and the movement framed as a “civil rights” battle, it will be impossible to limit it to certain populations or specific circumstances. It will be a right for the terminal and the non-terminal, for the competent and the incompetent, the old and the young, the rich and the poor, those who freely choose it and those who are pressured to accept it. And that puts all of us at risk.
The slippery slope is real.