On January 9^th, HB224 was introduced by Democrat Mary Lou Marzian to create a right to Assisted Suicide.

Current law, under Kentucky Statute 216.302 (2), states that a person commits a Class D felony when they assist another person to commit or attempt to commit suicide, knowingly and intentionally. This has been a Kentucky law since July 1994, and KRLA worked hard lobbying for it.

The Marzian bill does not require the physician to comply and does not authorize “active euthanasia,” but what exactly does that mean?

With 12 Republicans and only seven Democrats on the Health and Family Services committee, we will be surprised if this bill ever gets to the floor of the House.

It is interesting that there is also a bill, SB42, to require that a national suicide prevention hotline number be printed on a student ID badge (with other crisis numbers).

Though these bills are dissimilar in purpose, it has been proven in studies that persons of any age are more susceptible to suicide when Assisted Suicide Laws are passed. This makes sense. Many people also assume that since abortion is legal, it must be OK.

In our Culture of Death, it is critically important for leaders to stand for Life and lobby against legislation that weakens Respect for Life. Leaders are responsible for setting high standards.

The KRLA State Conference was held September 28 in E-town. See the slideshow and more info here. This post and the following two will present a wrap up of the presentations.

The keynoter was Rita Marker, an attorney and patients rights advocate. Her talk brought to light:

• Compassion & Choices continues its dark mission to enable everyone to end his/her life on their own terms. In Kentucky C&C has over 6,000 volunteers to help promote Doctor-Assisted Suicide (DAS).
• DAS legally is not murder but is suicide, yet this is only a change of words in order to change public understanding and acceptance. The physician prescribes the barbiturates but does not administer them. The cause of death is always noted as an underlying illness. It may not be known who actually administered the fatal cocktail.
• Beware of POLST directives. They may be used in place of a legal Advance Directive document. Read more on this here.
• More states are passing DAS legislation each year. Only several days ago a bill was introduced in Wisconsin to that end. It will be much easier to oppose DAS today than to march against it after it has become state law. Be vigilant.
• We find that initially states set many safeguards against abuse of the law, but these are later set aside as “barriers.” The “option” is popular with insurance companies seeking the least expensive way to manage patient expense.

Please access a copy of the Kentucky Will to Live here. It will guide you to create a pro-life advance directive. You will find lots of helpful information on the PatientsRightsCouncil.org website.

See Rita below on Fox News— a vintage clip.

You’ll learn A LOT at the 2019 KRLA State Conference! It’s coming right up!

Read more.

The American Nurses Association (ANA) currently holds a position IN OPPOSITION TO Assisted Suicide. A draft position statement CHANGES that. The ANA is asking for public comment from nurses. If the proposed change is adopted, nurses would be required to assist patients in ending their lives or to write a referral to someone who would. There would be NO OPT-OUT privilege. For more information, see here.

The web page where you can comment is here.

The Draft Proposal is here.