Assisted Suicide Legalized In California, Yet Still Effort To Overturn It

Referendum papers filed on assisted suicide law

A day after Gov. Jerry Brown signed a bill allowing assisted suicides for the terminally ill in California, opponents filed papers to seek a referendum to overturn the measure on the November 2016 ballot.

A group called Seniors Against Suicide filed papers with the state attorney general’s office to get an official title and summary for the referendum, the first step toward collecting signatures.

The group would have 90 days, or until Jan. 3, to collect the signatures of 365,880 registered voters, a difficult task as those behind a failed referendum on the state’s new vaccine law recently found out.

“Illness is never a reason for ending a life,” said the letter from clinical psychologist Mark Hoffman to the attorney general. He said in the letter he is “working with other opponents of medically killing depressed and ill patients.”

The measure was also opposed by a group called Californians Against Assisted Suicide, which is made up of doctors, disability activists and religious groups, and has said it is considering a referendum among other options.

That group is not involved in the referendum filed Tuesday, according to its spokesman, Tim Rosales. "We learned about it this afternoon and are studying a number of alternatives," he said.

The new law, which is likely to take effect next year, would allow physicians in California to prescribe lethal doses of drugs to terminally ill patients with less than six months to live.

(LA Times)

Fighting to overturn this law is mamesh pikuach nefesh

Linda Rosenthal Sponsors Assisted Suicide Bill In New York

Linda Rosenthal Sponsor of NY's Assisted Suicide Bill

We will give you more information on this bill as it develops

This bill currently has no sponsors but that could and most likely will change soon, there is no companion bill in the senate yet but State Senator Brad Hoylman (who overlaps with her partly) has already pledged to sponsor a bill

Everyone in NY should call their assemblyman and tell them to oppose this bill.

Letter from Rabbi Moshe Soleveitchik on Massachusetts's trying to pass assisted suicide

New Jersey's Assembly Passes Assisted Suicide

Rav Moshe Soloveitchik on Massachusetts's assisted suicide bill

 אֵיכָה הָיְתָה לְזוֹנָה קִרְיָה נֶאֱמָנָה מְלֵאֲתִי מִשְׁפָּט צֶדֶק יָלִין בָּהּ וְעַתָּה מְרַצְּחִים

How has she become a harlot, a faithful city; full of justice, in which righteousness would lodge, but now murderers. (Yishaya 1-21)

TRENTON  — New Jersey's Assembly has passed a bill to allow physicians to prescribe life-ending drugs to terminally ill patients.

The bill establishes a procedure for patients to request to end their lives. A second doctor would have to certify the original terminal diagnosis and confirm the patient is capable of making the decision to die without pressure from others.

Assisted suicide opponents have fought the measure.

A companion bill remains stalled in the state Senate. In the Assembly, it passed 41-31 on Thursday.

The vote comes weeks after physician-assisted suicide advocate Brittany Maynard ended her life under an Oregon law allowing terminally ill people to choose when to die.

(AP)

will post more information about this vote as we get it

NJ Going To Vote On Assisted "Suicide" Tomorrow

לא תעמד על דם רעך

If you live in NJ call both your legislators today
call (609) 847-3905 ask for both the legislators in your district

Letter from Rav Moshe Soloveichik on Massachusetts vote for assisted "suicide" in 2012

Rav Shmuel Kamenetsky paskened today that We are mechuyuv to fight this bill


TRENTON — The state Assembly on Thursday is scheduled to vote on a bill that would allow doctors to prescribe murder life-ending drugs to terminally ill patients, just two weeks after Oregon cancer patient Brittany Maynard ended her life.

Assembly Democratic spokesman Tom Hester, Jr. confirmed that the bill — dubbed the “Aid in Dying for the Terminally Ill Act" — would go up on Thursday after a group that opposes it, the New Jersey Alliance Against Doctor-Prescribed "Suicide", said so on Facebook.

The vote comes as the national debate on physician-assisted "suicide" has grown more intense. Maynard, who was terminally ill with an inoperable brain tumor, made national headlines when she announced she would take a lethal dose of drugs legally prescribed by a doctor under Oregon’s “Death with Dignity” law, which the New Jersey bill is modeled after.

Maynard, who had moved from California to Oregon to take advantage of the law, took the pills and died on Nov. 1.

This is Democrats’ second attempt to pass the bill. It had been scheduled for a vote in June but was pulled from consideration at the last minute because of lack of support.

The bill’s sponsor, Assemblyman John Burzichelli (D-Gloucester), said he thinks the publicity surrounding Maynard has helped the bill gain momentum.

"The short answer is, I think so. Because more people are interested in talking about it because it drew so much attention to the issue," he said.

Burzichelli said it’s not a sure thing he’ll muster the 41 votes needed to pass it this time and that he’ll keep trying until he can that is why the left keeps winning they are fighters.

"I would say we’re very close to the 41 votes," Burzichelli said. "If not this week, it’s just a question of at what point."

A companion bill in the state Senate BH has not advanced.

Under the bill (A2270), patients who want to end their lives would have to first verbally request a prescription, followed at least 15 days later by another verbal request and one in writing, signed by two witnesses. After that, the doctor would have to offer the patient a chance to rescind the request. A second doctor would then have to certify the original doctor’s diagnosis and affirm that the patient is acting voluntarily and capable of making the decision.

Aside from Oregon, two states — Washington and Vermont — permit doctors to write lethal prescriptions for terminally-ill patients.

(nj.com) highlight our additions